Inklings: J.R.R.Tolkien and his Fellowship
Instructor: Ty Tingley

This course is longer available for Summer 2008

J.R.R.Tolkien and C.S.Lewis were two gifted scholars who, at an early age, were captivated by the romantic power of Norse and Germanic legends. Tolkien, a natural linguist, began creating personal languages before he was ten years old. From those languages he evolved mythologies, the grandest being the creation story of the Silmarillion and the legends of Middle Earth. Lewis, a counterpart in the English Department at Oxford, wrote an important early science fiction trilogy and in later years became internationally famous for his Christian writings. As participants in the literary society of The Inklings, both read the drafts of their most significant works to each other and criticized and encouraged each other through the process of creation.

While the time constraints of this one-week seminar will not permit us to consider Lewis's fiction, his personal relationship to Tolkien will be an important aspect of our discussion. Sharing a deep affinity for classical languages and the classical literary tradition, they advanced fantasy and speculative fiction further than any other authors in the 20th century, while earning the devotion of thousands of undergraduates for their brilliant scholarship and commitment to their students. The intensity of their relationship, despite their diverse literary creations, remains one of the remarkable literary friendships in history.

The seminar will assume a working knowledge of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The pre-reading for the course will be Humphrey Carpenter's biography, The Inklings. Readings for discussion during the seminar will include selections from Beowulf, The Silmarillion, the essay "On Fairy-stories", a number of Tolkien's letters and The Fellowship of the Ring.

D-Day and the Battle for Normandy
Instructor: Jack Herney

Joseph Stalin said of D-Day that "the history of warfare knows no other like undertaking." June 6, 1944, and the subsequent Battle for Normandy have become, particularly of late, the "greatest generation's" finest hour, elevated to an American epic by stunning examples of individual courage and by the moments of terror and suffering that ennoble such heroism. Yet Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, chief of Britain's Imperial Staff, predicted the invasion could prove to be "the most ghastly disaster of the whole war." Just after the landings, General Omar Bradley, commander of U.S. forces on Omaha Beach, said, "Someday I'll tell General Eisenhower just how close it was in those first few hours." Like any moment in history, what happened at Normandy might not have turned out as it did. In this course, we will examine this most critical event in World War II -how the battle came to Normandy and what both men and women did there. Readings will include historical interpretations and also primary texts: memoirs, letters and diaries. We will view several films on D-Day and WWII. Our impressions and understandings will take shape as we enter the lives not only of Americans, but British, French and Germans as well - some of them Exonians - who came together on those beaches to take part in one of the great dramas of the 20th century.

Literature and the Land
Instructor: Peter Greer

This course is longer available for Summer 2008

This course combines readings and classroom discussions with field work in areas close to Exeter. We will study texts that are significant in the field of what might generally be called Naturalist Literature, including works by such authors as H.D. Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard and John McPhee. We will also study poetry by Mary Oliver and by Charlie Pratt, former PEA English instructor. Our afternoon excursions will likely include a visit to the Pratts’ orchard; a visit to the homestead of Amy and Brad Robinson, the latter a PEA physics instructor; a walk along the Black Spruce Swamp, PEA property in Fremont, NH; and a night walk on PEA’s Colby Farm, when we will study the stars. Any required writing will be in the manner of a journal.

Melville’s great novel has come to take on greater and greater importance in American literature. During our week together, our morning discussions will focus on the structure and substance of this great whaling epic. Perhaps we’ll discover how the America that Melville describes anticipates the America to come and how the novel, in its design and energy, embodies what is finest in the American democratic spirit. Our afternoon excursions will include whale-watching along the New England seacoast and a trip to Salem’s Peabody Museum. Because the text is so substantial, we will mail you copies of the novel by mid-April.

Natural History of New England
Instructors: Rich Aaronian and Chris Matlack

This course is longer available for Summer 2008

In this course we will investigate the plants and animals of a number of diverse ecosystems in Southern New Hampshire: woodland and beaver flowage, salt marsh, rocky intertidal zone, sand dunes, and a kettle bog. The majority of our time in this course is spent in the field. Morning and afternoon field trips are interspersed with discussion time around the table.

We will identify and take field notes on various organisms seen and their relationships with each other and their habitat. We will concentrate on locally common species including trees, birds and marine organisms. Readings include Tom Wessels' book Reading the Forested Landscape and a collection of various papers.

A highlight of the week is an all day excursion to the Shoals Marine Lab (jointly operated by Cornell and UNH) on Appledore Island. Appledore is one of nine islands comprising the Isles of Shoals. Although some research is conducted at the lab, it is primarily dedicated to the teaching of undergraduates.  

Gettysburg and the American Civil War
Instructor: Rick Schubart

This course is longer available for Summer 2008

Unlike the other ON BEYOND EXETER offerings, this course will meet on site, in Gettysburg, PA. Our week together will provide time for Harkness discussions that focus on our reading assignments and our experience in the field. Excursions will carry us to Antietam, Harpers Ferry, the battlefields of Gettysburg and museums in Washington, D.C.

Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse
Instructor: Nita Pettigrew

The publication of To the Lighthouse in 1927 helped transform the English novel and give rise to Modernism. In these five days at Exeter, we will read Virginia Woolf’s ground-breaking novel. This elegiac and elegantly composed work focuses on the years just before and after World War I. To the Lighthouse offers an opportunity to think together about the War and its effects—personal as well as societal. The novel invites a consideration of the art of writing and of the psychological truth of “stream of consciousness,” and it invites us into the mind of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.