COURSE A – Tuesday 1-3 p.m. CONTEMPORARY FICTION Lecturer: Damiano Pietropaolo Tartu College, 310 Bloor St. West, entrance on Madison September 13 – THE DOOR by Magda Szabo, translated by Len Rix This contemporary classic, originally published in 1987, is an unsettling exploration of the relationship between two very different women: the writer Magda, married to an academic, with an on-again-off-again relationship to Hungary’s Communist authorities; and the illiterate seemingly ageless peasant Emerence, who lives alone in a house that no one else may enter. October 11 – FIFTEEN DOGS by Andre Alexis In a Toronto tavern the gods Hermes and Apollo, well into their cups, make a bet to imbue a handful of animals with human intelligence, consciousness and linguistic skills. Should any of those animals meet their end happier than they would have otherwise, Apollo must provide Hermes with a year’s servitude. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into the city. November 8 – MEURSAULT INVESTIGATION by Kamel Daoud, translated by John Cullen. A timely retelling of Camus’ The Outsider through Arab eyes: winner of the Prix Goncourt first novel prize, The Meursault Investigation develops a specifically Algerian take on the absurd condition. In Camus' novel an Arab is murdered on the beach. Daoud re-imagines the story as narrated by the brother of the murdered Arab. December 13 – A MEASURE OF LIGHT by Beth Powning A historical novel on the dramatic life of Mary Dyer, a seventeenth-century Puritan who flees persecution in England, only to find the colony of Massachusetts Bay as dangerous as the country she left behind. Mary tries to accept New England's harsh realities, but is outraged by the cold-hearted Puritan magistrates, with their doctrinaire stranglehold on church and state, their subjugation of women, and their wars against the natives. January 10 – FATES AND FURIES by Lauren Groff A dazzling examination of a marriage. Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And some- times, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. The story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years. February 14 – THE ROCKS by Peter Nichols Set on the island of Mallorca, The Rocks is a double love story told in reverse. Opening in 2005 with a dramatic event that seems to seal the mystery of two lives, the story moves backwards in time, unraveling over sixty years, amid the olive groves and bars, the boats and poolside parties, the lives and relationships of two intertwined families within an expat community of endearing and flawed characters. March 7 – SWEETLAND by Michael Crummey The scarcely populated town of Sweetland rests on the shore of a remote Canadian island. Its slow decline finally reaches a head when the mainland government offers each islander a generous resettlement package—the sole stipulation being that everyone must leave. Fierce and enigmatic Moses Sweetland is the only one to refuse; a spectacular portrait of one man's battle to survive as his environment vanishes around him. April 4 – SUBMISSION by Michel Houellebecq, translated by Lorin Stein It's 2022. François is bored. He's a middle-aged lecturer at the New Sorbonne University. In an alliance with the Socialists, France's new Islamic party sweeps to power. Islamic law comes into force. François is offered an irresistible academic advancement--on the condition that he convert to Islam: a devastating satirical look at the political turmoil of our times. COURSE B – Wednesday 1-3 p.m. HUMAN RIGHTS IN WAR, CONQUEST, AND REVOLUTION Lecturer: Dr. Peter Vronsky Tartu College, 310 Bloor St. West, entrance on Madison For 50,000 years humanity has been attempting to control and regulate its unique intellectual capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction. Anthropologists argue that human civilisa- tions are endowed with a “techno-humanitarian response” in which the more destructive the weapons become, the more sophisticated and evolved humanity’s political, social and legal means of inhibiting aggression becomes. By the 19th century, advanced industrial societies warring with each other entered into a series of international treaties, like the Hague Convention and the Geneva Convention which regulate the “usages and customs” of war and established agencies like the International Court of Justice, the League of Nations and the United Nations to violations known as “war crimes”. This course surveys the evolution of the usages, customs and laws of war, war crimes and genocide and explores how various states and their leaders have breached these laws and the problems of enforcing and prosecuting them to this day. Sept 14 Introduction to Warfare, Slavery and Civilization: The “Laws of Conquest” Sept 21 1850-1900 Regulating the Laws and Customs of War – The Hague and Geneva Conventions – Warfare and Law in the Nineteenth Century Sept 28 1900-1937 Crimes without a name: the ‘Massacres’ of the Armenians in Turkey 1915; Fascist Italy in Libya and Abyssinia 1920-1937; Japan and the Nanking Massacre 1937. Oct 5 1918-1938 The Gulag and the Great Terror: Class War and Democide in Soviet Russia Oct 19 1933-1945 The Nazi Total War Part 1: Race Laws, Medical Murder in Germany and Racial War in the East Oct 26 1933-1945 The Nazi Total War Part 2: The Final Solution and the Destruction of the European Jews and defining “Genocide” at the Nuremberg Trials Nov 2 1945-2011 War Crimes and Genocide after World War II: Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Rwanda and the problem of Darfur-Sudan Nov 9 Conclusion: The Laws and Customs of War in the Post-9/11 Drone age of the War on Terror COURSE C – MONDAY 1-3 p.m. THE TONE POEM – STORIES IN MUSIC Lecturer: Rick Phillips Tartu College, 310 Bloor St. West, entrance on Madison “The painter turns a poem into a painting: the musician sets a picture to music.” – Robert Schumann Where the symphony and concerto are usually forms of absolute music, or music for its own sake, the orchestral tone poem (or symphonic poem) is programmatic - music that is inspired by an extra-musical idea, like a story, a person or a place. The composer of the tone poem not only attempts to describe the idea in music, but also to capture its essence, expression and emotions. With extensive musical examples, we will trace the origins and development of the tone poem, from Beethoven to the 20th century, arriving at a deeper musical understanding, appreciation and love. September 12 – Intro, Beginnings, Austria & Germany The tone poem can be traced back to the early 19th century with the overtures by Beethoven, although Franz Liszt is often credited as the inventor. Both Liszt and Felix Mendelssohn opened up a brand new and imaginative world of musical expression. September 19 – France The French took to the tone poem easily and thoroughly, fueled by the vivid imagination and creativity of composers like Hector Berlioz, Paul Dukas and Claude Debussy. September 26 – Russia Russia has a long, rich history of great writers like Pushkin and Tolstoy, so it was a natural step to the tone poem and the “telling of stories in music.” We’ll hear ones by Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky. October 31 – England and U.S.A. As the orchestra expanded, English composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries found the tone poem very suitable to express their broad interests. Impressionism and other contemporary musical styles instil the tone poems by Gustav Holst, Frederick Delius and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Jazz and other American popular music styles are important elements in tone poems by U.S. composers like George Gershwin, Ferde Grofé and Charles Ives. November 7 – Jean Sibelius, Richard Strauss Two of the finest composers of tone poems in history are the Finn Jean Sibelius and the German Richard Strauss. Both prolific in the form, in a wide range of topics and styles, Sibelius and Strauss brought new approaches, textures, orchestral effects and sonorities to the tone poem. November 14 – Miscellaneous (Italy, Czech, Hungary, etc.) In the wrap-up, we’ll sample from a variety of tone poems by composers of other nationalities, like those by Ottorino Respighi, Bedrich Smetana, Zoltan Kodaly and Bela Bartok. COURSE D - Tuesday 1-3 p.m. CONVERSATIONS WITH PAULA CITRON Lecturer: Paula Citron Women’s Art Association of Canada, 23 Prince Arthur Ave. This entertaining course is back for its fifth year with another stellar line-up of guests. Audiences have a chance to get up close and personal in an intimate setting with these cultural movers and shakers. In this informal gathering, Ms. Citron interviews each guest at length, followed by questions from the audience. The result is a series of fascinating conversa- tions that track the guests from their early lives, to how they got to where they are now. Many laughs, a few surprises, and some very poignant moments. September 20 ILTER IBRAHIMOF, artistic director, Fall for Dance North, director/owner, Sunny Artist Management September 27 VICTORIA BERTRAM, former principal character artist, National Ballet of Canada November 1 MERVON MEHTA, executive director of perform- ing arts, Royal Conservatory of Music November 15 CATHERINE NASMITH, restoration architect, urban advocate November 22 MAEV BEATY, actor, Toronto and Stratford November 29 MARLENE PERRY, former producer, CBC Fifth Estate, television writer, Los Angeles SPECIAL LECTURE – MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21 Lecturer: Dr. Sergei Plekhanov Tartu College, 310 Bloor St. West, entrance on Madison A POST-MORTEM ON ONE OF THE MOST BIZARRE AND LEAST PREDICTABLE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN US HISTORY.