Frank Foley
Frank Foley
A fascinating series of two 10-week study groups exploring the concepts of Truth and fictionality in three superb contemporary novels!
After an introductory session, we will spend three weeks on each novel, discussing themes including memory and regret, guilt, identity and individual agency, repression and self-deception, and the possibility of atonement. We will also consider wider ideas concerning the problem of perspective, the usefulness of value judgements, and finding meaning and purpose in life.
“Fiction is for getting at the truth when the truth isn’t sufficient for the truth”
Tim O’Brien, Interview
Truth in Fiction 1
10-week 2-hour sessions
Reading List:
The Remains of the Day
Olive Kitteridge
The English Patient
Truth in Fiction 2
10-week 2-hour sessions
Reading List:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Atonement
The Bluest Eye
THE BOOKS ~ TRUTH IN FICTION 1
The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro
July 1956. Darlington Hall has a new American owner. Lord Darlington is dead, and his butler, Stevens, carries on as he always has.
But change stirs memory, and Stevens will soon begin a journey that will take him out of the house and into recollections of the past, forcing him, for the first time in years, to re-evaluate his life and missed opportunities.
In this 3-week course we will explore Ishiguro's understated and deceptive novel, reading between the lines and under the surfaces to explore issues of memory and the past, repression and suppression, and unreliable narration.
Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for fiction with Olive Kitteridge. Originally marketed as a novel, the work is in fact a collection of interrelated short stories, many, but not all, featuring the eponymous Olive.
Ah, Olive! Olive is life in all its beautiful ugly complexity. From afar, ordinary, average, part of the homogeneous centre, Olive is marginalised, strange, a unique individual, when viewed up close. Olive is oh so simple, and yet deliciously complex; she is tender and sensitive, emotionally intelligent and caring… but she’s also an emotionless sledgehammer, an insensitive blunt instrument, seemingly incapable of empathy. She’s funny and spiteful, she’s vulnerable and vindictive, she’s absolutely Olive Kitteridge and she’s every one of us too - and that’s why we love her.
The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje is a Canadian poet, novelist and film-maker, born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1943. He has published seven novels and a number of poetry collections, and won the Booker Prize in 1992 for his novel, The English Patient.
Set in Italy during the Second World War, the novel interweaves the stories of four disparate characters as they try to make sense of their broken lives.
The novel addresses questions of identity and character, and the context in which this is judged, as well as issues of race, ownership and boundaries, and the importance of stories.
Join me for this fascinating 3-week course!
THE BOOKS ~ TRUTH IN FICTION 2
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
Delighted to be offering a 3-week study group on Muriel Barbery's wonderfully philosophical novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog!
A publishing phenomenon when it was released in 2006, the novel asks existential questions about identity, meaning, and finding purpose in life, as well as exploring issues such as class, the value of art, and the obvious, but easily overlooked difference between appearance and reality.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a fascinating novel full of philosophical and cultural allusions, and always sparks interesting discussions in class, so book your place today!
Atonement
by Ian McEwan
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McEwan's superbly structured 2001 novel is a masterpiece of style, plot, and revelation.
Through the character of 13 year old Briony Tallis, McEwan weaves a story that is vivid, compelling and perfectly structured, at the same time as he is skilfully unpicking the stitches of the concept of story itself. Atonement is an homage to various historical literary movements, an exploration of storytelling, and a laying bare of passive reading.
It is a trick, a sleight-of-word, if you will, inveigling the trusting reader into believing things that aren’t “true”.
(But don’t all novelists do that?)
Join me for an exploration of this superb novel!
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison (1931-2012) was an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for her novel Beloved, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.
The Bluest Eye was Morrison's first novel, published in 1970. It tells the story of Pecola, a young African-American girl growing up following the Great Depression. Set in 1941, the story explores how Pecola is consistently regarded as "ugly" due to her mannerisms and dark skin. As a result, she develops an inferiority complex, which fuels her desire for the blue eyes she equates with and beauty.
COURSE SCHEDULES
01.
Introduction
Course overview and context. I will outline the books and authors, and we'll get a chance to introduce ourselves!
02.
The Remains of the Day 1
Overview & Background context / Author bio
Main themes & ideas map
Opening pages
03.
The Remains of the Day 2
We will explore passages from the first half of the book.
04.
The Remains of the Day 3
We will explore passages from the second half of the book.
05.
Olive Kitteridge 1
Overview & Background context / Author bio
Main themes & ideas map
Opening pages
06.
Olive Kitteridge 2
We will explore passages from the first half of the book.
07.
Olive Kitteridge 3
We will explore passages from the second half of the book.
08.
The English Patient 1
Overview & Background context / Author bio
Main themes & ideas map
Opening pages
09.
The English Patient 2
We will explore passages from the first half of the book.
10.
The English Patient 3
We will explore passages from the second half of the book.
01.
Introduction
Course overview and context. I will outline the books and authors, and we'll get a chance to introduce ourselves!
02.
The Elegance of the Hedghog 1
Overview & Background context / Author bio
Main themes & ideas map
Opening pages
03.
The Elegance of the Hedghog 2
We will explore passages from the first half of the book.
04.
The Elegance of the Hedghog 3
We will explore passages from the second half of the book.
05.
Atonement 1
Overview & Background context / Author bio
Main themes & ideas map
Opening pages
06.
Atonement 2
We will explore passages from the first half of the book.
07.
Atonement 3
We will explore passages from the second half of the book.
08.
The Bluest Eye 1
Overview & Background context / Author bio
Main themes & ideas map
Opening pages
09.
The Bluest Eye 2
We will explore passages from the first half of the book.
10.
The Bluest Eye 3
We will explore passages from the second half of the book.