Classes

I'm trying out the Thinkific platform to see if I like the way it works. One thing I like about it is that I can offer a general discussion group for anyone who enrolls in any of my courses (including the free ones!) and there will be discussion groups specifically for each class. As I add courses to Thinkific, they'll show up on my home page: Kelly's Study.

 

Free read-aloud of Chesterton's Ballad of the White Horse, along with extra guidance on the literary form, plus a discussion group

More to come!

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LEGACY CLASSES HOSTED ON CANVAS

Everything 50% off now through February 6
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Medieval Cosmology Classes

C.S. Lewis says it is “worth while to spend some labour on ‘putting ourselves back’ into the universe which our ancestors believed themselves to inhabit. What their work means to us after we have done so appears to me not only more accurate (more like what they intended) but also more interesting and nourishing and delightful.”

A key element to entering Medieval and Renaissance literature in this way is understanding their model of the cosmos. This means learning what the authors assumed their audience knew about how the world is made, what kind of creature Mankind is, and humanity’s place in the great scheme of things. These three classes on medieval cosmology give an introduction to today’s readers of what C.S. Lewis calls “The Discarded Image.”

Seeking the Discarded Image: The Heavens

When the medieval poets talk about “the heavens,” and they talk about it a LOT, they do not mean what we mean by the word “space.” The modern meaning of “space” does not exist in medieval literature because, as Lewis says, “the thing meant did not exist for the human mind. The drama of existence was not performed against any such forbidding backcloth. There was no abyss. Man looked up at a patterned, populous, intricate, finite cosmos; a builded thing, not a wilderness; ‘heaven’ or ‘spheres,’ not ‘space.’”

As we seek to recover an understanding of medieval cosmology in order to increase our ability to enter into and delight in Medieval and Renaissance literature and their modern descendants, we often don’t know what we’re looking for. In the first class, I will map out the celestial spheres and what they meant to the medieval imagination, and will walk you through them using Dante’s Paradise as a guide. In the following classes, we will read togther Lewis’s Prince Caspian, and Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Spenser’s “Cantos of Mutability” in order to see how those works embody medieval cosmology.

This course is Part I of a three part series introducing Medieval Cosmology as described by C.S. Lewis in The Discarded Image.

Seeking the Discarded Image: Nature

In the previous Cosmology class, we focused on the Heavens, the sphere of the Moon and everything beyond, which was seen as perfect and unchanging. In this, we will discuss the world we inhabit, the sub-lunary world of change and chance in all its beauty, glory, and terror, presided over by Nature and Fortune, and inhabited and haunted by those mysterious beings whom Lewis calls the Longaevi, the long-livers, the fey folk.

In the first lesson, I will describe the medieval concept of Nature, and we will see how Nature is revealed in Dante’s Inferno. In the second and third lessons, we’ll read together Lewis’s The Silver Chair and Shakespeare’s King Lear in order to see how those works embody the medieval idea of Nature.

This course is Part II of a three part series introducing Medieval Cosmology as described by C.S. Lewis in The Discarded Image.

Seeking the Discarded Image: Man

In the first two parts of this series, we looked at the Heavens and at Nature.  In this, we will discuss the medieval understanding of what it means to be a human and what our place in the created order is. Why do medieval stories (including histories) mingle fact and fiction as if they were the same thing? Do the words “temperament” and “complexion” mean the same thing to the medievals as they do to us? Why is man called a “microcosm,” and what do the Seven Liberal Arts have to do with any of this?

In the first lesson, we will see what the journey up Mount Purgatory reveals about the human soul. In the second and third lessons, we’ll read together Lewis’s The Horse and His Boy, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest in order to see how these works embody the medieval idea of what it means to be a well-ordered human being.

This course is Part III of a three part series introducing Medieval Cosmology as described by C.S. Lewis in The Discarded Image.

Literature Classes

 

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia have been enjoyed by adults and children alike since they were first published in the 1950s. But our understanding of how stories work, as well as our expectations of what’s appropriate in a series written by a Christian for children, have changed in the decades since then, and this poses a problem for many adult readers. C.S. Lewis has been accused of things ranging from sexism and racism to bad theology. In addition, many parents are concerned about the presence of magic, witches, and even pagan gods in a story meant for Christian children. All these objections arise from a fundamental misunderstanding of the literary tradition within which Lewis was writing.

And because Lewis was drawing on the same literary tradition that Edmund Spenser drew on in his romantic epic, The Faerie Queene, any accusation that has been leveled against Lewis and The Chronicles of Narnia can be leveled against Spenser and The Faerie Queene.

Misreading the Chronicles will cause you to misread The Faerie Queene. The good news is that learning to read the Chronicles rightly will open up The Faerie Queene as well as other medieval romances.

In this class I will lead you through the Chronicles in the order in which Lewis first wrote them (hint: it may not be what you may think) showing you why this is the best way to experience Narnia, and how it will help you enter Spenser’s Faerieland. She will describe the medieval romance tradition which Lewis was drawing on—its conventions, stock characters, and typical scenes. These elements work together to create an imaginative experience that is the antidote to modernity’s poison of cynicism.

This semester-long course (15 classes) is designed with adults in mind, but older teens who are ready to delve into literary theory will also benefit. 

Don't forget to use code OPENING2025 at checkout for 50% off !

Shakespeare webinars
and
The Faerie Queene coming soon