Classes

The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser

“From the time of its publication down to about 1914 [The Faerie Queene] was everyone’s poem—the book in which many and many a boy first discovered that he liked poetry; a book which spoke at once, like Homer or Shakespeare or Dickens, to every reader’s imagination.”
~ C.S. Lewis, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature
 
The Faerie Queene along with its style of storytelling has been out of fashion for so long that we encounter several difficulties (apart from its sheer size!) when trying to read it. Lewis identified three for us: its narrative technique, its allegory, and the texture of its language—that is, the kind of poetry it is, which affects how it’s to be approached.

This class consists of 31 hour and a half-long sessions during which we’ll read this epic romance together. As we go, I’ll not only give you the imaginative frame of mind for entering into Spenser’s masterpiece, I’ll help you with the three difficult areas identified by Lewis. Together we’ll become more comfortable with the polyphonic narrative style, which you may never have encountered before. We’ll discuss how to understand the story’s allegory as well as when to ignore it. We’ll learn to appreciate Spenser’s poetic style and I’ll teach you strategies for reading the poetry, whether to yourself or to your children.

And that really is my goal for this class—not just to help you read this magnificent story, but to give you the confidence to read it to your own children as I did to mine. 

All of my classes are now being hosted at The Well-Tempered Life discussion forum. When I receive your payment I’ll send you a link to the class page where you’ll find the class playlist and other resources, plus a link to Calendly where you can schedule office hours with me if you need extra help. You’ll need to register to join the forum, but in the mean time, feel free to browse the public section of the forum.

From now through April 10 this class is 50% off! Include promo code FQsale when you check out.

 

UPDATE

I'm now hosting my classes at The Well-Tempered Life discussion forum! There are two free sections, one which is open to the public, and one which is for registered members. In this section you'll find classes I'm offering for free: GK Chesterton's Ballad of the White Horse, as well as my webinar on Shakespeare's As You Like It. 

 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

 

LEGACY CLASSES HOSTED ON THE WELL-TEMPERED LIFE DISCUSSION FORUM

(After you make your purchase I will send the link to your email)

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. 

 

Shakespeare webinars
 coming soon

 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Contact me at mrscumbee@gmail.com 

or

find me on Facebook at The Well-Tempered Life