Bedford Public Library

The art of reading, Professor Timothy Spurgin

eng

Course guidebook Includes bibliographical references

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lectures speeches

The art of reading

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Professor Timothy Spurgin

The great courses

"These lectures demonstrate how to read fiction carefully for full enjoyment. The lectures begin with basic concepts from simpler stories before progressing into books famous for their complexity. The lectures explain literary devices such as irony and foreshadowing and show how skilled authors have used such devices to great effect in classic works of literature"--Guidebook

pt. 1. disc 1. lecture 1. Artful reading and everyday reading ; lecture 2: Authors, real and implied -- disc 2. lecture 3. Narrators -- their voices and their visions ; lecture 4. Characters -- beyond round and flat -- disc 3. lecture 5 : Descriptions -- people, places, and things ; lecture 6. Minimalists to maximalists to lyricists -- disc 4. lecture 7. Explosive devices -- irony and ambiguity ; lectures 8. Reading for the plot -- five simple words -- disc 5. lecture 9. Master plots -- the stranger and the journey ; lecture 10. The game is afoot -- Sherlock Holmes -- disc 6. lecture 11. The plot thickens -- Scott and Brönte ; lecture 12. The plot vanishes -- Faulkner and Woolfpt. 2. disc 7. lecture 13. Chapters, patterns, and rhythms ; lecture 14. Scene and summary, showing and telling -- disc 8. lecture 15. Subtexts, motives, and secrets ; lecture 16. Dialogue -- the good, the bad, the ugly -- disc 9. lecture 17. Metafiction -- fiction about fiction ; lecture 18. Adaptation -- from fiction to film -- disc 10. lecture 19. Realism times four ; lecture 20. Thumbs up? -- interpretation and evaluation -- disc 11, lecture 21. A long short story -- "Runaway" ; lecture 22. A classic novel -- The age of innocence -- disc 12. lecture 23. A baggy monster -- War and peace ; lecture 24. Picking up the tools

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