One of the Modern Scholar’s most popular professors, Timothy B. Shutt, brings his literary acumen and trademark enthusiasm to the study of the epic poems that sit at the very wellspring of Western culture. The earliest surviving works of Greek literature, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey exert a continuing influence on modern culture, even today shaping people’s values and conduct. In the tales of Achilles and Hector, of Odysseus and Penelope, Homer explored the notion of arête, which translates as "excellence" or "virtue".

In this course, Professor Michael D. C. Drout traces literature back to its ultimate sources in oral tradition. Drout shows us how works as varied as the Odyssey, Beowulf, the Finnish Kalevala, and epic songs from the former Yugoslavia were shaped by their origins as songs sung - and composed - before a live audience. Understanding the oral roots of these great works lets us see them in a whole new light.

From the time of Homer himself in about 750 BCE - the epic has been the most highly regarded of literary genres. It is rivaled only by tragedy, which arose a bit more than two centuries later, as the most respected, the most influential, and, from a slightly different vantage point, the most prestigious mode of addressing the human condition in literary terms. The major epics are the big boys, the works that, from the very outset, everyone had heard of and everyone knew, at least by reputation.

In this course we'll explore how Walt Whitman broke with the tyranny of European literary forms to establish a broad, new voice for American poetry. By throwing aside the stolid conventions and clichéd meters of old Europe, Walt Whitman produced a vital, compelling form of verse, one expressive of the nature of his new world and its undiscovered countries, both physical and spiritual, intimate and gloriously public.

Shakespeare's seven great tragedies contain unmistakable elements that set them apart from any other plays ever written. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare embodied in the character of Juliet the world's most impressive representation ever of a woman in love. With Julius Caesar, the great playwright produced a drama of astonishing and perpetual relevance.

Renowned professor Thomas F. Madden turns his scholarly eye on the intrigue and politics swirling about the Medieval Church. Professor Madden explores the compelling events that shaped the culture and forever altered history, from the Monophysite Controversy to reform movements to the Inquisition, Black Death, and Great Schism.

A recipient of the Whiting Foundation Teaching Fellowship, Katherine Elkins is also the co-director of the Integrated Program in the Humane Studies at Kenyon College. In this lecture series, Elkins examines the development of the modern novel by investigating four great modernist authors: James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, and Virginia Woolf. The lectures explore the authors’ most respected works and illustrate how each author’s unique style and vision made a major contribution to the look and shape of the novel today.

Kenyon College professor Dr. Timothy B. Shutt examines Dante's greatest work, The Divine Comedy, both in terms of its autobiographical elements and its allegorical meaning for the human race.

Professor Shutt begins by exploring exactly what a novel is - and what it isn't - and what defines this unique literary expression. He explores both its antecedents and precursors and where exactly its place in the literary landscape can be found. He then moves on to Defoe's great work Robinson Crusoe which arguably marks the birth of the novel. Subsequent lectures explore works by powerful literary forces such as Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, and Sir Walter Scott.

In this series of lectures, Professor Katherine Elkins details the lives and works of the premier French writers of the last two centuries. With keen insight into her subject material, Professor Elkins discusses the attributes that made classics of such works as Balzac's Human Comedy, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Proust's In Search of Lost Time, and Camus' The Stranger.

The nature of the mind lies at the heart of the eternal human quest for understanding. What does it mean to think? What is the relation between mind and body, and where do we draw the line between “physical” and “mental”? With an enthusiastic and scholarly approach, Professor Andrew Pessin of Connecticut College addresses these and other questions, including a studied look at beliefs, consciousness, groundbreaking thought experiments, and whether or not computers can ever truly think.

Russian literature of the 19th century is among the richest, most profound, and most human traditions in the world. This course explores this tradition by focusing on four giants: Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and Anton Chekhov. Their works had an enormous impact on Russian understanding of the human condition.

This exciting course introduces vital works of political theory from some of history's greatest minds, luminaries like Plato, Thucydides, and Hobbes. Professor Kaplan's goal is to make these works accessible without distorting or oversimplifying them. By the conclusion of this course, you will see a dramatic difference in your ability to understand what you read or watch in the news.

This course will examine the growth and development of the largest empire in world history - the British Empire - beginning with the late 15th century Tudor dynasty in England and ending with the death of the Queen-Empress Victoria in 1901.

Geology is often thought of as simply the study of rocks. In reality, geology is the study of our planet on all scales, from microscopic to planet-wide, and ranging in time from almost instantaneous events, like earthquakes, to the glacially slow motion of the tectonic plates. Everything we know about our world from a geologic perspective is based on information locked into the rock record and the job of a geologist is to tease out that story through a wide variety of observations. This insightful course explores a range of topics that help to tell the story of Earth and to explain the discipline of Geology and the role of the geologist.