Answering with Class

Well, Christopher beat me to the punch — I was planning to post about my schedule this fall, but he asked before I posted.

To answer the first question Christopher posed, I am taking the classes at Lindenwood. I doubt most of you have heard of it, but it is located in the middle of St. Charles, Missouri. It started its “life” as the first all girls college west of the Mississippi in the 1820's but went co-ed several decades ago and has expanded with multiple campuses, graduate programs and accelerated courses.

Now, about what I am taking this semester (in chronological order of the times I take them):

Brit Lit I: This class works its way from the middle ages to somewhere after the Renaissance. We've started out with some works of the Old English/Anglo-Saxon period. This includes poems such as the Reed, the Wanderer and the Wife's Lament. We also examined the finest case of Anglo-Saxon epic poetry, Beowulf (using the translation from Seamus Heaney). Next, we will be moving on to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. I've never been able to get that excited about Chaucer, but I am hoping maybe this professor will be able to sell me on Jeffrey. This is one of two required classes of Brit Lit for the English major.

Philosophy of Religion: What could be better than spending a semester analytically studying the philosophy of Religion? I can't think of much. Anything that includes Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, and the like is bound to be interesting. Best of all, this class features the professor who gets my vote for the best professor around, bar none — Dr. Alan Meyers. This class fulfills one of the needed 300 level classes of the Religion major.

Modern Poetry: This class seems to have promise. We'll spend the semester studying the great poets of the twentieth century, with some detours into the great poets of the last few hundred years as well. It is lead by another excellent professor, Dr. George Hickenlooper.

World Lit II: This isn't exactly one of the courses I'd hand pick, but its required, so that's that. Unlike other World Lit II sections, this one is going to focus a lot on eastern cultures and — since the professor has a degree in religion and philosophy — also focus on the religious aspects of the works. The literature is suppose to be from the Renaissance and onward. Some of the western works included are Hamlet and one of my personal favorites, Voltaire's Candide.

Renaissance Literature of England: If the name doesn't explain what this course is about, I'm not sure what I can say that will. Like Brit Lit and World Lit II, it will have some Shakespeare along with other greats of the Renaissance period in Britain. The professor is Dr. Ann Canale, who is an English professor, but does a lot of courses on mythology and legends of different cultures.