While Shakespeare was creating modern drama in England, his nearly exact contemporary in Spain was founding modern fiction. Considered the first great novel and the origin of European fictional representation, Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote is a book at once tragic, inspiring, thought-provoking and, above all, funny. In its portrayal of the preposterous yet valiant deeds of someone acting in a way no longer appropriate to the times of the Spanish Golden Age, it explores questions of modernity and tradition, truth and lies, religion and identity.

Reading it in Edith Grossman's acclaimed recent translation, we will consider this timeless classic in its context of a changing Mediterranean world, Cervantes’ life as both professional author in print culture and “multicultural dreamer,” and an emerging modernity.

This seminar meets on four Wednesdays:

• May 20 - Don Quixote part 1, chapters 1-20
• June 3 - Don Quixote part 1, chapters 21-52
• June 24 - Don Quixote part 2, chapters 1-38
• July 15 - Don Quixote part 2, chapters 37-74

all sessions at 11:00 AM on the Zoom Meetings platform. (Instructions below.)

Prof. Birns recommends the translation by Edith Grossman, from Ecco Press.

Instructions for joining this workshop online are available to registrants. Free Zoom meetings software is recommended.

Registration is required. To register, log in and complete the form below. Please click the Register button only once. The website may take a moment to process your registration and show the confirmation screen. With registration questions, contact the Events Office.