Two Stimulating Courses From The IPR
Institute for Retired Professionals, New York City

As Men See Women in Drama
From the beginning of drama, men have created female characters based on their male imaginations, observations and experiences of women, in relation to men, society and themselves. This spring members will read and discuss Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, O’Casey’s The Plow and the Stars, Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, and Albee’s Three Tall Women. Average reading 100 pages per week.

Postcolonial Novels: From Empire to Independence
Postcolonial studies which include literature and the social sciences, have been around since the early 1970s and are widely represented in university programs. Participants will read novels this spring that are set in former (British) colonies in the newly independent states and the communities of the Diaspora. Émigré authors frequently write about people living in ethnic neighborhoods of western cities, focusing on assimilation, preservation of culture, and clashes occurring within the community and with outsiders. Each of the novels represents a distinct postcolonial category and focuses on individuals of different national, ethnic and racial identity. This provides opportunities to consider some issues raised in postcolonial theory. Books to be read in this course are Anthills of the Savannah, by Chinua Achebe – The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai and The In-Between World of Vikram Lal, by Nadeem Aslam.