The Center for the American Idea presents...

Faerie Queene: Harmonia est discordia concors

A FREE discussion group for literature teachers

On Saturday, March 2, 2002, Dr. Benjamin Lockerd, will lead a Socratic-style literature close reading and discussion group on Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene. The workshop will take place in the Board room of our office on the Katy Freeway.

Professor Benjamin Lockerd is a professor of English at Grand Valley State University. Besides lecturing at the Center for the American Idea programs, he is also associated with the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, and is in the process of receiving approval to begin a Master's in English program at Grand Valley State. Dr. Lockerd is an expert in the study of both Edmund Spenser and T.S. Eliot. He has written a book on each poet, Sacred Marriage: Psychic Integration in the Faerie Queen and Aethereal Rumours: T.S. Eliot's Physics & Poetics. Dr. Lockerd is currently on the board of directors of the T.S. Eliot Society in the United States.

All participants are required to read a set of excerpts from the Faerie Queen. Because of the length of the poem we will not be able to discuss the poem in its entirety. The readings and discussion should be thorough enough that we hope you will gain an intellectual interest in the poem, as well as include it more often in the courses you teach (we will have TEKS correlations for you on the day of the workshop).

Handouts
Reading Notes
Book I
    canto i, canto ii, canto vii, canto viii, canto ix, canto x
Book II
    canto i, canto ii, canto vii
Book III
    canto i, canto ii, canto vi, canto xi, canto xii
Book IV
   canto x
Book V
   canto vii
Book VI
   canto i, canto ix, canto x, canto xi
Book VII
    cantos vi, canto vii, canto viii

March 2nd Schedule:

8:25 Breakfast/Registration

8:50 Welcome - John Rocha

9:00 Introduction - Dr. Lockerd

9:15-10:30 Session I - Union of Heaven and Earth in Book I

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:00 Session II - Temperance and Chastity as Unions of Opposites

12:00-12:30 Lunch

12:40-1:55 Session III - Some Images of the Conjunction of Opposites

1:55-2:15 Closing Remarks - Dr. Lockerd

2:15 Conclusion - John Rocha