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2010 Toronto Pursuits in the Summer

Sunday, July 11 to Friday, July 16, 2010

About 150 people from across Canada and at least 20 states will gather on the shady garden campus of the University of Toronto. About half will be returnees and half will be there for the first time. About half will be working and half will be retired. They will range in age from early thirties to mid-eighties. Some will stay in a new campus residence; others will opt for a nearby hotel. Still others will commute each day from home.

Out-of-towners and first-timers get started on Sunday afternoon, July 11, with an optional demonstration in the Shared Inquiry method of discussion and a guided walking tour of Toronto’s art and architecture. The program gets into full swing on Monday morning with the convening of the seminars, which take place concurrently each morning. The seminars are small, capped at fifteen participants. At noon we gather for an excellent lunch. Each afternoon and evening, you may choose from a wide variety of cultural and social activities both on and off the campus – topical talks, walking tours, film screenings, small dinners and much more. On Thursday evening, there will be an optional excursion to the historic Distillery District for a production of the Soulpepper Theatre Company. We have two gala receptions, one on Monday evening and the other at the conclusion of the week on Friday.

Choose one seminar option and/or our afternoon ART seminar. Full descriptions are on the following links.

View the wide range of activities available throughout the week. TIMETABLE
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FINAL MAILING TO PARTICIPANTS

NOTES:

Daily afternoon art excursions may be selected in addition to or instead of a morning seminar. Different fees apply.

Catalog > 2010 Toronto Pursuits in the Summer

See details  01. HOMER'S ODYSSEY (No Longer Available) John Gardner said that there are only two stories in the world: you leave home on a journey, or a stranger comes to your hometown. Price: $ 0.00 See details  02. THE MUDDLE AND MYSTERY OF INDIA (No Longer Available) In his classic novel, A Passage to India, E. M. Forster describes India as both a “muddle” and a “mystery.” The novel suggests that the Westerners are always trying to categorize and label things, but that India defies labeling. Price: $ 0.00 See details  03. STRANGE EPISODES AND AWAKENINGS: Melville, Kafka, and Conrad (No Longer Available) Strange and prophetically modern are “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” The Metamorphosis, and Heart of Darkness, a trio of short masterpieces that set in motion the existential arguments and narrative experiments of twentieth century fiction. Price: $ 0.00 See details  04. THE PLAY’S THE THING (No Longer Available) The play is among the oldest and most immediate literary forms. Some think the drama best presents the dramatic. Plays tell our greatest stories, pry into the most difficult questions, and provoke deep thought about the nature of man and his condition. Price: $ 0.00 See details  05. THE PLAYFUL PURITANS: Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens (No Longer Available) In all their poems, from the very first to the very last, Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens reveal the profound influence of their ascetic Protestant upbringing. Price: $ 0.00 See details  06. ALICE’S WONDERLAND (No Longer Available) Alice Munro is recognized as one of our greatest living writers, crafting stories that warrant comparison to Chekhov’s in their sharp yet compassionate portrayals of seemingly ordinary characters. Munro’s stories enable readers both to see clearly the details of daily life and to see beyond them,... Price: $ 0.00 See details  07. THE POWER OF METAPHOR: Encounters with the work of Joseph Campbell (No Longer Available) Joseph Campbell, known to many through the Bill Moyers PBS series The Power of Myth, was a life long explorer of the varied dimensions myth has taken across time and cultures. Price: $ 0.00 See details  08. OPERA - RICHARD STRAUSS AND MODERNISM: Salome and Elektra as enduring expressions of an era (No Longer Available) Richard Strauss completed Salome in 1905 and Elektra was first performed in 1909. These two works had a profound effect on the musical world of the day, bringing opera into the forefront of modernism and challenging the remaining conventions of the form. Price: $ 0.00 See details  09. MUSIC - GUSTAV MAHLER – Musical mastermind, mystical myth or misguided misfit? (No Longer Available) 2010 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gustav Mahler and 2011 will be the centennial of his death. As we push deeper into the new century, the music of Mahler has grown in popularity and impact. Price: $ 0.00 See details  AFTERNOON ART EXCURSIONS - ART - THINKING ANIMALS: Animals and the Development of Human Intelligence (No Longer Available) NOTE: Daily afternoon art excursions may be selected in addition to or instead of a morning seminar. Different fees apply. While depicting the reciprocity between humans and animals is as old as the Lascaux cave paintings and Greek mythology there is a heightened urgency... Price: $ 0.00