Purdue University College of Liberal Arts

Information for

Renaissance Reading Coffee Club

Please join us for an interdisciplinary, informal, enjoyable reading group for graduate students and professors in the College of Liberal Arts specializing in or taking courses in early/modern Renaissance, select Thursdays, 1:30-2:20 in BRNG 1284.  Please note: Coffee (and baked goods) will be supplied; non-coffee drinkers welcome too!  For more information, please email Angelica Duran, MARS Assistant Director - Renaissance at duran0@purdue.edu.

Reading Rabelais: Carnival in Early Modern Europe
Autumn 2008 discussion leader: Melinda Zook (History)
Thursdays, 1:30-2:20 p.m. in BRNG 1284
(September 11, 25; October 9, 30 and November 13)

This semester we will focus our discussion on Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel and the various meanings and functions of Carnival in the Early Modern world.  In addition to Rabelais, we will want to explore Mikhail Bakhtin's Rabelais and His World and Natalie Zemon Davis's famous essay, "The Reasons of Misrule."  Other possible readings include Le Roy Ladurie's Carnival in Romans and Victor Hugo's Notre Dame of Paris.

Penguin editions of the book are available at the Wabash Landing Borers Bookstore, or bring any library or personal copy.