Monday and Wednesday 2:30 pm-3:45 pm
Friday 1:00-4:00 pm
Fall 2024
Instructor: Rosalie Stoner
Course Description
This particular iteration of the Six Pretty Good series focuses on interior journeys—intimate and mysterious processes of psychic transformation that we can experience as human beings and of which we can learn to be protagonists. Memorable works of literature often—though not always—involve travel to distant lands and the performance of extraordinary feats. But whether undertaken abroad or at home, the greatest journey for a human being is generally acknowledged to be the journey within. This course explores a selection of such interior journeys as described by six individuals across six centuries and four continents: Augustine of Hippo (Africa, 4th-5th century), Teresa of Avila (Europe, 16th century), Frederick Douglass (North America, 19th century), Black Elk (North America, 19th-20th centuries), Mahatma Gandhi (Asia, 19th-20th centuries), and Etty Hillesum (Europe, 20th century). Whether in the form of an educational awakening, a profound religious conversion, a growing consciousness of a social or political mission, or some combination thereof, these human beings share their inmost joys and struggles—for freedom, understanding, justice, and love—in ways that can inspire each of us to undertake and reflect on our own interior journeys.
Enrollment is limited to first-year students.
1.5 credits for Yale College students