Paideia Today

Internationally-known author Vishal Mangalwadi will be speaking in Toronto this week on a vital topic.
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The sixth book of Virgil's Aeneid is remarkable insofar as it marks the transition point in Aeneas's life, the point at which he enters the underworld and emerges alive from it.

The act marks him as an epic hero.

However, we can also see that it is personally significant insofar as at the point he enters the underworld he is still very much the Trojan undergoing his own form of the Odyssey; when he arises from the world, having seen a vision of the future, he is very much a Roman.

While in the Underworld, we learn much about the Stoic view of the afterlife, and much more about its understanding of living in this present world. This is particularly fascinating insofar as it forms the backdrop of Rome at the time when a certain carpenter from Nazareth is working away living a private life in one of the remote corners of the Roman Empire.

He will have rather different things to say about Heaven and Hell.

But as I say, this is a key transition point for the epic. Books 7-12 will show Aeneas as the 'second Hector', who this time around will conquer Turnus, the 'second Achilles', who stands in opposition to his aim of establishing a second Troy, Rome.

Virgil, The Aeneid, Book 6 The sixth book of Virgil's Aeneid is remarkable insofar as it marks the transition point in Aeneas's life, the point at which he enters the underworld and em...

In this 20 min lecture, I discuss the Elizabethan worldview. It is essential to appreciating English literature.

In the following 3 lectures, I will be referring to E.M.W. Tillyard's Elizabethan World Picture as well as C.S. Lewis's The Discarded Image.

Here, however, I note the importance of the text that underlies the general assumption of an orderly cosmos marred by sin, namely the account given in Genesis 1. Neither Tillyard of Lewis sufficiently amplifies what they probably assume that their audience immediately understands.

Intro to Seventeenth Century Literature In this introductory lecture, I discuss the Elizabethan worldview. In this and following 3 lectures, I will be referring to E.M.W. Tillyard's Elizabethan Wo...

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) is the greatest author of the the twentieth century. At least he is by popular acclaim. In the eyes of the critics and the literary establishment, he has been virtually ignored. In this episode we open what could be a lengthy discussion of this author, seeking to explain the utter divergence of opinion on Tolkien.

Paideia Today (Season 4, episode 10), J.R.R. Tolkien J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) is the greatest author of the the twentieth century. At least he is by popular acclaim. In the eyes of the critics and the liter...

In today's episode of Paideia Today, we look at the famed British novelist George Orwell (1903-50), whose work is so harrowing the adjective Orwellian has come to describe the peculiarly modern form of totalitarian technocracy.

Paideia Today (Season 4, episode 7) George Orwell, 1984 In today's episode of Paideia Today, we look at the famed British novelist George Orwell (1903-50), whose work is so harrowing the adjective Orwellian has co...