Biblical Images in Literature (new)

Thomas Babington Macaulay asserts in the essay “On John Dryden” that the “English Bible, a book which, if anything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.” To some people, even among learned cultures, owning a Bible appears to have more relevance than reading a Bible. In this program, Dr. Booker T. Anthony delights and entertains the studious reader of the Bible by referencing a number of time-honored literary texts that reveal allusions to the Bible. Ultimately, he creates an appreciation for the Bible itself as a literary text to be studied for analysis and aesthetics. Anthony examines classics including, but not limited to, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, poetry by Countee Cullen, and selected works of Shakespeare.

The African-American Church in Works by Ernest J. Gaines

This lecture attempts to define the role of the Black church in three works by Ernest J. Gaines: A Lesson Before Dying, A Gathering of Old Men, and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. The church has traditionally been cast as the pillar of faith for African-American communities. Gaines' fiction challenges this belief in a society where the church does not intervene to combat the inequalities that are widespread in the South. What has the church accomplished in these communities? What has caused these communities to seek self-definition for survival? Dr. Anthony invites the reader to revisit, with Gaines, the role of the church to determine if it is merely a new myth designed to pacify the oppressed.

Requirements for Programs: lectern, lapel/clip-on microphone