1. BASC70165 | Course
On the left: Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian. On the right: Jose Saramago’s The History of the Siege of Lisbon.

History Two Ways: Yourcenar and Saramago

Cost
500.00

This course was available in the past and may be presented again as part of the Open Enrollment curriculum.

An emperor makes history. A proofreader invents it. Who has more freedom? Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian (1951) and Jose Saramago’s The History of the Siege of Lisbon (1989) pose old questions in new and unexpected ways. Yourcenar devoted 25 years to imagining, researching, internalizing, reimagining, and writing the story of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (76-138 AD). The result is an unforgettable meditation on power, friendship, and love. Saramago’s wisdom, in turn, emerges through an alternative history of twelfth-century Lisbon and the love between two modern people enthralled by storytelling.

Course Outline

Required Texts:

  1. Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian. FSG Classics, 2005. ISBN: 9780374529260.
  2. José Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon. Harcourt Brace, 1997. ISBN:‎ 9780156006248.

Weekly reading assignments 75 pages.

Notes

Online registration deadline: Thursday, Sept 22 at 5 PM CT.

Section 22A2 Taking an In Person Course: At Graham health and safety is our highest priority. As we resume on-site programming, we want to share COVID-19 requirements for attending.

In-person programming must adhere to University of Chicago guidelines, including the following measures:

  • All in-person participants must show proof of fully vaccinated status, defined as two weeks after the second dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine or two weeks after one dose of a single-dose vaccine.
  • It is strongly recommended that all in-person participants receive the COVID-19 booster shot(s).

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For more information on measures the university is taking to help protect public health, please visit goforward.uchicago.edu.