A Bridge Party by Barbara Loftus (1995?)
For a course at the Oscher LifeLong Learning Institute at American University
Day: Ten Mondays, 11:45 to 1:15 pm,
March 1 to May 3
4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW. Washington DC, but conducted online via zoom
Dr Ellen Moody
Description of Course: 20th Century Women’s Political Novels
We’ll travel across 20th century wars, politics, and social life in fiction and memoir: Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September (1929), about an Anglo-Irish household during the 1920s civil wars; Olivia Manning’s The Great Fortune (1960), on the fascist take-over of Rumania in 1939; Lillian Hellman’s Scoundrel Time (1975), her experience paranoic McCarthy era, 1950s USA; and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970), African-American experiences of life in early to mid-century America. We’ll learn of the authors; the woman’s perspective on earlier and today’s era. There are four excellent films which connect directly to these books & people may want to watch on their own: the 1999 film adaptation, The Last September, the first two hours of the 1987 serial film adaptation of Manning’s Balkan Trilogy titled The Fortunes of War, and the 1943 film, Watch on the Rhine (based on a play by Hellman, but written by Dashiell Hammett); Toni Morrison: The Pieces I am, 2019 documentary
Required books (in the order we’ll read them):
Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September. Anchor, 2000 978-0-386-72014-4.
Olivia Manning, The Great Fortune (the 1st of 3 novels called The Balkan Trilogy) is available separately, but I have it in the more much more frequently printed The Balkan Trilogy. Penguin 1974. You get three for what you pay and the novels become more brilliant as they go on. The URL for this older print is 0-14-010996-X. The trilogy has been recently reprinted with the dual Title, The Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy, introd. by Rachel Cusk. Penguin, 2010. 978-1-59017331-1. Both printings have the same pagination for the text.
Lillian Hellman. Scoundrel Time, introd Garry Wills. Little, Brown 1976. This same edition is available reprinted in 2000. The old URL is 0-316-35294.
Toni Morrison. The Bluest Eye. Vintage, 1970. 978-0-307-27844-9.
Bowen’s Court, now pulled down
Format: The class will be a mix of informal lecture and group discussion.
March 1 Introduction: General Introduction: themes of the course; eras and politics; women’s literature, novels. The perspective through films. Elizabeth Bowen’s life, oeuvre.
March 8 The Irish War of Independence/The Civil War: 1920s. Bowen’s The Last September
March 15 The Last September. 1999 Last September cinema film. Olivia Manning’s life, oeuvre
March 22 The fascist take-over of Europe, circa later 1930s into early 40s Manning’s The Great Fortune.
March 29 The Great Fortune. 1987 BBC Serial, The Fortunes of War
April 5 Lillian Hellman, with something of Dashiell Hammett. Their careers. Her memoirs, Scoundrel Time
April 12 Scoundrel Time. Something of her plays. Movies available: Watch on the Rhine, Julia, The Little Foxes.
April 19 Toni Morrison’s life & career. The Bluest Eye.
April 26 The Bluest Eye. The Pieces that I Am. Her later novels & books. The African diaspora
May 3 Women’s 20th century historical & mystery/spy novels. Bringing it altogether; what we have read and seen; what we have learned.
Guy and Harriet Pringle (Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson) with Prince Yakimov (Ronald Pickup) in the Pringle Flat (Fortunes of War, end episode)
Suggested Films:
The Last September. Dir. Deborah Warren. Script: John Banville. Perf. Fiona Shaw, Keeley Hawes, David Tennant, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, &c. 1999. Available as DVD from Netflix or to buy on Amazon.
The Fortunes of War. Dir. John Cellan Jones. Script: Alan Plater. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Ronald Pickup, Alan Bennet, Rupert Graves &c. 1987. Available on Amazon Prime and as DVD to buy.
Watch on the Rhine. Dir. Herman Shulmin. Script: Hellman and Hammett. Perf. Bette Davis, Paul Lukas, Lucile Watson, Donald Woods &c 1943 Warner Bros.
Julia. Dir. Fred Zinnemann. Script: Hellman and Alvin Sergeant. Perf. Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robarts, Maximillian Schell, Meryl Strep &c 1977 20thC Fox
The Pieces that I am. Dir. Timothy Greenfield-Saunders. Perf. Toni Morrison, Hilton Als, Ophrah Winfrey, Angela Davis, Walter Moseley &c 2019 Perfect Day Films.
Lillian Hellman, 1947, Photograph by Irving Penn
Suggested Outside Reading:
Austenfeld, Thomas Carl. American Women Writers and the Nazis: Ethics & Politics in Boyle, Porter, Stafford and Hellman. University of Va, 2001.
David, Deirdre. Olivia Manning: A Woman at War. Oxford UP, 2012.
Johnson, Diane. Dashiell Hammett: A Life. NY: Random House, 1983.
Lee, Hermione. Elizabeth Bowen: An Estimation. London: Vintage, 1999.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Lillian Hellman: A Difficult Woman. NY: Bloomsbury Press, 2012
O’Reilly, Andrea. Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A Politics of the Heart. State University of NY, 2004/
Roymon, Tessa. The Cambridge Introduction to Toni Morrison. Cambridge UP, 2012.
Sanlon, Margaret. Traces of Another Time: History and Politics in Postwar British Fiction. Princeton UP, 1990
Staley, Thomas. Twentieth Century Women Novelists. Barnes & Noble, 1982.
A recent photo, from The Pieces That I am
I ordered The Last September & look forward to watching it. And to watching the brilliant tv Manning Series (includes both trilogies) again when my boxes are unpacked. Your course sounds quite wonderful, Ellen.
Thank you, Judith.
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