The Short Story’s Clarity of Surfaces and Depth

Dates and Time: Mondays, Sept. 23, 30 and Oct, 7, 2024, 7:00 p.m. CST

Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain writes that all art is Poetry—“that intercommunication between the inner being of things and the inner being of the human Self.” For Maritain, creation itself consists of the “things” of God, which reveal spiritual truths—God’s “secrets”—if we know how to look for them. The “Poetry” of prose fiction gives us access to the transcendent in the “inner being of things.” In this course we will read short stories by three masters with an eye for the depths beneath the surfaces.

The course will consist of three weekly Monday evening sessions, each 1 hour + 15 minutes focusing on one short story: “Lions, Harts, and Leaping Does” by J.F. Powers, “Flowering Judas” by Katherine Anne Porter, and “The Beast in the Jungle” by Henry James.

Dr. J. Larry Allums is Senior Consultant and Board Member of the MacMillan Institute and Executive Director Emeritus of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. He earned his M.A. In Literature and his Ph.D. in Literature and Political Philosophy from the University of Dallas’ Institute of Philosophic Studies. He has edited a volume of essays on epic poetry, The Epic Cosmos, and published articles and book chapters on Dante, ancient Greek and Roman literature, and writers of the American Southern Renascence, including William Faulkner, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Caroline Gordon, and others.

Recordings will be available for classes missed.

This class will include

• Lecture
• Discussion
• Handouts of each short story

Host or Publisher Catholic Literary Arts