In Pursuit of Human Dignity

 

Marsha Razin

 

7:30 pm

This year, we will examine the issue of treating others with a respect for human dignity in book, film, music, and even law.  Our year will include biblical interpretation, Israeli and American films, and a variety of novels.  Our readings will include a classical novel that examines marriage making in the English 1800’s countryside, and a Canadian novel full of the dread of our future if we fail in our pursuit of human dignity.  In addition, we will look at the richness of the human experience even in the face of illness in two marvelous works, a novel and a film.   Two of our films will portray the sweet outcomes of the Israeli individual valuing others.  As well we will examine two classical American films portraying difficult social issues and the richness of human lives.   In both works, we see the world through the eyes of children.  We will even examine cases dealing with human dignity by the Canadian Supreme Court, and a portrait of the heritage of Abraham Lincoln through his writings through Aaron Copland’s.

 

a) Noodle(film)  October 11 - An Israeli film is a sweet little comedic drama that won the Grand Jury Prize and Best Screenplay at the Montreal World Film Festival and was an audience favourite at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Noodle is a cute, low key comedy about a woman in her late 30's, who has been left with a five year old Chinese boy who speaks only Mandarin. While war is present, particularly in the deaths Miri has endured, it is only there because it could not fail to be there, and the story does not linger on it. It deals with tragedy without wallowing in it.  This movie is about hope.
 

b) Subversive Sequels in the Bible Judy Klitsner November 8 - Judy Klitsner is a senior faculty member at Pardes Institue of Jewish studies in Jerusalem.  Aviva Zornberg calls Subversive Sequels a ground breaking book.  In it, Klitsner maps out a conversation between pairs of Biblical stories.  In her careful examination of biblical language, themes, and styles, she shows how ethical issues unfold in the Bible. She helps us to think in a dynamic way and deals with such issues as gender relations and Jewish and non-Jewish relations.  For this work, Klitsner has won a National Jewish Book Award winner (2009)

c) To kill a Mockingbird(film) December 13 - To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) is a much-loved, critically-acclaimed, classic trial film that was nominated for eight Academy Awards. It is based on a Pulitzer prize novel by Harper Lee, which includes lots of autobiographical details. It exhibits a dramatic tour-de-force of acting, a portrayal of childhood innocence (told from a mature adult understanding), and a progressive, enlightened 60s message about respect for human potential, moral tolerance, and dignified courage  in the face of violence, racial prejudice, subordination of women, and the misunderstanding individuals with mental illness.

d) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen January 17 - Austen is one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature. Still her books are among the most widely read of the classics. Her realism and biting social commentary have cemented her historical importance as a writer. In Pride and Prejudice, her second novel, which was first published in 1813, Austen manages to give every person a voice.  While she examines the importance of environment and upbringing on the development of young person’s character and morality, she also shows personal growth.

e) Wit (film) by Medgar Edson with Emma Thompson February 14 - Medgar Edson, a teacher turned playwright, won a Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics circle award in 1998-9 for this beautiful insightful play about Vivian, a professor of 17th-century John Donne’s metaphysical poetry. This heartfelt, touching work about a woman dying of ovarian cancer, manages to include a subtle, dry twist of humor in the face of death.  Vivian reflects on John Donne’s poems at the heart of the work, particularly Holy Sonnet Six — "Death be not proud" as her own death approaches.  Catching both the poignancy and the satire, Emma Thompson plays the professor brilliantly.

f) Still Alice by Lisa Genova  March 14 - This New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2008 Bronte prize, Still Alice is a compelling novel about a 50 year old woman’s sudden descent into early Alzheimer’s disease.  Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she receives her devastating diagnosis.   Still in the face of this disease, she continues to grow.  First –time author Lisa Genova holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University.

 g) The Band’s Visit(film) Israeli film  April 11 - This Israeli film is a New York Times Critics Pick.  It pictures eight Egyptian members of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra stranded in an Israeli desert town. This sweet-and-sour comedy at first looks a bit like a joke in search of a punch line. There, amid the dust and the wind, the Egyptians meet a handful of curious (and agonizingly bored) Israelis who offer degrees of easy and grudging hospitality, and curious, fleeting companionship. Amid the awkward conversations, the even more uncomfortable silences, bits of music and some nicely executed physical comedy, the Egyptians and the Israelis circle one another warily. Love doesn’t exactly bloom in this desert, but a sense of unarticulated longing does.

h)  Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood   May 16 - With a stunning blend of prophecy and social satire, Booker prize winner, Margaret Atwood gives us a keenly insightful novel about the future of humanity—and its present. The triple whammy of runaway social inequality, genetic technology and catastrophic climate change, has finally culminated in some apocalyptic event. As Jimmy, apparently the last human being on earth, struggles to survive and to understand how things got to that point.

Margaret Atwood is one of the pre-eminent writers in Canada.  Her work has been translated into many languages and made into films.. Oryx and Crake (2003), was short listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction and for the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction.

i) Friendly Persuasion (film)  June 6 - US filmInspired by a 1945 novel by  Jessamyn West and spurred by the sympathetic talents of Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire, Mr. Wyler has produced a picture that is loaded with sweetness and warmth and shows much Americana as well as how lively spirit bubbles out of Quaker austerity. What he achieves in this picture is acquaintance with solid characters whose lives are happily ordered by a simple morality and genuine love even in the face of the Civil War. As they put it in "Friendly Persuasion," Thee should be pleasured by this 1956 film. 

 j) Selections from the Lincoln Portrait   by Aaron Copland read by Gregory Peck and 2 court cases from Canadian Supreme Court dealing with human rights  June  27- tentative with consensus

American composer, Aaron Copland, one of the most respected American classical composers of the twentieth century, won a Pulitzer Prize for his music. He wrote the Lincoln Portrait in 1942 as part of the World War II patriotic war effort. To write this stirring classical orchestral work, he used material from speeches and letters of Lincoln which are here majestically read by Gregory Peck . In addition, we will explore cases from the Canadian Supreme court dealing with hate speech and religious coercion in light of human dignity, Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech. (Excerpts will be given out) and through Aaron Copland’s music.