Events/Courses - Event View

Filial love, sexual love, love of self, of beauty, and of nature: Which of these has the highest claim on us? Perhaps that depends on our stage of life. In the short novels Gigi, The Cat, Cheri, and The Last of Cheri, and in the autobiographical novel The Break of Day, Colette writes about the competing claims of love throughout a life span. She evokes the feelings of an adolescent girl being groomed to become the mistress of a man whom she calls “uncle”; the sensations of a young man and the courtesan who has been engaged to teach him the art of love; the conflicts of a newly married couple over his obsession with an exquisite Chartreux cat; and the struggles of an aging writer seeking peace in nature after a scalding divorce. As a class, we will follow Colette’s lead in considering the modalities and moralities of love.

Instructor Charisse Gendron previously taught literature and film at Middle Tennessee State University. In addition, she has taught literature and creative writing at the University of Connecticut, the University of Vermont Extension Program, OLLI, Midcoast Senior College, and Coastal Senior College. She lives in Portland.