The library is sponsoring a series of discussions with Denis Sweet, a former teacher at Bates College, investigating our current moment by making use of contemporary and classic writings in literature, social criticism, biology, and philosophy.  This session of meetings will take place on Tuesday mornings at 10AM in the library's Howard Room from February 3 to April 28.  

Kairos – a time of impending danger and instability balanced on a knife’s edge that can tip into disaster or into a new resolution. Kairos is a time that demands clarity of mind - our time. To gird ourselves, we study foundational classic and contemporary writings in philosophy, literature, social criticism, and ecology.

Radical Romanticism
Radical Romantic writers and artists in Germany from around 1790-1820 expanded the sense of what it means to be human.  They introduced the unconscious and the uncanny, and discovered profound meaning in nature. We will discuss writings by Novalis, Wackenroder, Friedrich Schlegel, Tieck, Kleist and E.T.A. Hoffmann, and paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, with the films Pan's Labyrinth and Andrei Rublev. 

To facilitate discussion, the number of participants is limited to twelve. Registration can be done through the library's online calendar. For more information, please email Assistant Director Kayleigh Thomas at kayleigh.thomas@bhpl.net or call 374-5515.