Course · 8 Lessons · 6 hr

Daniel Deronda

In eight definitive lectures, Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse explores the greatest novel of Jewish nationalism, guiding you through the drama, the romance, the politics, and the moral imagination of Daniel Deronda.

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Taught By

Dr. Ruth Wisse
Dr. Ruth R. Wisse is professor emerita of Yiddish and comparative literatures at Harvard and a distinguished senior fellow at Tikvah. Her memoir Free as a Jew: a Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation, chapters of which appeared in Mosaic in somewhat different form, is out from Wicked Son…

Lessons in this Course

1
00:53:55
The Theme of Beauty and Goodness
Meet two extraordinary women: George Eliot, the author of Daniel Deronda, and her character Gwendolen Harleth.
2
00:47:30
The Character and Education of Gwendolen Harleth
Who is this alluring, modern woman, Gwendolen Harleth?
3
00:45:01
“Alien Invaders”: Jewish Figures in Deronda’s Britain
Daniel Deronda introduces the Jewish characters Herr Klesmer and Mirah Lapidoth in ways that reflect the dilemmas of modern Jewry.
4
00:40:51
The Theme of Evil
Early in the novel, Gwendolen is badly frightened by a specter of death, but she does not recognize evil when it enters the novel through the figure of Henleigh Mallinger Grandcourt.
5
00:46:21
The Character and Education of Daniel Deronda
Brought up as an English gentleman with the paths of scholarship and government open before him, by the end of the novel Daniel Deronda chooses to embrace Judaism and to dedicate himself to Jewish national renewal.
6
00:39:28
Jewish Nationalism
Decades before Theodor Herzl wrote The Jewish State, George Eliot saw the necessity for the Jewish people to recover their national independence in their ancestral homeland.
7
00:37:58
How Fiction Differs from Philosophy
George Eliot, who could write powerful essays, regularly chose to present social and political ideas in fictional form.
8
00:49:15
The Political Vision of Daniel Deronda: Separateness with Communication
Daniel Deronda is George Eliot’s great novel of nationalism.

Taught By

Dr. Ruth Wisse

Lessons in this Course

The Theme of Beauty and Goodness

The Character and Education of Gwendolen Harleth

“Alien Invaders”: Jewish Figures in Deronda’s Britain

The Theme of Evil

The Character and Education of Daniel Deronda

Jewish Nationalism

How Fiction Differs from Philosophy

The Political Vision of Daniel Deronda: Separateness with Communication

Lessons in this Course

The Theme of Beauty and Goodness

The Character and Education of Gwendolen Harleth

“Alien Invaders”: Jewish Figures in Deronda’s Britain

The Theme of Evil

The Character and Education of Daniel Deronda

Jewish Nationalism

How Fiction Differs from Philosophy

The Political Vision of Daniel Deronda: Separateness with Communication

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