Anthony Grosch on
The Ideal of Brotherhood
in Four Classic Chicago Novels
Tuesday, April 5, 5:30-8:30pm
19 South Wabash, 2d floor

Cocktails at 5:30, presentation 6:00-6:30 followed by discussion and more cocktails.     $40 includes drinks, two cigars, and sandwiches. 
Reservations are required.

IN 20 MINUTES Professor Grosch will give us an introduction to four classic Chicago novels from the 30s and 40s -- James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan; Richard Wright's Native Son; Willard Motley's Knock on Any Door; and Nelson Algren's The Man with the Golden Arm -- and read some selected passages.  There's no need to do any reading ahead of time, but you may bring questions if you have them.

Dr. Grosch writes:   Chicago (incorporated 1837) is, above all, an American city.  And as Chicagoans, our ideology (a term of the left), or our consciousness (a term of the right), is inseparable from the ideals that shaped the European (and American) Enlightenment.  These ideals emerge from such thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Voltaire in France; John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, and Thomas Hobbes in England; and Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin in America. The Enlightenment promoted deism, rationalism, skepticism, empiricism, and individualism.  Despite inevitable ethnic conflicts throughout the city’s history, Chicagoans have always been exposed to the Enlightenment ideal of tolerance toward fellow human beings.  This ideal of tolerance is passionately evoked in four classic Chicago novels: Studs Lonigan, Native Son, Knock on Any Door, and The Man with the Golden Arm. Each of these works present themes rooted in American literature, which was infused with Enlightenment ideals.
 
Tony Grosch served in the 25th Infantry Division, graduated from Chicago Teachers College (B.Ed. 1962), Roosevelt University (M.A. 1973), and Northwestern University (Ph.D. 1979). His doctoral dissertation was Chicago Novels: An Introduction for Teachers. He taught in the Chicago Public Schools (1962-1993): Jenner Elementary, Orr High, and Lincoln Park High, where he was English Department Chair.  In 1994, Tony joined the English Department of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where he is Lecturer Emeritus.  He is currently teaching a course in the UIC’s Honors College on Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.  Tony Grosch is a life-long Chicagoan.

April 5 - On this date in 1955, Winston Churchill resigned as British prime minister.

Anthony Grosch

Coming up

Tuesday, April 12
Lauren Viera, New Cocktails for Spring: A Lesson in Mixology.
19 S. Wabash, 2d floor.

Tuesday, April 26
Michael Turner, God, the Multiverse, and Cosmic Arrogance.
19 S. Wabash, 2d floor.

Tuesday, May 10
Robert Wallace, Why did the Athenians Kill Socrates?
19 S. Wabash, 2d floor.

Tuesday, May 24
Alfred Rasho, Making Short Documentary Films.
19 S. Wabash, 2d floor.

In June thru August the Cigar Society will meet every nice Tuesday at the Ceres Cafe, outdoors, next to the Board of Trade Building and Jack Schwartz cigars.