Classical Pursuits
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Classical Pursuits is a Toronto-based literary travel company that combines cultural interests (primarily literature and music) with small group learning vacations around the world. The company organizes four to six Travel Pursuits per year, each focused on creative material that is thematically connected to the destination. The purpose of the trips is to help bring readers’ favorite books to life[1].
Classical Pursuits also hosts its flagship "Toronto Pursuits" each July at the University of Toronto, where over 100 adults from across North America come to together to explore the cultural offerings of the city and to discuss a select literary or musical theme.
Past Travel Pursuits have included Ernest Hemingway's Paris, James Joyce's Dublin, Dante Alighieri's Italy, and Flannery O’Connor’s Savannah. The company offers both scheduled small group tours and private ”Made to Measure” travel planning for book clubs and school groups.
History
In 1999, after taking early retirement from her management job at a Toronto hospital, Ann Kirkland started Classical Pursuits. She brought in discussion leaders experienced in the shared inquiry method [2] to offer four different five-day sessions one summer week on the campus of the University of Toronto. Seminar topics included Plato's Republic and Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.[3]
The company’s international trips launched in 2003 with "Classical Pursuits Goes to Medieval Italy," based on Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.[4]
Many of Classical Pursuits’ trips are developed in cooperation with Chicago’s Great Books Foundation. Through Harrison Middleton University, Classical Pursuits is able to offer distance-learning academic credit to participants.[5] Since 2010, Classical Pursuits has partnered with Worldwide Quest for booking local travel and accommodation.
Shared Inquiry & Deep Conversation
The backbone of the trips is the participants’ commitment to absorbing the literature. Prior to any trip, they are expected to read the assigned literature and be prepared for in-depth conversation with their fellow travelers.
The inspiration came from courses Kirkland took at St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe). The college operates according to principles of the Chicago-based Great Books Foundation, which uses a discussion method called "shared inquiry."
With "shared inquiry," discussion leaders ask only open-ended questions, never giving their own opinion or a "right" answer and leading participants to share ideas and develop their own concepts more deeply. The process is based on the Socratic method, except that the discussion leader does not have the answer. [6]
The emphasis is 'shared inquiry,' in which discussion leaders provide background and participants explore questions raised by the material."[7] The objective is to get participants to understand the inspiration and thinking behind the authors of the works discussed. [8]
The Toronto Pursuits seminars at the University of Toronto include a mix of time periods and novels, poetry, music, art, political philosophy and sometimes film.
Past Activities
Along with the annual Toronto Pursuits at the University of Toronto, Classical Pursuits has conducted the following Travel Pursuits.
| Year | Location | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Sienna, Italy | Eco |
| 2003 | Paris, France | Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein |
| 2004 | Paris, France | Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein |
| 2004 | Adalucia, Spain | Flamenco, Lorca |
| 2004 | Quebec City, Quebec | McLennan, Ringuet |
| 2005 | New York | Algonquin Roundtable writers |
| 2005 | Dublin & Aran Islands, Eire | Yeats, Synge, McDonough |
| 2005 | Krakow, Poland | Krall, Rozewicz, Szymborska & other poets & filmmakers |
| 2005 | Sicily, Italy | Verga, Lawrence, Di Lampedusa |
| 2006 | Yucatan, Mexico | Rulfo, Abrue, Paz |
| 2006 | Savannah, Georgia | O’Connor |
| 2006 | Paris, France | Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein |
| 2006 | Quebec City, Quebec | MacLennan, Ringuet |
| 2006 | Krakow, Poland | Krall, Rozewicz, Szymborska & other poets & filmmakers |
| 2006 | Nafplion, Greece | Homer, Sophocles, Plato |
| 2006 | New Orleans, Louisiana | Williams, K. Chopin, Gaines |
| 2007 | Savannah, Georgia | O’Connor |
| 2007 | Florence, Italy | Dante, St. Francis, de Todi, Giotto |
| 2007 | Galicia, Spain | St John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila, de Castro |
| 2007 | Sante Fe, New Mexico | Stegner, O’Keeffe |
| 2008 | Savannah, Georgia | O’Connor |
| 2008 | Cornwall, England | Tales of Arthur, Jung |
| 2008 | Lyon, France | Vercors, Saint-Exupery, Camus |
| 2008 | Galicia, Spain | Greene, Dillard |
| 2008 | Bayfield, Ontario | Munro |
| 2009 | Venice, Italy | Mann, Visconti, Britten |
| 2009 | Savannah, Georgia | O’Connor |
| 2009 | Turkey | St Paul, Rumi, Pamuk |
| 2009 | Moscow & St Petersburg | Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Vasilenko |
| 2009 | Philadelphia, PA | Winthrop, Toqueville, Delbanco |
| 2010 | Key West, Florida | Bishop, Stevens, Strand |
| 2010 | Looe, Cornwall, England | Bronte |
| 2010 | Sante Fe, New Mexico | Stegner, O’Keeffe |
| 2010 | Egypt | Mahfouz, Al Aswany |
| 2011 | Charlottesville, Virginia | Jefferson |
| 2011 | Dresden, Weimar, Berlin, Germany | Goethe, Nietzsche, Grass, Schneider |
| 2011 | St. John’s, Newfoundland | Crummey, Morgan |
| 2011 | Vienna and Budapest | Musical studies |
| 2011 | Florence, Italy | Dante, Machievelli, da Vinci |
References
edit- ^ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/newsweek-media-lead-sheetoctober-22-2007-issue-on-newsstands-monday-october-15-58547437.html
- ^ http://www.greatbooks.org/
- ^ http://www2.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/archives/story.html?id=753cabd6-e089-40a4-9910-e115e7382886
- ^ Ibid
- ^ http://http://www.hmu.edu/
- ^ http://www2.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/archives/story.html?id=753cabd6-e089-40a4-9910-e115e7382886
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2005-09-08-learning-vacations_x.htm
- ^ http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/travel/31advbook.html