Athenaeum Course Focuses on Art of World War I

As a follow-up to her Spring lecture on the poetry that emerged from World War I, Dr. Sue Weaver Schopf will present a fall series at the Salem Athenaeum, in which she will examine how painting and the novel were transformed by the horrors of the war.

Heroic battle scenes were nothing new in the history of painting or writing, but how the artists and authors captured their personal experience of the war in their art will be the focus of this series.

The course runs for on Thursdays beginning Oct. 8 through Oct. 29 at the Salem Athenaeum at 337 Essex St.

The cost is $155 for members and $175 for nonmembers. You can reserve a spot here.

The art of World War I is anything but “heroic” in what it set out to capture: the blistering reality of trench warfare and the destructive technology of the machine gun, modern explosives, and mustard gas. The genre of the war novel underwent a similar transformation, the two greatest examples being A Farewell to Arms by the American Ernest Hemingway and All Quiet on the Western Front by the German Erich Maria Remarque.

Sue Weaver Schopf, Ph.D.recently retired from her position as Associate Dean of the Master of Liberal Arts Program and Research Advisor in the Humanities at Harvard Extension School.

Dr. Schopf continues to teach, lecture, write, and lead literary walking tours. Her expertise ranges from the literature of 19th- and early 20th-century to popular culture topics such as “The Vampire in Literature and Film.” She has appeared in The Times of London and the Boston Globe and has been a guest on national radio programs. Her courses have been featured in articles in various publications including The Huffington Postand MTV.com.