Penn
Reading Project:The
Quiet American
The
Council of Undergraduate
Deans, Office of the
Provost, and College
Houses and Academic
Services are pleased
to announce that Graham
Greene's The Quiet
American, will
be the text for this
year's Penn Reading
Project (PRP). On the
afternoon of Sunday, August
31, 2003, groups
of first-year students
and faculty leaders
will join together
for lively discussion
as part of New Student
Orientation. (Please
note that this is a
change in day from
the last few years.)
The
Quiet American,
originally published
in 1955, is set
in Vietnam during
the last days
of French rule.
It tells the story
of a developing
friendship between
Fowler, a middle-aged
British journalist
working in Saigon,
and Pyle, a young "quiet
American" who
has come to Vietnam
full of idealism.
Fowler and Pyle's
relationship becomes
fraught on several
levels: a triangle
develops involving
Fowler's Vietnamese
mistress; and
more problematically,
Pyle's idealism
leads him into
questionable political
policies and,
ultimately, bloodshed.
Called
the most famous Western
work of fiction about
Vietnam, The Quiet
American delicately
balances issues of
personal responsibility
and the global consequences
of our choices. In
particular, Pyle--about
whom Fowler says, "I
never knew a man who
had better motives
for all the trouble
he caused"--becomes
a catalyst for broader
questions of the morality
of colonialism and
war.
PRP,
now in its 13th year,
was created as an introduction
for incoming freshmen
to academic life at
Penn. The sessions
(which run from 3 to
4:30 p.m.) are preceded
by three lectures by
prominent faculty members
(details will be available
in early summer). There
will be other supporting
activities, including
a festival of related
films shown on Penn
Video Network.
As
in past years, the
selection was made
by a committee of faculty,
staff and students,
and included representatives
from all four undergraduate
schools. This year,
the committee was chaired
by Mark Liberman, Professor
of Linguistics, Faculty
Master of Ware College
House and Chair of
the Residential Faculty
Council. Past books
include Things Fall
Apart (Achebe), Candide (Voltaire), Metamorphosis (Kafka), The
Woman Warrior (Kingston), Frankenstein (Shelley),
and Arcadia (Stoppard).
More information on
the Penn Reading Project
and its history can
be found at: www.upenn.edu/nso/prp/things/archive.html.
Faculty
members in all 12 schools
are invited to take
part as PRP discussion
leaders. A copy of
the text will be sent
to discussion leaders
and students in July,
along with additional
information about the
Reading Project.
For
more information, and
to volunteer as a leader,
contact: David Fox,
director, PRP at (215)
573-5636, or dfox@sas.upenn.edu. |