Activities of the Rassias
Institute for Language and Cultural Studies
Dr. Joel Goldfield, Academic
Director, Fairfield University
In collaboration with the Quick Center for
the Arts…
Dartmouth College professor John Rassias, Ph.D., presented “Meat and Mysticism from Naturalism to Symbolism: French Theatre in Shock,” on Thursday, April 11, 2002, in the Kelley Theatre of the Quick Center for the Arts. Part of an eight-week celebration of the contributions the French have made to the worlds of arts and letters, Rassias presented the stage as a battleground between two vigorous literary movements in France from 1850 to 1900. Naturalism, which originated with the French writer Émile Zola, featured characters whose attempts at free will and choice were governed by forces beyond their control. Symbolism, which emerged among French poets and spread to painting and theater, made use of highly metaphorical language or symbols to express human experience. In dynamic fashion, Rassias traced the philosophy that shaped these movements and describe how young authors threw themselves into the struggle for artistic dominance. Integrating dramatic illustrations with a butcher’s garb and raw meat for naturalism, ethereal waftings for symbolism and a impressive reenactment from Paul Claudel’s Seven Days of Rest as representative of their fusion, he addressed “the battle between two ideologies for dominance of mind and art.”
John Rassias is the William R. Kenan
Professor of French and Italian at Dartmouth, where he teaches French language
and culture, 18th-century literature and French theatre. During the 1960s, he developed an immersion
language and culture program to train Peace Corps volunteers. He later adapted the method for college
instruction, and today, the Rassias Method is used in classrooms across the
country to teach 180 different languages. Later he served as the only foreign
language educator on the presidential Carter Commission on Foreign Language and
International Studies.
Rassias is President of The Rassias Foundation, a non-profit affiliate of Dartmouth College that assists academic institutions, corporations, government agencies and individuals in their efforts to learn foreign languages through the Rassias Method. The foundation’s mission is to further the study of, and interest in, second language learning and culture. Fairfield University has adapted the Rassias Method and Dartmouth Intensive Language Model in many of its Core (general education) courses for six languages. Click here for more information on the Assistant Teacher/Oral Practice Session (AT/OPS) program. Several faculty and many students were in attendance at this well-received and exciting presentation by Professor Rassias. Click here to see photos of the reception.
***** The French Showcase events have been sponsored in part by the university’s Humanities Center and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. *****