Date: October 11, 18, 25, November 1, 8, 15
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

American writer Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley is told from the point of view of Tom Ripley, a clever young man who has a knack for fraud. When Ripley escapes his rough life in New York City and finds himself in a scenic coastal village in Italy, he becomes obsessed with Dickie Greenleaf, heir to a shipbuilding fortune, and embarks on a series of deceitful and sinister acts that beget more of the same. Highsmith’s story builds its suspense as the reader traverses Tom’s journey through an affluent world too obtuse to recognize the extent to which he is a threat. The Talented Mr. Ripley has been adapted from book to screen multiple times, with the most notable being the 1999 film starring Matt Damon and Jude Law. As stories of frauds and scammers endure across popular media, Tom Ripley’s is one that confronts the reader to examine how far they would go to gain access into a world whose entry requires reinventing oneself to the point of moral collapse. The class will study the Highsmith novel as well as the 1999 film adaptation.

About Heather Brown, PhD
Heather Brown has a PhD in English from the University of Maryland, a master of arts in English from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, and a bachelor of arts in English with a concentration in creative writing from Hollins
University. She has taught courses in academic writing, English literature, language and linguistics, women’s literature, feminist theory and criticism, rhetorical theory and criticism, and more. Brown is also an adjunct associate professor of academic writing at the University of Maryland Global Campus, one of the largest distance-learning institutions in the world.