Summer 2006 Reading Project

All incoming first year students at Florida Gulf Coast University will read Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring in order to explore FGCU’s Learning Goal Aesthetic Sensibility.

Girl with a Pearl Earring describes the household of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer and the relationship between the painter and a servant, Griet. As the sixteen year old becomes more and more involved in Vermeer’s work, first as his assistant and then as his model, the household is thrown into turmoil. The novel provides insight into the Dutch golden age of painting, specifically, and more generally into artistic practices.

The writing assignment will ask students to analyze the aesthetics in the text of the book, as well as to consider the relationship between what students learn in the book and their own aesthetic sensibility. Ultimately students should begin to understand and address the ten General Education Learning Goals in order to begin their own growth and development. Download the Ten General Education Learning Goals. [.pdf - 13kb]

» Get the Writing Assignment in MS Word format.

Contact Information
Linda Rowland (for the composition 1 assignment)
Email: lrowland@fgcu.edu
Phone: (239)590-7254