Jamaican-born literary artist and historian Olive Senior (1941 - ) is among Caribbean literature’s leading voices. Her writings, though composed in English, remain heavily influenced by the region’s patois and draw heavily upon the oral storytelling traditions. In the genres of prose and poetry, Senior presents a critique of the political and cultural ties that continue to bind Jamaica to a British colonial past. Her protagonists find themselves divided between the resulting two worlds of assimilation and preservation, and as the characters assume this posture of division, Senior reveals the ways colonialism fractures the grammar of the Gospels. From Senior’s canon we shall read and discuss “The Pain Tree,” “Flying,” “Bright Thursdays,” and “Confirmation Day.” The lecturer for the series is Victor Judge, assistant dean for academic affairs and lecturer in literature and religion at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.