Carson McCullers's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter [4-week Reading Group, $150 suggested]
Instructor: Andrews | Sundays March 13-March 27 2:00-3:30 PM ET & Sunday April 3 11:00 AM-12:30 PM ET
Scientists report that more people today suffer from chronic loneliness than ever before. How does our modern world not only create, but also reinforce loneliness? Carson McCullers’ debut novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), remains a hauntingly beautiful minor modernist masterpiece centered on just this question. And it is perhaps impossible to imagine another novel that has stood the test of time by so presciently anticipating the insights of queer studies, intersectional theory, disability studies, and anti-fascism that would be developed in the 80 years since its publication. Set in 1930s Georgia, it tells the stories of five characters brought together through intense loneliness: John Singer, a Deaf man reeling from the loss of his companion; twelve-year-old Mick Kelley, white tomboy-ish girl; Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, a Black Marxist doctor; Biff Brannon, white owner of a local diner, and Jack Blount, a Jewish labor organizer. Over the course of four weeks, we’ll explore their searching explorations to throw off the yokes of racism, classism, ageism, and ableism that trap them all. We’ll consider the novel in relation to other minor modernist masterpieces (those equally experimental texts of the modernist period often dismissed as ‘vernacular’ or ‘regional,’ such as Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God) to discuss its formal innovations. And we’ll think about how it contributes to contemporary discourses around identity, as well as how it can help us understand loneliness and the possibilities for community today.
—
We depend on a mix of direct student donations and supplemental donations to make all classes pay-what-you-can. Please pick the pricing tier that corresponds with your needs and that you are able to pay now. If you would like to pay in installments, make your first payment now and make a note on your check-out form. If you would like to donate more later in the term, you can always come back and use the “Make a One Time Donation” button! To use a full scholarship, just pick the $3 tier to cover site/processor fees.
If at any point up to 48 hours before your first class session you realize you will be unable to take the class, we will work with you to reallocate your funds to a future class, to another student’s scholarship, or refund it. After classes begin, we are only able to make partial refunds and adjustments.