Carson McCullers’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Reading Group [Durham, NC]
**This course is in-person only. There is no virtual component. Participants must be age 21+
Full Tuition: $200 — Scholarship options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select.
Instructor: Lindsey Andrews | 3 Weeks | Sundays | March 24 - April 7 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM ET | IN PERSON, 719 N Mangum St., Durham, NC
Scientists report that more people today suffer from chronic loneliness than ever before, but what about our modern world is making people so lonely? Carson McCullers’ debut novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), is a hauntingly beautiful modernist masterpiece centered on just this question. Although it was written more than 80 years ago, it is perhaps impossible to imagine another novel that so presciently anticipated the insights of queer studies, intersectional theory, disability studies, and anti-fascism that would be developed in the decades since its publication. Set in 1930s Georgia, the novel 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, a white tomboy-ish girl; Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, a Black Marxist doctor; Biff Brannon, white business owner, and Jack Blount, a Jewish labor organizer. Over the course of four weeks, we’ll read about their searching explorations to throw off the yokes of racism, classism, ageism, and ableism that trap them all. We’ll learn about the cultural contexts of the 1930s, during which the novel was written, including the rise of labor organizing, forced assimilation of the Deaf community, intensified Jim Crow legislation, and rising fascism in Europe. In addition to cultural history, we’ll also consider the novel’s place in literary history, including its relationship 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). Ultimately, we’ll think about how this powerful and moving novel and its exploration of identity can help us understand loneliness and the possibilities for community today.
—
This class will take place in person at Night School Bar in Durham. Night School requires that students refrain from attending in-person classes when sick. For more on our class policies, see our FAQ. Instructors will also follow this policy. If your instructor is sick, class may be moved to online for a session or rescheduled to the week following the final scheduled session at the instructor’s discretion.
Sliding Scale: Night School Bar pays instructors and staff a living wage, and your tuition goes toward supporting this practice. Please pick the payment tier that corresponds to your needs, and consider our commitment to fair labor practices when doing so. We will never request or require proof of need, and do not use an income-based sliding scale; we trust you to decide what payment tier is right for you. If you would like additional support deciding or would like to learn more about the practice of using a sliding scale, we recommend this resource from Embracing Equity.
Scholarships: We are currently able to offer three full scholarships per class. Our full scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering, limited to one per student per month.Because our scholarship funding is limited, selecting multiple full scholarships in a single month will result in disenrollment from all classes. If the scholarship tier you need is sold out please email us directly, and we will add you to a waitlist and notify you if additional scholarships become available. Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans and refund policy.
**This course is in-person only. There is no virtual component. Participants must be age 21+
Full Tuition: $200 — Scholarship options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select.
Instructor: Lindsey Andrews | 3 Weeks | Sundays | March 24 - April 7 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM ET | IN PERSON, 719 N Mangum St., Durham, NC
Scientists report that more people today suffer from chronic loneliness than ever before, but what about our modern world is making people so lonely? Carson McCullers’ debut novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), is a hauntingly beautiful modernist masterpiece centered on just this question. Although it was written more than 80 years ago, it is perhaps impossible to imagine another novel that so presciently anticipated the insights of queer studies, intersectional theory, disability studies, and anti-fascism that would be developed in the decades since its publication. Set in 1930s Georgia, the novel 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, a white tomboy-ish girl; Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, a Black Marxist doctor; Biff Brannon, white business owner, and Jack Blount, a Jewish labor organizer. Over the course of four weeks, we’ll read about their searching explorations to throw off the yokes of racism, classism, ageism, and ableism that trap them all. We’ll learn about the cultural contexts of the 1930s, during which the novel was written, including the rise of labor organizing, forced assimilation of the Deaf community, intensified Jim Crow legislation, and rising fascism in Europe. In addition to cultural history, we’ll also consider the novel’s place in literary history, including its relationship 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). Ultimately, we’ll think about how this powerful and moving novel and its exploration of identity can help us understand loneliness and the possibilities for community today.
—
This class will take place in person at Night School Bar in Durham. Night School requires that students refrain from attending in-person classes when sick. For more on our class policies, see our FAQ. Instructors will also follow this policy. If your instructor is sick, class may be moved to online for a session or rescheduled to the week following the final scheduled session at the instructor’s discretion.
Sliding Scale: Night School Bar pays instructors and staff a living wage, and your tuition goes toward supporting this practice. Please pick the payment tier that corresponds to your needs, and consider our commitment to fair labor practices when doing so. We will never request or require proof of need, and do not use an income-based sliding scale; we trust you to decide what payment tier is right for you. If you would like additional support deciding or would like to learn more about the practice of using a sliding scale, we recommend this resource from Embracing Equity.
Scholarships: We are currently able to offer three full scholarships per class. Our full scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering, limited to one per student per month.Because our scholarship funding is limited, selecting multiple full scholarships in a single month will result in disenrollment from all classes. If the scholarship tier you need is sold out please email us directly, and we will add you to a waitlist and notify you if additional scholarships become available. Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans and refund policy.
**This course is in-person only. There is no virtual component. Participants must be age 21+
Full Tuition: $200 — Scholarship options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select.
Instructor: Lindsey Andrews | 3 Weeks | Sundays | March 24 - April 7 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM ET | IN PERSON, 719 N Mangum St., Durham, NC
Scientists report that more people today suffer from chronic loneliness than ever before, but what about our modern world is making people so lonely? Carson McCullers’ debut novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), is a hauntingly beautiful modernist masterpiece centered on just this question. Although it was written more than 80 years ago, it is perhaps impossible to imagine another novel that so presciently anticipated the insights of queer studies, intersectional theory, disability studies, and anti-fascism that would be developed in the decades since its publication. Set in 1930s Georgia, the novel 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, a white tomboy-ish girl; Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, a Black Marxist doctor; Biff Brannon, white business owner, and Jack Blount, a Jewish labor organizer. Over the course of four weeks, we’ll read about their searching explorations to throw off the yokes of racism, classism, ageism, and ableism that trap them all. We’ll learn about the cultural contexts of the 1930s, during which the novel was written, including the rise of labor organizing, forced assimilation of the Deaf community, intensified Jim Crow legislation, and rising fascism in Europe. In addition to cultural history, we’ll also consider the novel’s place in literary history, including its relationship 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). Ultimately, we’ll think about how this powerful and moving novel and its exploration of identity can help us understand loneliness and the possibilities for community today.
—
This class will take place in person at Night School Bar in Durham. Night School requires that students refrain from attending in-person classes when sick. For more on our class policies, see our FAQ. Instructors will also follow this policy. If your instructor is sick, class may be moved to online for a session or rescheduled to the week following the final scheduled session at the instructor’s discretion.
Sliding Scale: Night School Bar pays instructors and staff a living wage, and your tuition goes toward supporting this practice. Please pick the payment tier that corresponds to your needs, and consider our commitment to fair labor practices when doing so. We will never request or require proof of need, and do not use an income-based sliding scale; we trust you to decide what payment tier is right for you. If you would like additional support deciding or would like to learn more about the practice of using a sliding scale, we recommend this resource from Embracing Equity.
Scholarships: We are currently able to offer three full scholarships per class. Our full scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering, limited to one per student per month.Because our scholarship funding is limited, selecting multiple full scholarships in a single month will result in disenrollment from all classes. If the scholarship tier you need is sold out please email us directly, and we will add you to a waitlist and notify you if additional scholarships become available. Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans and refund policy.