Laurent Binet’s The Seventh Function of Language: Reading Group (Durham, NC)

**This course is in-person only. There is no virtual component. Participants must be age 21+

Full Tuition: $215 — Sliding-scale tuition options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select. To pay in installments, choose PayPal or Klarna at check out.

Instructor: Margot Fodor Stillman | 3 Weeks | Wednesdays | January 27-February 10 | 7:30-9:30 PM | Durham, NC

What if the most powerful weapon in the world were not a gun or a bomb, but a secret function of language? Laurent Binet’s novel, The Seventh Function of Language, is a detective story set in the intellectual and political worlds of 1980s France. Reading it with us will leave you with a deeper understanding of how language can function as a form of power.

We begin with a historical mystery: Roland Barthes, one of the most influential literary theorists of the twentieth century, is struck by a van shortly after meeting leftist presidential candidate François Mitterrand. From there, the novel launches into an increasingly strange investigation involving detectives, philosophers, linguists, politicians, and secret societies—all centered on the possibility that a seventh function of language exists, a function as yet unknown to philosophy, linguistics, or politics, a function that might fully exploit language's already incredible power.

This reading group will explore both the novel’s fictional world and the intellectual traditions it playfully reimagines. We’ll consider Barthes, Roman Jakobson, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, and other thinkers who appear in or influence the novel, while asking how accurately—and how humorously—Binet represents them. We’ll also examine the novel’s larger questions: How does language create authority? Why are people persuaded by particular arguments? Can rhetoric be separated from truth? And what happens when intellectual theory becomes the stuff of a thriller?

No prior background in literary theory or linguistics is required; curiosity about how language shapes what we believe is enough.

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The Fine Print

Gift certificates may only be redeemed at the full tuition tier.

SLIDING SCALE TUITION

We now offer an early-bird low-tier tuition special as a way of incentivizing early enrollment. This is available up to 4 weeks before the class begins. Early enrollment allows us to gauge if a course will meet the minimum number of students required to run the course. 

Full tuition is the cost per-student of running the class. If you choose a tier below full tuition, you are receiving a discount. If you choose to make a donation in addition to full tuition, you are helping to cover the cost for students who are not able to pay the full amount.

The mid-level tier is a discounted rate for people whose household income is at or above living wage but who have limited discretionary income. 

The low-level tier and the full-scholarship tier are for people whose household income is below living wage or who need extra assistance to meet their needs.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Through our fundraising efforts, we are able to offer three full scholarships per class. The full-scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering. Each student may only take one full-scholarship class at a time. Because our scholarship funding is limited, if a student selects multiple overlapping classes at the full-scholarship level, they will be disenrolled from all classes. 

All sliding-scale and scholarship needs are self-assessed, and we will never request or require proof of need.

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