Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea (Reading Group) [Durham, NC]
**This course is in-person only. There is no virtual component. Participants must be age 21+
Full Tuition: $220 — Sliding-scale tuition options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select. To pay in installments, choose PayPal at check out.
Instructor: Lindsey Andrews | 3-weeks | Wednesdays July 23-August 6 | 7:00-9:00 PM | 719 N Mangum St, Durham, NC
In her 1966 novel, Jean Rhys gives voice to the “mad woman in the attic” first brought to life by Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre more than 100 years earlier. By centering Bertha Mason, and returning her to her Jamaican home, Rhys brings to the fore the colonial periphery that silently haunted Bronte’s earlier novel. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette Cosway is revealed to be the true name of Bertha Mason, a white creole heiress, who was manipulated and abused by Rochester (the hero of Jane Eyre). This prequel allows us to discuss the physical, psychological, and economic violence of colonization and its aftermath in the wake of Britain’s compromised 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, which required newly freed people in the Caribbean colonies to continue working for the very people who had enslaved them. Together, we’ll read this tremendous literary rendering of the social causes of madness and disability, and discuss how structural forces of patriarchy, racialization, class hierarchy, and colonization intersect, producing new and evolving strategies of marginalization, disenfranchisement, and dehumanization in service of the powerful. We’ll also discuss the 1966 context of Rhys’s writing, and what it means to re-write Jane Eyere in that moment. Students are encouraged to watch one of the film adaptations of Jane Eyre in advance of reading Wide Sargasso Sea if possible.
From the publisher: “Wide Sargasso Sea, a masterpiece of modern fiction, was Jean Rhys’s return to the literary center stage. She had a startling early career and was known for her extraordinary prose and haunting women characters. With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction’s most fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. This mesmerizing work introduces us to Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr. Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.”
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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. We ask that people who make above the living wage threshold for their area strongly consider choosing the full- or mid-level tuition tier in order to support our own living wage program. For Durham, NC, where we are located, the living wage threshold is $49,000 for an individual. All sliding-scale needs are self-assessed, and we will never request or require proof of need.
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: $220 — Sliding-scale tuition options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select. To pay in installments, choose PayPal at check out.
Instructor: Lindsey Andrews | 3-weeks | Wednesdays July 23-August 6 | 7:00-9:00 PM | 719 N Mangum St, Durham, NC
In her 1966 novel, Jean Rhys gives voice to the “mad woman in the attic” first brought to life by Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre more than 100 years earlier. By centering Bertha Mason, and returning her to her Jamaican home, Rhys brings to the fore the colonial periphery that silently haunted Bronte’s earlier novel. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette Cosway is revealed to be the true name of Bertha Mason, a white creole heiress, who was manipulated and abused by Rochester (the hero of Jane Eyre). This prequel allows us to discuss the physical, psychological, and economic violence of colonization and its aftermath in the wake of Britain’s compromised 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, which required newly freed people in the Caribbean colonies to continue working for the very people who had enslaved them. Together, we’ll read this tremendous literary rendering of the social causes of madness and disability, and discuss how structural forces of patriarchy, racialization, class hierarchy, and colonization intersect, producing new and evolving strategies of marginalization, disenfranchisement, and dehumanization in service of the powerful. We’ll also discuss the 1966 context of Rhys’s writing, and what it means to re-write Jane Eyere in that moment. Students are encouraged to watch one of the film adaptations of Jane Eyre in advance of reading Wide Sargasso Sea if possible.
From the publisher: “Wide Sargasso Sea, a masterpiece of modern fiction, was Jean Rhys’s return to the literary center stage. She had a startling early career and was known for her extraordinary prose and haunting women characters. With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction’s most fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. This mesmerizing work introduces us to Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr. Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.”
—
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. We ask that people who make above the living wage threshold for their area strongly consider choosing the full- or mid-level tuition tier in order to support our own living wage program. For Durham, NC, where we are located, the living wage threshold is $49,000 for an individual. All sliding-scale needs are self-assessed, and we will never request or require proof of need.
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: $220 — Sliding-scale tuition options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select. To pay in installments, choose PayPal at check out.
Instructor: Lindsey Andrews | 3-weeks | Wednesdays July 23-August 6 | 7:00-9:00 PM | 719 N Mangum St, Durham, NC
In her 1966 novel, Jean Rhys gives voice to the “mad woman in the attic” first brought to life by Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre more than 100 years earlier. By centering Bertha Mason, and returning her to her Jamaican home, Rhys brings to the fore the colonial periphery that silently haunted Bronte’s earlier novel. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette Cosway is revealed to be the true name of Bertha Mason, a white creole heiress, who was manipulated and abused by Rochester (the hero of Jane Eyre). This prequel allows us to discuss the physical, psychological, and economic violence of colonization and its aftermath in the wake of Britain’s compromised 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, which required newly freed people in the Caribbean colonies to continue working for the very people who had enslaved them. Together, we’ll read this tremendous literary rendering of the social causes of madness and disability, and discuss how structural forces of patriarchy, racialization, class hierarchy, and colonization intersect, producing new and evolving strategies of marginalization, disenfranchisement, and dehumanization in service of the powerful. We’ll also discuss the 1966 context of Rhys’s writing, and what it means to re-write Jane Eyere in that moment. Students are encouraged to watch one of the film adaptations of Jane Eyre in advance of reading Wide Sargasso Sea if possible.
From the publisher: “Wide Sargasso Sea, a masterpiece of modern fiction, was Jean Rhys’s return to the literary center stage. She had a startling early career and was known for her extraordinary prose and haunting women characters. With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction’s most fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. This mesmerizing work introduces us to Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr. Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.”
—
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. We ask that people who make above the living wage threshold for their area strongly consider choosing the full- or mid-level tuition tier in order to support our own living wage program. For Durham, NC, where we are located, the living wage threshold is $49,000 for an individual. All sliding-scale needs are self-assessed, and we will never request or require proof of need.
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.