Overview
"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn," Ernest Hemingway wrote in 1935. "It`s the best book we`ve had. All American writing comes from [it]." The subject of unending debate, Huckleberry Finn has found its most recent echo in Percival Everett`s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel James (2024). James retells the well-known story of Huck Finn through the eyes of runaway slave Jim — or: James. A profound exercise in literary and historic revisionism, James has been an enormous success and has reopened conversations about race, culture, and the American experience. Join Professor Peter Conolly-Smith for an in-depth, parallel reading of an iconic text and its doppelgänger. We will spend three weeks reading each text and discuss how these two flip sides of the same coin reposition one of the greatest of all American tales.
COURSE FORMAT
This course is an interactive in-person seminar course in New York City. This course will meet once a week for 6 classes and will be held in-person at the following location: Jay Suites 3rd floor Conference Room, 369 Lexington Ave New York, NY
Weekly reading or other forms of materials may be assigned. There are no papers or grades. This course does not offer any credits or certificates. This course is intended for learning for the love of learning.
COURSE MATERIALS
Registrants are asked to purchase/rent the following books:
Registrants will receive access to the course website about two weeks before the course starts.
COURSE CANCELLATION POLICY
Registrants can cancel and receive a full refund up to September 22. After September 22, there will be no refunds issued.
Yale Alumni College courses are subject to schedule changes as well as cancellations. If Yale Alumni College must cancel any course prior to its start due to low enrollment, you will be notified of this by the cancellation date. Upon cancellation of a course, registrants may transfer their registration to another available course or have the registration fee fully refunded.
In the event of a disruption to the original course schedule, including but not limited to; Professor absence, hazardous weather conditions, or local travel restrictions, Yale Alumni College will do its best to reschedule the missed class for the week immediately following the original end date at the same course time and day.
Photo: Illustration of Jim and Huck from 1884 edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (E. W. Kemble / Public Domain)