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Who was Carson McCullers and Why All the Renewed Interest in her Life and Written Work? with Steven Reynolds

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Wednesday afternoons from 2-4 p.m. on Zoom

February 15, 22, March 1, 8, 15.


I remember my first encounter with Carson McCullers’s work in the late 1960s when I was mesmerized by the film version of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter starring the mute Alan Arkin. To this day, I think of its beautiful and profound vision of lost love and the important need we all have for connection and friendship. I was equally moved by reading and seeing the novel and film versions and her other great works, The Ballad of the Sad Café and The Member of the Wedding. Then, in 2008, when I was asked to direct a Julie Harris tribute production of the stage version of The Member of the Wedding at Cape Rep in Brewster, I knew my fascination and interest in McCullers would only grow as I visualized and listened to her words almost every day for six weeks.


What I would like to do in this course is to explore with you both the life and major work of Carson McCullers and why there is so much renewed interest in her work in the 21 st Century. After the first Zoom session on her biography, we’ll focus on The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940), The Ballad of the Sad Café (1943) and both the novel (1946) and play (1950) versions of The Member of the Wedding. I’m hoping to have some of the actors involved in the 2008 Cape Rep production share thier experiences with us in the last class.


Gore Vidal thought Carson to be “the best American woman novelist” in the mid-twentieth century and “of all Southern writers, . . . the most apt to endure.” However, playwright Arthur Miller and others considered her a “minor” American writer. Let’s consider why these and other recent perspectives (including our own) were formed.

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PO Box 711 South Wellfleet, MA 02663-0711


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The Open University of Wellfleet, MA a 501 c3,  aims to sustain and enrich intellectual life on the Outer Cape during the shoulder seasons. We offer courses to the public, for a modest fee, that celebrate the area's rich history and culture and draw on the talents and expertise of our residents. Our educational forum stresses collaborative learning, with lectures by instructors, directed discussions, readings and participant contributions. Our classes welcome participants from all over Cape Cod to some of Wellfleet's most charming and accessible locations.
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