Class Description
Nighthawks, Edward Hopper’s 1942 masterpiece, takes up a lot of space in the American imagination. The painting’s stark depiction of four seemingly disconnected people, isolated late at night in a coffee shop on an otherwise deserted and oddly clean street corner, has inspired countless parodies, pastiches, and homages, as well as serious creative work by musicians and writers. In this seminar, we will discuss Nighthawks as though it were a Modernist short story, where details omitted and contexts implied require the viewer to work to discover a richer and more complete understanding of the painting’s power. Our conversation will be informed by Ernest Hemingway’s 1927 short story “The Killers,” which Hopper admired. Fiction by Nelson Algren, set in a similar milieu at about the same time, will provide vital context for interpreting Hopper’s urban vision. Finally, short fiction Nighthawks inspired, by Stuart Dybek and Michael Connelly, will help us to contextualize and interrogate the mystery at the heart of the painting: who are these people, where are they, and what are they doing there?
All virtual classes are recorded and made available to participants registered in the class. These recordings are password-protected and available for up to two weeks after the class ends.
Bill Savage is Professor of Instruction in the English Department at Northwestern University; he has taught seminars at the Newberry Library since 1992. He has also spent a fair amount of time in diners late at night, and at the Art Institute of Chicago, looking at Nighthawks.
What to Expect
Format: Virtual
Class Capacity: 30
Class Style: Mostly discussion; participation-based
Materials List
Required
- Instructor-Distributed Materials
- The texts are the painting, and four short stories, potentially with some short critical essays.
A Brief Syllabus
- Origins and Legacy of Nighthawks
- Reading the Modernist Short Story
- Reading Nighthawks as a Modernist Text
Cost and Registration
3 Sessions, $135 ($121.50 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.
We offer our classes at three different price options: Regular ($135), Community Supported ($125), and Sponsor ($145). Following the models of other institutions, we want to ensure that our classes are accessible to a wider audience while continuing to support our instructors. You may choose the price that best fits your situation when registering through Learning Stream.
To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.
Having trouble signing up? Take a look at our step-by-step guide to registration by clicking here.
RegisterThe views and opinions expressed in this class and/or by the instructor are not necessarily representative of the Newberry. We aim to ensure that in our classes, participants can have respectful disagreement to foster critical thinking. This is a space to challenge and expand our own worldviews to work towards better understanding and appreciating humanity.
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