Cost and Registration Information

Early Registration Price (May 7 at 9 am** – May 24 at 4 pm): $85
Regular Registration Price (May 24 at 4 pm – first day of class): $93.5

** Registration opens online at 9 am. Phone registration will be accepted starting at 10 am.

Members, seniors, and students get a 10% discount.

Seminar Description

Raymond Chandler is recognized as a master of the genre of hard-boiled detective fiction, having distinguished himself on the basis of a seminal collection of short stories, novels, and film scripts. In this two-session course, we will discuss a selection of Chandler’s pulp magazine short stories, as well as his first novel, The Big Sleep, in order better to understand "noir" fiction in general and, more particularly, the manner in which Chandler was able to surpass formulaic boundaries to offer trenchant social commentary on the state of America.

Two sessions. E – $85, L – $93.5

Elzbieta Foeller-Pituch is Assistant Director of the Chabraja Center for Historical Studies at Northwestern University, where she also teaches literary history.

Materials List

Required:

• Raymond Chandler, Trouble Is My Business. Vintage Books, 1992. ISBN: 978-0394757643
• Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep. Vintage Books, 1992. ISBN: 80394758282

First Reading:

• For the first class, please read Chandler’s brief Introduction and short stories (1933-1939) in the 1992 volume Trouble Is My Business: “Trouble Is My Business,” “Finger Man,” Goldfish,” and “Red Wind.”

This class is part of the Newberry’s Adult Education Seminars Program. Learn more about our registration procedures.