All Program Dates

• April 15, 2025 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET

• April 22, 2025 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET

• May 6, 2025 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET

• May 13, 2025 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET

• May 27, 2025 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET

• June 3, 2025 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET

Registration

• Tuition for this course is $300. Members receive exclusive discounts on our programs and courses. Not a member? Learn more.

• Please check your spam folder for your email confirmation. If you have questions, please call (215) 732-1600 or email rsvp@rosenbach.org.

• A welcome email from the instructor three weeks before the course begins. Zoom links will be sent for the course one week before the first meeting. 

• This program is for those 18 and older.

• Registration opens for Delancey Society members on Friday, March 14, for Rosenbach members on Friday, March 21, and for the general public on Friday, March 28. Registration opens at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Description

Faulkner’s Light in August dives into the darkest corners of American history: religious fanaticism, racism, the horror of the Civil War, and the brutal legacy of lynching. In this bold masterpiece, Faulkner plays with time’s unbreakable grip. Lena Grove’s desperate journey to track down her wayward lover unfolds in real-time, while Reverend Hightower is trapped in the haunting grip of the past, his identity forever shaped by the destruction of the Civil War. Lena is driven by the urgent present, while Hightower is consumed by memories that refuse to fade. Even more chilling is Percy Grimm, described by Faulkner himself as a Nazi—a terrifying character created a full year before Hitler rose to power.  

The assigned text for this course is the Norton Critical edition of Light in August, which includes the novel, historical backgrounds, reviews, and critical articles that provide the context for Faulkner’s challenging work. This edition provides an understanding of how the novel has impacted generations of readers and why it remains relevant to contemporary culture.  

Instructor

Carl Rollyson, Professor Emeritus at Baruch College, The City University of New York, is the author of The Life of William Faulkner, William Faulkner Day by Day, Uses of the Past in the Novels of William Faulkner, and the forthcoming Faulkner On and Off the Page: Essays in Biographical Criticism. Carl Rollyson has led courses on Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Absalom, Absalom! at the Rosenbach. He has also published numerous biographies of literary figures such as Sylvia Plath, Susan Sontag, Lillian Hellman, Amy Lowell, Rebecca West, and Norman Mailer. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New Criterion, and The Washington Post. His reviews of biographies appear twice a week in The New York Sun.