English Literature and Language

This course is a continuation of the popular European Literature in Translation course series, and this online opportunity will look at older European texts and demonstrate the forces that shaped early literature on the continent.

The set texts will be Boccaccio’s Decameron, Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies, Don Quixote and Voltaire’s Candide. These texts are each a study of the power of human imagination and offer an excellent entry point into a comprehensive range of literary topics.

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure to enrol as soon as possible. Registrations may not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm. 

Number of Meetings

10 

Course Leader

Dr Alexandra Claridge

CRN 27656/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £155 | Concession: £80

This long-running, stimulating and rewarding course aims to consider a range of works of European literature in translation. Over the years books from many countries have been studied, including France, Russia, Italy and Scandinavia, and their specific and broader contexts always form part of the group's discussions. This term we will be looking at European crime fiction, from Simenon onwards.

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure to enrol as soon as possible. Registrations may not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm. 

Number of Meetings

10 

Course Leader

Mark Halton

CRN 27166/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £155 | Concession: £80

By looking at two of Austen's novels: 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Mansfield Park', this course will consider the importance of the heroine as she negotiates and subverts the complex world of manners and social expectations. We will also examine Austen's innovative narrative style, which was radically experimental, allowing us to see these heroines through the distorting lens of the heroine's mind. No prior knowledge required.

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure to enrol as soon as possible. Registrations may not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm. 

Number of Meetings

5

Course Leader

Dr Kate O'Leary 

CRN 26973/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £80 | Concession: £40

'Possession' and 'The Children’s Book' are arguably Antonia Byatt’s most celebrated works. Both novels take their inspiration from writers of the past: 

In 'Possession', twentieth-century academics uncover a romance between Victorian poets. 

In 'The Children’s Book', Byatt imagines the complex web of artistic and familial relationships around a writer from the 'Golden Age' of children’s fiction. 

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure to enrol as soon as possible. Registrations may not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm. 

Number of Meetings

5 fortnightly meetings

Course Leader

Dr Shirley Jones

CRN 27035/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £80 | Concession: £40

‘Cymbeline’ is one of Shakespeare’s last plays and forms part of the group of works often called the Romances. This one-day course will consider such topics as the compression of time, alchemy, separation and loss, reconciliation and redemption. 

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure to enrol as soon as possible. Registrations may not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm. 

Number of Meetings

1

Course Leader

Dr Kate O'Leary & David Rice

CRN 27102/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £55

Explore the Booker Prize, Britain’s (if not the world’s) premier literary award. Expert Naomi Adam will show you how to appreciate ‘Booker’-quality work through the lenses of linguistics, literary criticism, and creative writing. Winning authors’ work will provide case studies, giving participants the opportunity to contemplate exactly what makes an award-winning book. This immersive course features tutor-led and interactive content, and on completion, students might even feel compelled to start crafting their own novels with ‘Booker’-quality potential! No prior experience of literary studies required—just a love of books!

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure to enrol as soon as possible. Registrations may not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm. 

Number of Meetings

10 

Course Leader

Dr Naomi Adam

CRN 27386/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £155 | Concession: £80

This course will focus on relationships between men: together and apart, in love and friendship, in conflict and in memory. We will consider Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, where Charles Ryder recalls his intense friendship with Sebastian Flyte and his involvement with the family drama of the aristocratic Marchmains; J. L. Carr’s A Month in the Country, a meditation on work, art and community in the life of a soldier returned from war; and Alice Winn’s In Memoriam, which presents a passionate love story in the midst of the horrors of the Great War. All of these books resonate with times, places and people remembered.

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure to enrol as soon as possible. Registrations may not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm. 

Number of Meetings

3 monthly sessions

Course Leader

Dr Shirley Jones

CRN 27036/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £70 | Concession: £35

Born in Dublin in 1895, the working-class writer Jim Phelan led an eventful life until his death in 1966. In the early decades of the twentieth century, Phelan spent a short spell in Liverpool. His time in the city ended in 1923 after his participation in the robbery of a Post Office resulted in his conviction for murder. The courts sentenced Phelan to death, but the punishment was eventually commuted to penal servitude for life. Phelan served thirteen and half years of a life sentence in some of England’s harshest prison regimes. Upon his release he wrote about various subjects, including his incarceration. 

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure to enrol as soon as possible. Registrations may not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm. 

Number of Meetings

4

Course Leader

Dr Michael Gill

CRN 27658/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £60 | Concession: £30

Classical myths retold and re-fashioned by contemporary writers are the focus of this course.  We shall discuss Ali Smith’s re-working of Ovid in Girl Meets Boy, Margaret Atwood’s retelling of The Odyssey in The Penelopiad and Pat Barker’s re-writing of The Iliad in The Silence of the Girls. The idea of monstrosity is explored in Natalie Haynes comic reading of the Medusa myth, Stone Blind. In Kate Atkinson’s Not the End of the World, mythical figures influence everyday life and in Claire Pollard’s lockdown novel, Delphi, a classical scholar searches for ways to read the future. The texts, diverse in form and tone, attest to the lasting power of mythology and the importance to any tale of whoever tells the story.

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier if courses are over- or under-subscribed. In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure to enrol as soon as possible. Registrations may not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm. 

Number of Meetings

10 

Course Leader

Dr Shirley Jones

CRN 27033/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £155 | Concession: £80