English Literature and Language

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. Courses may close earlier. 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. 

This one-day course will focus on one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. We will consider the significance of the forest of Arden, the powers of love, complex cross-dressing confusions and the centrality of Rosalind as the dominant character in the play. The ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech will be reconsidered as will the themes of exile and return, love and forgiveness.

Number of Meetings

1

Course Leader

Dr Kate O'Leary & David Rice

CRN 28141/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £55

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. Courses may close earlier. 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. 

Shakespeare’s Richard II is the first work in the Henriad tetralogy, followed by Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V. The play charts the fall of Richard and the rise of Henry Bolingbroke - Henry IV. This course will examine how both characters discuss, express and act on their interpretations of kingship and the notion of the Divine Rite of Kings and how Shakespeare situates his characters both in their historic moment but also very much amidst the political upheavals of late Elizabethan England. We will also consider briefly how Shakespeare explores these themes in the Henry plays.

Number of Meetings

5

Course Leader

Dr Kate O'Leary

CRN 28140/ENGL000

Course Fees

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

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. Courses may close earlier. 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. 

The Mersey Sound published in 1967 in the Penguin Modern Poets series is one of the best-selling poetry anthologies of all time having sold more than half a million copies. The names Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten are still defined as the Liverpool Poets. This course uses The Mersey Sound as a springboard to consider the legacy of this iconic book. We will look at the work of Liverpool poets, including Felicia Hemans, A S J Tessimond, Peter Reading, Matt Simpson, Deryn Rees-Jones, and Paul Farley as well as Henri, Patten and McGough. We will explore together whether Liverpool’s uniqueness as a city has produced a unique poetry.

Number of Meetings

8

Course Leader

Dr Pauline Rowe

CRN 28133/CEPD000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Standard Fee: £125/Concession £65

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. Courses may close earlier. 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. 

In this course we shall read 4 novels set in different times and environments where issues of physical and mental health are key.  In Deborah Levy’s Swimming Home, an uninvited guest dramatically disrupts a family holiday in a French villa.  In Lucy by the Sea, Elizabeth Strout’s writer heroine is taken to the Maine coast to escape from New York during the pandemic.   In Claire Chambers’ Shy Creatures, an art therapist working in a psychiatric hospital uncovers the secrets of an artist patient.  An Alpine sanatorium before the Great War is the setting for Olga Tokarczuk’s The Empusium, an atmospheric exploration of intellect and gender.  In these novels, which all present places where people are ‘away’, ideas of wellness interact with themes of family, home, art and nature.

Number of Meetings

10

Course Leader

Dr Shirley Jones

CRN 28136/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Standard Fee: £155/Concession £80

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. Courses may close earlier. 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. 

On this course we will be looking at three novels from eastern Europe, from countries which were formerly part of the Eastern bloc: Albania, Hungary and Poland. Though very different from each other in many ways, all the writers - Kadare, Kertesz and Tokarczuk – explore fundamental questions about community, childhood, the effects of war and repression, travel and the true meaning of progress.

Number of Meetings

10

Course Leader

Mark Halton

CRN 28139/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Standard Fee: £155/Concession £80

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. Courses may close earlier. 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. 

This course comprises a weekly 1.5 hour live online meeting (via Zoom) and online learning materials for you to engage with before and after each live session.

This module will explore the evolution of romance writing from the 18th century to the current day, looking not only at the novel but at the intertwined relationship between the romance novel and cinema. Romance is a much maligned genre but this module will seek to develop its rich history, a range of critical approaches to romance material, and give students insight into the way romance writing has influenced and been influenced by other genres in writing, on screen and beyond!

Number of Meetings

10

Course Leader

Dr Sam Hirst

CRN 28297/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Standard Fee: £155/Concession £80

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. Courses may close earlier. 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. 

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!

Number of Meetings

10

Course Leader

Dr Naomi Adam

CRN 28522/CREA000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Standard Fee: £155/Concession £80

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. Courses may close earlier. 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. 

On this course we shall read 3 novels where family history is explored in relation to wider historical and social forces. 

Number of Meetings

3

Course Leader

Dr Shirley Jones

CRN 28137/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Standard Fee: £70/Concession £35

Please note that the ‘last booking’ date is only a guide. Courses may close earlier. 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. 

Sister of the more famous William; Dorothy Wordsworth started to write her narrative of Lakeland life to give ‘Wm Pleasure’ and to console herself in his absence.  The 4 little notebooks that have become known as the Grasmere Journal convey the details of the everyday at Dove Cottage which encompasses cows and Coleridge; bowels and botany; porridge and poetry.  There’s a domestic drama of love and loss in the pages too.  This short course will consider Dorothy’s distinctive text and her inspirational powers of observation. 

Number of Meetings

1

Course Leader

Dr Shirley Jones

CRN 28138/ENGL000

Course Fees

Course Fee: Full Fee: £55