LanguagesEnglishLiterature in English

The course introduces some of Shakespeare’s tragedies in an attempt to crystallise unifying ideas about his thoughts on the human condition as well as analyse and debate notions like sexuality, war, fear, women, identity, the tragic hero, body, space, stage, guilt, language, and madness through Shakespeare’s literature. Tragedy works include Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear.

From classical Greek drama to contemporary theatre, the stage has always been an integral part of the human experience. The course looks at selective moments in the history of drama in which certain playwrights benefited fully from the history of the genre and yet departed so radically from that history. Exploring the content as well as the form of their dramatic works provides key insights into some of the most important societal and cultural issues of both past and present.

This course takes a formalist approach to the teaching of literature and will cover the following:
•    An introduction to the elements of fiction: setting, characterization, plot, theme(s), and point of view; 
•    An introduction to the characteristics of four subgenres within Fiction: Biblical parables, fairy tales, fables, and Greek myths;
•    An explication of how the five elements of fiction function in the four genres;
•    A discussion of a set of ready-made teaching materials (written by the course tutor himself) and how they can be used in the classroom

The Bible is a source of inspiration that has given birth to many great works of literature throughout the last 20 centuries; an understanding of the Book is therefore of paramount importance to students who are interested in literary studies. The aim of this course is to introduce students to the Bible as a literary work, as well as a collection of books written in different genres. It will begin with an introduction to the historical and geographical backgrounds of the Old and New Testaments; and will then focus on specific books and genres.

By identifying, cross referencing and then comparing significant themes and topics from different historical periods across a range of text types and genres, this course aims to introduce a specific critical and analytical approach. It addresses issues of current theoretical importance by illustrating in practice the concepts and techniques of literary criticism which form the foundation for advanced literary studies.

The American south (not South America!) has produced some of the best writers in the American literary landscape.  In this course, we will read and discuss the works of five women fiction writers who lived in, and wrote about this part of the country. While some background information will be introduced, the main approach we take to these stories is close reading and analysis.

This course introduces participants to eight modern American poets as well as several poets of Asian American descent. Participants will read, explicate, and discuss a selection of works by poets such as Wallace Stevens, Hilda Doolittle; Robert Hayden, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, Gwendolyn Brooks, Adrienne Rich, and N. Scott Momaday.

Shakespeare and Jonson were contemporaries and both widely acclaimed in their time, yet Jonson has not subsequently received the critical attention and overwhelming adulation that Shakespeare has. This course introduces the genre of comedy with relation to classical formulations as applied to specific works of Shakespeare and Jonson. It looks at similarities and differences in the works of the two playwrights and examines how they created dramatic representations of gender and class roles in relation to the real world of the Elizabethan/Jacobean commercial theatre.

The course provides a practical introduction to important theories and techniques of literary criticism.  Following the previous course format, and using a selection of short texts as examples, it covers at a basic level the fundamental theories of literary criticism and demonstrates how these ‘tools’ can be applied to provide useful insights into a range of genres.  The course will enable those with an interest in literature to approach and analyse different texts systematically and with confidence, using correct terminology and a sound theoretical approach.

The Victorian era was a time of extreme social and cultural change, represented by huge discrepancies between rich and poor and dramatic differences in the status of men and women. Art and literature reflected these current preoccupations: critical themes range from social advancement, mobility, realism and discussion of social problems, gender roles, aestheticism, art for art’s sake, to Gothic horror. Taking an interactive approach, this course uses a variety of media - paintings, movies and documentaries - to focus on relevant cultural and socio-historical topics while relating these to representative literary texts.