All Courses

In this course, we explore several aspects of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, thinking in particular about the play in performance. In the first module, we think about how Shakespeare manipulates, fuses, and pays with genre, before moving on to...

In this course, we explore the history of the Gothic novel, beginning with Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, and finishing with the literature (and films) of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that have been influenced by the Gothic,...

In this course, we explore several aspects of Virgil’s Aeneid – looking in particular at the following issues: first, Dido and Aeneas, and who we should blame for what happens; second, Augustus, and his influence on the Aeneid; third, Aeneas,...

In this course we look at several aspects of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. In the first six sections, we focus on Romanticism and what it means to call Heathcliff a Romantic hero. In second six sections, we focus on individual...

In this course, we explore several aspects of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The course is divided into two equal halves: in the first six modules, we think about some of the major themes of the novel, looking in particular at...

This course explores several aspects of Cicero’s speech De Imperio Cn Pompeii, which was delivered in the Roman Forum in 66 BC. In particular, we think about the speech both as a performance in the Forum and as a written...

In this course, we explore several aspects of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. We begin by thinking about the play’s status as a comedy, before looking at a number of aspects of the play and its performance. In particular, we explore the...

In this course, we explore several aspects of one of Shakespeare’s later plays, The Winter’s Tale. In particular, we consider the political and theatrical context for the play, the importance of allegory and symbolism, the play’s peculiar...

In this course, we explore several aspects of Antony and Cleopatra. We begin by thinking about why Shakespeare was interested in writing plays that were set in Ancient Rome, before looking at a number of aspects of the play and...

In this course, we explore several aspects of King Lear. We begin by looking at some of the textual problems of the play, before looking at aspects of the play and its performance. In particular, we explore the play’s comedic...

This course provides readers of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales with a broader context of Chaucer’s life and times as well as the kind of literature that was being written in the Medieval period that may have inspired Chaucer when it came...

This course explores the theme of love from the earliest English literature to the present day – from authors that you have likely heard of, such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Byron and Keats, to authors that are perhaps less well-known. This...