All Courses

In this course, Professor Helen Smith (University of York) explores John Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi'. In the first module, we think about stereotypes about women in early modern England and their presentation on stage. After that, we...

In this course, Dr Madeleine Davies (University of Reading) explores Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel, Mrs Dalloway. In the first three modules, we outline some of the key contexts for the novel, including: (i) the life and career of Virginia Woolf;...

In this course, Professor Barbara Graziosi (University of Durham) explores Homer's Odyssey. We begin by thinking about the figure of Odysseus himself, focusing in particular on his status as a man 'of many turns' (Greek: polutropos). After that,...

In this course, Professor Seamus Perry (University of Oxford) explores the poetry of T. S. Eliot through five key poems. In the first three modules, we explore 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', thinking in particular about its status...

In this course, Professor Ania Loomba (University of Pennsylvania) explores the question of race in Shakespeare's 'Othello'. In the first module, we think about what race meant to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, exploring the long history of...

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, Dr Corinna Russell (University of Cambridge) explores the Odes of John Keats. After an introduction to Keats and his poetry, including a discussion of the ‘Cockney School of Poetry’, we then cover six of Keats’ poems: Ode...

Before the Emperor Augustus died in 14 AD, he boasted that he had found Rome a city of brick, but left it a city of marble. In this course, Professor Matthew Nicholls (University of Reading) explores Augustus’ rebuilding of the...

In this course, Dr Nathan Waddell (University of Birmingham) explores George Orwell's Animal Farm. In the first module, we think about Animal Farm in the context of Orwell's life and career, before turning in the second and third modules to...

In this course, Dr Sophie Duncan (University of Oxford) explores Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. We begin in the first module by thinking about Venice as a key setting for the play and its significance at the time Shakespeare was writing....

In this course, Dr Emily Hauser (University of Exeter) explores the status and role of women in the Iliad and the Odyssey. In the first module, we think about why women matter in Homer, and the difficulty of recovering the experience of ancient...

In this course, Dr Thomas Tunstall Allcock (University of Manchester) provides an introduction to the Cold War, 1947-91, the period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and its satellite states (the Eastern Bloc) and the United States...

In this sixteen-part course, Professor John McRae (University of Nottingham) provides a step-by-step guide for approaching unseen poetry. The first three modules introduce key concepts (e.g. the ‘movement’ the poem, ‘binaries’, etc.) as well as...

In this course, Dr Mark Levene (University of Southampton) explores the Russian Revolution from the outbreak of the Revolution in February 1917 to the conclusion of the Russian Civil War in October 1922. In the first module, we think about...