All Courses

In this course, Professor Simon Goldhill (University of Cambridge) explores several aspects of Greek tragedy and comedy, focusing in particular on Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Euripides’ Bacchae, and Aristophanes’ Frogs. The first module provides...

In this course, Dr Peter Howarth (Queen Mary University of London) explores the poetry of the First World War. We begin in the first module by providing a broad introduction to war poetry, thinking in particular about the basic conflict between...

In this course, Dr Susan Doran (University of Oxford) explores the reign of Elizabeth I. In the first module, we think about the first five years of Elizabeth’s reign, the problems she faced in his period, and how well she...

In this course, Professor Seamus Perry (University of Oxford) explores Philip Larkin's 1955 collection of poetry, The Less Deceived. After an introduction to the collection as a whole (including a discussion of the origins of the title 'The Less...

In this course, Dr Frisbee Sheffield (University of Cambridge) explores Plato's Symposium. We begin by providing a broad introduction to the Symposium, including the historical, social, cultural and philosophical context. After that, we go through...

In this course, Professor John Bowen (University of York) explores Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, first published in Dickens' weekly periodical All the Year Round from December 1860 to August 1861. We begin by thinking about the complex...

In this course, Dr Christopher Pittard (University of Portsmouth) explores Arthur Conan Doyle's second Sherlock Holmes novel, The Sign of Four (1890). We begin by providing a broad introduction to the novel, exploring how the novel came to be...

In this course, Dr Iain Law (University of Birmingham) thinks about Kantian deontological ethics, one of the three main normative ethical theories alongside utilitarianism and virtue ethics. We begin in the first module by introducing the ...

In this course, Professor Richard Seaford (University of Exeter) explores Euripides' great tragedy, The Bacchae, which ends with the king of Thebes, Pentheus, being torn to pieces by his own mother, Agave. In the first module, we think about the...

In this course, Professor Susan Doran (University of Oxford) explores Tudor foreign policy through six key questions: (1) Why did Henry VIII spend so much time at war against France?; (2) Why was foreign policy so disastrous during ...

In this course, Mr Clive Wilmer (University of Cambridge) provides an in-depth analysis of Robert Browning's 'My Last Duchess'. The course begins by introducing Browning himself and the dramatic monologue form, before asking us to consider the...

In this course, Professor Nick Groom (University of Exeter) explores the history of the supernatural in English and American literature. The course begins by thinking about two of the key sources of supernatural literature, looking in the first...

In this course, Professor Marion Turner (University of Oxford) explores The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, part of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. We begin by thinking about the portrait of the Wife of Bath in the General Prologue of the Canterbury...

In this course, we explore Pat Barker’s ‘Regeneration’. Set in 1917 in Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, the novel follows psychiatrist William Rivers as he treats shell-shocked soldiers, including the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred...