English Literature

In this course, we explore John Webster’s ‘The White Devil’, beginning by thinking about John Webster himself, before moving on to consider the play itself – its setting in Italy, and the presentation of the various male and female characters...

In this course, we explore the poetry of Thomas Hardy. Having introduced Hardy in the first module, we then go through eighteen of his poems in turn, reading each aloud, and providing in-depth, line-by-line commentary and analysis. The final...

In this course, we explore Philip Larkin’s 1964 collection of poetry, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’. Having introduced Larkin and his poetry in the first module, we then go through each poem in turn, reading it aloud and providing an in-depth,...

In this course, we explore the poetry of John Donne, thinking in particular about poetic language and style, the issues that preoccupied him throughout his life and career, and the extent to which we can understand John Donne the man...

In this course, we think about the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, focusing in particular in the literary and historical background of this poems of the 1790s. In the first half of the course, we think about Coleridge’s religious views...

In this course, we explore the Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue in Chaucer’s in Canterbury Tales. In the first module, we consider the presentation of the Wife of Bath in the General Prologue, thinking about the extent to which...

In this course, we explore the poetry of Sylvia Plath: first, we think about what it means to describe Plath as a writer of Confessional Poetry; after that we look at the themes of motherhood and love in Plath’s poetry;...

In this course, we explore several aspects of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In the first module, we focus on some of the myths that lie behind the novel. After that, we think about the kind of knowledge that Victor engages with...

In this course, we explore several aspects of Shakespeare’s Othello, thinking in particular about the play in performance. In the first module, we explore the concept of racism in the play, before moving on in the following three modules to...

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 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...