Literature
Courses in Detail
LIT 01: BOOK CLUB 1
Co-ordinator: Janet Edwards
Day and time: 2nd Monday of the month 2.30 - 4.00
Venue: Room 4, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 10
This is a book group that will read books that are available both in paperback printed version and in audio version, available from the public library, to enable partially sighted and blind members to participate. Please indicate when making application if you are visually impaired.
The group will generally read contemporary fiction. When places have been allocated Janet Edwards will let members know the title of the book to be discussed at the first meeting.
NB. This is one of two book groups which accommodate partially sighted or blind members.
Note: Starts 10th October.
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LIT 02: BOOK CLUB 2
Co-ordinator: Margaret Cushing
Day and time: 3rd Monday of the month 2.00 - 3.00
Venue: Room 4, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 10
This is the second book group that will read books available both in paper back printed version and in audio version available from the library. We read mostly contemporary novels with an occasional classic included. Members of the group choose the books and lead the discussion. New members are welcome.
Note: Starts 17th October.
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LIT 03: BOOK CLUB 3
Organiser: Rosemary Polack
Day and time: 3rd Wednesday of the month 10.00 - 11.30
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 11
Members of the group decide together on books to be read - fiction or non fiction - and with a wide range of authors and subjects. The book for the October meeting will be chosen at the last meeting of the summer term and confirmed by post or email.
Note: Starts 19th October.
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LIT 04: BOOK CLUB 4
Co-ordinator: Enid Turner
Day and time: 2nd Thursday of the month 10.30 - 12.00
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 8
Our focus will be on British Novels published between 1950 - 2011. The group will decide together on the books to be read. Enid will choose the first novel and will let members know the title well in advance.
Note: Starts 13th October.
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LIT 05: BOOK CLUB 5
Co-ordinator: Brenda Wilson
Day and time: 4th Monday of the month 2.30 - 3.30
Venue: Room 4, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 12
Our books are chosen from members' interests which in the past have covered modern, classic and biography. Our first book will be Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler .
Note: Starts 24th October.
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LIT 06: BOOK CLUB 6
Co-ordinators: Kay Bispham & Jenny See
Day and time: 2nd Monday of the month 2.00 - 3.30
Venue: St Andrew's Hall, Chesterton
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 12
The focus of the group will be on contemporary literature, but biography and autobiography can be included. The books to be discussed will be agreed together by members - everyone is asked to bring ideas for books, available in paperback or from the library. Members will lead the discussion of the book in turn, but willingness to do this is not a requirement for joining.
Note: Starts 10th October.
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LIT 07: BOOK CLUB 7
Co-ordinator: Liz Dean
Day and time: 1st Wednesday of the month 7.15 pm
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 10
Our books are suggested by members of the group. You can find out what we have chosen to read for October by e-mailing me.
Note: Starts 12th October, thereafter 1st Wednesday of the month.
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LIT 08: BOOK CLUB 8
Co-ordinator: Elizabeth Newlands
Day and time: 2nd Wednesday of the month 7.30 - 8.30 pm
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 12
Members of the group will decide together what to read. Come with a book or suggestion of your choice, whether fiction, contemporary, classical, biography or autobiography or some other well written work that you are burning to share with other people.
Note: Starts 12th October.
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LIT 09: BOOK CLUB - PRATCHETT AND BEYOND
Co-ordinator: Jeremy Clare
Day and time: 2nd Tuesday of the month 10.00 - 11.00
Venue: Room 2, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 12
This book club will concentrate on Terry Pratchett's disk world novels with an aside to other 'adult' fairy stories such as Tolkien and Anne McCaffrey. We will start with the Colour of Magic. At some point we will look at the Tolkien essay On Fairy Stories included in Tree and Leaf.
Note: Starts 11th October.
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LIT 10: BOOK GROUP - 20TH CENTURY CLASSICS
Co-ordinator: Colin Whitworth
Day and time: 1st Tuesday of the month 10.00 - 11.00
Venue: Room 2, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 12
This is a continuation of the Penguin modern classics group, but casting our net wider to include all publishers. The aim remains to choose 20th Century novels which merit being called classics and give insight to that turbulent century. The book to discuss in October will be John Steinbeck's Cannery Row.
Note: Starts 4th October.
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LIT 11: BLUE BLOOD: OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE CRIME FICTION (SPRING TERM)
Tutor: Judith Braid
Day and time: Alternate Wednesdays 1.30 - 3.00
Venue: Room 5, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 12
A light-hearted look at some Oxbridge crime novels. The emphasis will be mainly on contemporary authors, including C. Dexter, J. Paton Walsh, Joan Smith, Michelle Spring but reference will be made to some of the pre-war pioneers e.g. E. Crispin and M. Innes. One session will be devoted to writers of historical whodunits, such as A. Franklin and S. Gregory.
Note: Starts 11th January.
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LIT 12: CHAUCER - MARRIAGE TALES
Tutor: Eric Southern
Day and time: Friday 2.45 - 4.00
Venue: Room 4, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 16
Chaucer - The 4 so-called marriage tales from The Canterbury Tales (Wife of Bath, Clerk, Merchant, Franklin). We shall read Chaucer's Middle English - not so hard as younger students make out. Some of the students, anyway will be more knowledgeable linguists than the tutor.
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LIT 13: CONVERSATIONS ABOUT POEMS: ANDREW MOTION'S HERE TO ETERNITY (SPRING TERM
Co-ordinator: Lenore Abraham
Day and time: Friday 9.50 - 10.50
Venue: Room 5, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 15
Inspired, perhaps, by the plan of Czeslaw Milosz's remarkable international anthology, A Book of Luminous Things, Andrew Motion's anthology assembles poetry in "expanding rings each of which would deal with different kinds of experience," so that readers might feel "they were part of an adventure - a journey across boundaries and into new worlds." We will read the poems in the successive subject circles into which Motion organises them; class members will take turns in choosing poems for the class to focus on and in posing, for class discussion, questions of interest they suggest.
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LIT 14: GEORGE HERBERT'S VERSE
Leader: Margaret Parry
Day and time: Wednesday 10.30 - 12.00
Terms: Autumn.
Number of places: 8
George Herbert's poetry is fascinating because it is so honest and yet skilfully crafted. Born in 1593, he lived in an age of exploration. He explores his relationship with God, especially his love of God in his verse. We shall read and discuss some of the poems in the small Faber collection (£3.99), which I hope members of the group will bring to the meetings.
Note: 8 weeks starts 12th October.
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LIT 15: THE GODS OF HOMER
Tutor: Lenore Abraham
Day and time: Thursday 12.35 - 1.35
Venue: Room 4, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 15
The ancient Greeks held the religious teaching of Homer in such high esteem that, when Greeks mastered writing, around the 8th century B.C., Homer's works were among the first to be written down; while in religious festivals for some 500 years following, his were the only works whose reading was permitted. Unfortunately, the alien societies which overtook and absorbed Greek culture, though they admired the beauty of Homer's poetry and loved his tales - were deaf to his ethical teaching. Yet in the Odyssey and the Iliad, thoughtfully approached, Homer memorably teaches, as we shall see, the two fundamental lessons perhaps of all religion.
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LIT 16: HOMER'S ODYSSEY
Leader: Margaret Sakellaridis
Day and time: Thursday 11.00 - 12.30
Venue: Room 4, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 12
All life is a journey and a battle. Our aim will be to understand the journey and battles of the hero Odysseus at the literal and at the metaphorical level. Where does he go, what are the perils he faces and what do they mean? We will study this great epic primarily by reading the modern verse adaptation of Simon Armitage (Simon Armitage: Homer's Odyssey, 2006 Faber & Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-22936-9), but we may compare this work to one of the well-known full translations.
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LIT 17: IBSEN'S WOMEN
Tutor: Bob Finch
Day and time: Monday 12.20 - 1.20
Venue: Room 2, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring (5 weeks).
Number of places: 12
Through reading and studying A Doll's House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler and The Master Builder, we will follow the development of Ibsen's life and career as a playwright, the drama of the women in his life and plays, and the parallel development of women's rights in nineteenth century Europe. Essential to have read all four plays. Please bring a copy of Four Major Plays, Oxford World's Classics. O.U.P. 1991 or 1998. Please contact tutor for guidance on books and reading.
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LIT 18: KIPLING READING GROUP
Leader: Dr Jeffery Lewins
Day and time: Tuesday 10.30 - 11.30
Venue: Buckingham Room, Magdalene College
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 20
This year in the Reading Group we focus on Rudyard Kipling's verse, perhaps the most widely loved and quoted of English poets. From early school days and his life in India to the later works moulded by the experience of the First World War. We read aloud, copies of his complete verse are available but do bring your own favourites; new members are very welcome to our meetings in the Buckingham Room, Magadalene College, Kipling's own Cambridge College celebrating the eightieth anniversary of his election to the Fellowship.
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LIT 19: MYTHS, FAIRY TALES AND LOST RELIGIONS (SUMMER TERM)
Tutor: Lenore Abraham
Day and time: Friday 9.50 - 10.50
Venue: Room 5, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Summer.
Number of places: 15
When Native Americans told ancestral folk tales to early anthropologists, they would not discuss their sacred meanings: this could not be revealed to outsiders. Similarly the mythic tales of many other peoples have come down to us only in their literal form, as stories for children. Sometimes, however, the terms in which these stories are told leave a trace of what they may once have meant. We shall explore such stories from Russia, Rumania, Turkey, Norway, Greece and Zimbabwe, before turning to stories of medieval and Anglo-Saxon England. Texts will be provided, but participants may wish to bring their own copy of Beowulf.
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LIT 20: PERSPECTIVES ON PLAYS 1
Tutor: Richard Peoples
Day and time: Monday 1.30 - 3.00
Venue: Room 5, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 16
In this class we look at plays past and present, discovering how plots, characters and dramatic techniques have evolved over the centuries. We read extracts from a number of plays, including contemporary and classic comedies and tragedies. Script extracts, plot synopses and notes are provided in advance by email or in hard copy in the class, and course members can suggest plays to be read. They have the option of reading parts aloud or just listening before discussing the plays. We hope to organise some theatre trips as part of the course.
Note: starts 17th October.
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LIT 21: PERSPECTIVES ON PLAYS 2
Tutor: Richard Peoples
Day and time: Monday 3.00 - 4.30
Venue: Room 5, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn.
Number of places: 16
This is a follow-up to the Perspective on Plays 1 course, but you don't have to have taken that course in order to enjoy this one. It will follow a similar pattern, looking at a different set of plays ranging from ancient Greek and Roman classics to some great modern drama. Script extracts, synopses and notes will be provided and course members have the option of reading parts or just listening before discussing the plays. They can also suggest plays for us to read and we'll also try to arrange some theatre trips.
Note: starts 17th October.
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LIT 22: PLAY READING - FROM AGATHA CHRISTIE TO SHAKESPEARE
Leader: Rosalie Picton
Day and time: Wednesday 10.15 - 11.15(followed by coffee)
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 10
We shall be reading a variety of plays - comedy, thrillers, dramas. Please bring a copy of 12th Night for the beginning of the Autumn Term. It will be necessary to purchase copies of different plays during the year.
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LIT 23: PLAY READING - 'TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS'
Leader: Denis Bartlett
Day and time: Friday 10.30 - 11.45
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 10
This course will include two of Bernard Shaw's plays - The Devil's Disciple and St Joan; John Webster's The White Devil; and Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Terence Rattigans Cause Célèbre and trial scenes from Shakespeare may also be included.
Members are requested to bring their own copies of the plays, but, as before, some copies of Shaw's and Shakespeare's plays will be available.
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LIT 24: SOME PLAYS BY JB PRIESTLEY (SUMMER TERM)
Leader: Christine Speirs
Day and time: Tuesday 9.55 - 11.10
Venue: Room 3, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Summer.
Number of places: 10
We shall be reading Priestley's An Inspector Calls, Time and the Conways and I have been here before. These plays are available in a book called An Inspector Calls and Other Plays, published by Penguin Modern Classics at £9.99. It would be a good idea for us all to read from the same publication.
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LIT 25: TWO FAVOURITE SHAKESPEARE PLAYS
Tutor: Catherine Caves
Day and time: Wednesday 3.15 - 4.30
Venue: Room 4, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 15
Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice
Most of us were obliged to read at least one of these at school, and this will be an attempt to re-assess them and appreciate them anew. The important thing is to read and understand the text thoroughly. But the last quarter of an hour will be devoted to an analysis of the age in which Shakespeare lived, which was much more turbulent than we perhaps realise.
We shall be working from the Adult CUP paperback (available in Trinity Street, opposite the Senate House) but you are welcome to use any version you like provided that you are prepared to write in it.
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LIT 26: POETS WRITING IN ENGLISH FROM 1900 TO THE PRESENT DAY
Leader: Monique Turpin
Day and time: Friday 10.00 - 11.45
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 9
We will read poems by poets writing in English, or translated into English, in the 20th and 21st centuries. Each week a member of the group will present a poet of their choice giving a brief background introduction. A selection of the poems - made available the week before - will then be read aloud by each member in turn and discussed. All members of the group will be expected to take part and present a poet.
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LIT 27: ROMANTIC POETRY
Tutor: Melissa Lloyd
Day and time: Wednesday 3.15 - 4.45
Venue: Room 2, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 15
The Romantic Era (roughly 1780-1830) is arguably one of the richest periods in English literature, and is especially noted for its fine poetry. This course will cover a wide range of Romantic poets, reading from their work and exploring ways in which their distinctive voices engage with the spirit of their turbulent but vibrant times, drawing us in imaginatively, emotionally and historically. I plan to use The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry, 2005, (ed. Jonathan and Jessica Wordsworth), which is ideally the required text for this course.
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LIT 28: THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING 1. TURGENEV
Tutor: Bob Finch
Day and time: Friday 12.05 - 1.05
Venue: Room 2, 27-28 BridgeStreet
Terms: Autumn.
Number of places: 12
The most Western among Russian writers, Turgenev set his characters in particular social conditions at an identifiable date. Concentrating mainly on Sketches from a Sportsman's Album (1852) and Father and Sons (1862), we shall study the life and times, family and friends of one of Russia's literary giants. Please contact tutor for guidance on books and reading.
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LIT 29: THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING 2. TOLSTOY (SPRING TERM)
Tutor: Bob Finch
Day and time: Friday 12.05 - 1.05
Venue: Room 2, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 12
Tolstoy was one of the world's greatest novelists but was also at various times in his long life a soldier, diplomat, gentleman farmer, teacher, pacifist, teetotaller, hunter and linguist. Concentrating mainly on Anna Karenina and various biographies we will study Tolstoy's life and times, family and friends. Essential to have read Anna Karenina recently. Please contact tutor for guidance on books and reading.
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LIT 30: SHAKESPEARE: TEXT, FILM AND VIDEO (SPRING TERM)
Tutor: Dr Ann Turner
Day and time: Wednesday 2.00 - 4.00
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 10
Shakespeare's plays provide wonderfully challenging material for the media-maker. The course will study aspects of particular texts and compare different film and media interpretations of certain plays: e.g. four media versions of Hamlet over a fifty year period. Other sessions will examine Orson Welles' Othello, Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the full RSC musical version of The Comedy of Errors and other classic media productions. The differing interpretations of Shakespeare by Olivier, Branagh, Burton, Zeffirelli, Polansky, Taymor and Kurosawa will be included.
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LIT 31: TALKING OF SHORT STORIES
Tutor: David Price
Day and time: Monday 10.45 - 11.45
Venue: Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane
Terms: Autumn.
Number of places: 14
We will examine the long life and short stories of Graham Greene. This course is aimed at those who like short stories - and those who don't. It is designed to illuminate and entertain. Required Reading: Graham Greene: Complete Short Stories published by Penguin Classics. (Please do not bring any other anthologies).
Note: Starts 17th October.
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LIT 32: TALKING OF SHORT STORIES (SPRING TERM)
Tutor: David Price
Day and time: Wednesday 9.45 - 10.45
Venue: Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 14
Repeat of LIT 31.
Note: Starts 18th January.
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LIT 33:
TWO DORSET POETS
Tutor: Richard Howlett Jones
Day and time: Monday 11.00 - 12.15
Venue: Room 2, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn.
Number of places: 10
Largely a repeat of last year's course. William Barnes and Thomas Hardy make a natural pairing by location and friendship. We will read Barnes's Dialect Poems for three sessions and then turn to Hardy - perhaps the greatest late Victorian and early 20th Century English poet - and listen to some musical settings. Please have copies of William Barnes Selected Poems edited A Motion, Penguin and Thomas Hardy Selected Poems edited H Thomas, Penguin.
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LIT 34: WILLIAM BLAKE'S ILLUMINATED MAJOR PROPHECIES: THE FOUR ZOAS, MILTON AND JERUSALEM
Tutor: Dr David Whitmarsh
Day and time: Thursday 2.00 - 3.00
Venue: Room 2, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 16
Each major prophecy will be studied in turn in the three terms. We will share three visits in each term to the Fitzwilliam with the other Blake Group, (LIT 35) on Tuesdays.
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LIT 35: WILLIAM BLAKE'S ILLUMINATED POETRY AND ART
Tutor: Dr David Whitmarsh
Day and time: Friday 2.00 - 3.00
Venue: Room 1, 27-28 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 20
In sequence we will examine Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, his The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and the minor prophecies such as The Book of Los and The Book of Urizen. The Fitzwilliam has one of the world’s finest Blake collections and we plan to experience three visits in each of the terms so that we read and hear his poetry in the context of his art. Typically we will be visiting on a Tuesday. (A copy of Blake's works would be very useful, with the Blake Archive on the web as a significant resource).
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LIT 36: WRITING INFLUENCED BY JANE EYRE
Tutor: Judy Findlay 
Day and time: Wednesday 2.00 - 3.00
Terms: Autumn.
Number of places: 10
Jean Rhys' novel: Wide Sargasso Sea depicts the mad wife in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre in a different and more sympathetic manner. We shall look carefully at Rhys' short novel and also discuss Rebecca and possibly other modern novels which are written 'off' Jane Eyre. We will also watch the DVD's of Rebecca and Wide Sargasso Sea if time allows.
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LIT 37: Book Group 20th Century Classics 2
Leader: Richard McMullan
Day and time: 3rd Tuesday of the month 10.00 – 11.00
Repeat of LIT 10
Note: Starts 18th October
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LIT 38: George Herbert's Verse 2 (spring term)
Repeat of LIT 14 but in the spring term.
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LIT 39: BookJam Group
Tutor: Anne Rooney
Day and time: Friday 9.30 – 10.50
Venue: Room 3, 27-27 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer
No. of places: 10
Would you like to read and discuss great works of literature in a small group? The BookJam group shares short stories and poems by great writers (past and present) in a relaxed atmosphere. Each session begins by reading the text aloud and then we discuss it. Sessions are self-contained, with new texts each week. There is no homework or preparation, and you don’t need to bring anything except an open mind and a willingness to explore the text and your responses to it. The sessions are supported financially by the Royal Literary Fund. The group leader is professional author fellow Anne Rooney. If you would like to ask any questions before deciding, please email anne@annerooney.co.uk or check the website, www.bookjam.org.uk.
Course dates
14th Oct - 16th Dec (not half term week - 28th Oct)
6th Jan - 30th Mar (not half term week - 17th Feb)
20th Apr - 20th Jul (not half term week - 8th Jun)
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