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 2, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, Spring, Summer.
Number of places:10
This is a book group that will only 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 on your application form if you are visually impaired.
The group will generally read contemporary fiction but biography, autobiography and travel are not excluded.  When members have been allocated places Janet Edwards will let them know the title of the book to be discussed at the first meeting.
N.B. This is one of two book groups which accommodate partially sighted or blind members.
Note: Starts 12th October.

top of the page

LIT 02: BOOK CLUB 2
Co-ordinator: Wendy Jones
Day and time: 4th Monday of the month 2.30 - 3.30
Venue: Room 2, 33 Bridge Street

Terms: Autumn, Spring, Summer.
Number of places: 10
We will read books that are available both in a paperback and audio version to enable visually impaired members to participate.  Books will be chosen by the members of the group and will normally be modern fiction.  New members are welcome.  The first book we shall read is The Road Home by Rose Tremain
N.B. This is one of two book groups which accommodate partially sighted or blind members.
Note: Starts 26th October.

top of the page

LIT 03: BOOK CLUB 3
Leader: 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 on books to be read - fiction or non fiction. 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 21st October.

top of the page

LIT 04: BOOK CLUB 4
Leader: Judith Findlay
Day and time: 2nd Monday of the month 2.00 - 3.00
Terms: Autumn
Number of places: 8
Members of the group decide together on the books to be read.  Contemporary fiction is the most popular choice, but we also discuss classics, biography and autobiography.  Judith will choose the book to be discussed at the October meeting and let members know the title well in advance.
Note: Starts 12th October.

top of the page

LIT 05: BOOK CLUB 5
Co-ordinator: Brenda Wilson
Day and time: 1st Monday of the month 2.30 - 3.30
Venue: Room 2, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, Spring and 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 The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie, best of the Booker Prize.
Note: Starts 5th October.

top of the page

LIT 06: BOOK CLUB 6
Co-ordinators: Kay Bispham & Roger Salmon
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 12th October.

top of the page

LIT 07: BOOK CLUB 7
Co-ordinator: Liz Dean       
Day and time: 1st Wednesday of the month 7.15 - 8.30 PM               
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.        
Number of places: 10
You can find out what we have chosen to read over the summer by emailing me.  Otherwise come with a book of your own choice.  We do not have a set programme but rely on members' suggestions.
Note: Starts 7th October.

top of the page

LIT 08: AFRICA, SLAVERY AND THE BRONTËS
Tutor: Sarah Fermi
Day and time: Tuesday 11.30 - 12.30
Venue: The Centre at St Paul's, Hills Road
Terms: Autumn.
Number of places: 20
The course will examine the various influences of slavery, Africa, and the Caribbean on the works of the Brontë sisters, beginning with their Juvenilia, which was set in West Africa. We will also consider the missionary movement (and its effect on abolition) as it affected the lives and works of the sisters. Some knowledge of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre will be expected. Students' contributions about the effects of slavery on other 19th century writers will be especially welcome, though not required.

top of the page

LIT 09: CALL YOURSELF A FEMINIST?
Leader: Barbara Sheppard      
Day and time: Alternate Thursdays 10.00 - 11.30
Venue: St Andrew's Hall, Chesterton
Terms: Autumn.        
Number of places: 8
Obama wears a T-shirt proclaiming 'This is what a Feminist looks like', thousands of young women in India send pink knickers to fundamentalists who have warned lone women to stay off the streets.  A large audience of women at a lecture are asked to stand up if they define themselves as feminist and three of them do so.  They are then asked to stand up if they support feminist values and they all stand up.  What is going on?  Just the multiplicity of forms that has always characterised feminism despite the best efforts of the media to render it down into narrow stereotypes.
This course is a follow-on from last year's 'Revisiting Feminism' but new people will be most welcome.  Many of the books we studied last time created such great interest and so much lively discussion that we didn't quite get to the end of our book-list.  So at the first session we shall look at Adrienne Rich's classic text Of Woman Born.  Thereafter we shall be examining more of the many and exciting concerns of feminism.
Note: Starts 15th October.

top of the page

LIT 10: CHAUCER - THE CANTERBURY TALES (SPRING TERM)
Tutor: John Mott
Day and time: Thursday 2.00 - 3.15
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 8
It has been written truly that nothing in all literature touches or resembles the 'Prologue' to Chaucer's Tales as a concise portrait of an entire nation. Of the tales themselves that the pilgrims tell, drawn from the contemporary European imagination by the author, Dryden wrote 'Tis sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty'. Our selected stories will range from Fabliaux, low life tales, narratives from Dante and Boccacio and the lives of saints, each full of interest with psychological variety.

top of the page

LIT 11: CLASSICAL GREEK TRAGEDY IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Leader: Margaret Sakellaridis
Day and time: Thursday 11.00 - 12.30
Venue: Room 1, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 12
Aeschylus said 'never too old to learn; it keeps me young' ('Agamemnon'), and in suitable youthful spirit we shall read and discuss together his Eumenides, followed in the Spring term by Sophocles' Electra. These are both part of the same myth, and they detail events at Argos (or Mycenae) immediately after the Trojan War. Please bring Aeschylus' The Oresteia, Robert Fagle's translation in Penguin Classics ISBN 0-14-044333-9.

top of the page

LIT 12: CONVERSATIONS ABOUT POEMS: CZESLAW MILOSZ'S A BOOK OF LUMINOUS THINGS (SPRING TERM)
Co-ordinator: Lenore Abraham
Day and time: Thursday 12.45 - 1.45
Venue: Room 1, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 12
'My proposition,' says Nobel Prize-winner Milosz, introducing his international anthology, A Book of Luminous Things, 'consists in presenting poems, whether contemporary or a thousand years old, that are, with few exceptions, short, clear, readable … loyal toward reality and attempting to describe it as concisely as possible … My intention is not so much to defend poetry in general, but, rather, to remind readers that for some very good reasons it may be of importance today.' We will read the poems by subject-heading as Milosz organises them, and members will take turns in choosing poems for the class to focus on, and guiding group discussion to the questions of interest they suggest.

top of the page

LIT 13: DICKENS' LITTLE DORRIT
Tutor: Eric Southern
Day and time: Wednesday 12.30 - 1.30
Venue: Room 1, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 12
Crimean War 1854-56, charges of Government incompetence, a dodgy (Irish) bank, Downing Street kept afloat by cronies - sounds familiar? Dickens, appalled that those supposed to be representing Society were not so much building it up as undermining it, wrote this, his most serious, novel in 1855-57.

top of the page

LIT 14: ELIZABETH BISHOP AND ANNE STEVENSON
Tutor: Ian Gordon & Rosemary Polack
Day and time: Tuesday 2.00 - 3.30
Venue: Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 15
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) was one of the most gifted of 20th century poets who wrote in English. Her friend, and fellow American poet, Robert Lowell, has said that 'when we read her, we enter the classical serenity of a new country.' Anne Stevenson (1933-present), author of the first biography and critical study of her (Elizabeth Bishop, Twayne, 1966) is a distinguished contemporary poet, recently described by the previous Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, as 'one of the most remarkable poetic voices to have emerged on either side of the Atlantic in the last fifty years'. This course will read aloud from both poets and trace the development of their respective careers. It is planned that the course will include a visit to Cambridge University Library, which holds the archive of Anne Stevenson's work, to look at the manuscripts of some of the poems studied. It is also hoped that Anne Stevenson will visit Cambridge and read a selection of her work to members. The required texts for the course are: Elizabeth Bishop: Complete Poems, Chatto & Windus, 2004, £12.99; and Anne Stevenson: Poems 1955-2005, Bloodaxe Books, 2006, £12.00.

top of the page

LIT 15: From Cradle to Grave
Leader: Margaret Parry
Day and time: Thursday 10.30 - 12.00
Terms: Autumn.
Number of places: 8
This tutor-led discussion group will examine poetic monologues from Chaucer to Carol Ann Duffy. We will analyse the content for its revelations and range of emotion and discuss how the style in which it is written reveals the levels of meaning of the speaker. Copies of all the poems to be studied will be available from the tutor.

top of the page

LIT 16: G M HOPKINS, PASSIONATE POET AND PROSODIST
Tutor: Eric Southern
Day and time: Thursday 2.00 - 3.00
Venue: Room 1, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 15
GMH, a Jesuit priest, certainly had something to say about which he felt passionately (i.e. WHAT?). But it would be illuminating to examine his means of saying it (i.e. HOW?): e.g. What was inscape? What was sprung rhythm? - as well as his subject matter.

top of the page

LIT 17: THE LIFE, LOVES AND LAUGHTER OF DOROTHY PARKER
Tutor: David Price
Day and time: Wednesday 10.00 - 11.00
Venue: Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane*
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 14
This is the only repeat of last year's course. Everything you want to know about this intriguing writer. We shall examine - and enjoy - what I whimsically think of as Parker's Pieces. Required reading: The Portable Dorothy Parker edited by Marion Meade. Penguin Classics De Luxe Edition £12.99.
* Access to this room is 2 steps down and 5 steps up.

top of the page

LIT 18: LITERATURE AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Leader: Louise Wigan
Day and time: Alternate Wednesdays 3.00 - 4.00
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 8
This will be a continuation of last year's Literature in the 1930s course, though new members will be very welcome. We will read books about the homefront, warfare and the aftermath of war written by those who experienced them. The main emphasis will be on English experience (including Waugh, Orwell, and Margherita Laski) but we will also include outstanding works that came directly out of wartime experience by non-English writers. Catch 22, Suite Française), in translation where necessary.
Note: Starts 7th October.

top of the page

LIT 19: LOGIC, MAGIC, DIVINITY AND CHANCE IN MALORY'S LE MORTE D'ARTHUR
Co-ordinator: Lenore Abraham
Day and time: Thursday 12.45 - 1.45
Venue: Room 1, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn.
Number of places: 12
One cannot reread these stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, which have fascinated so many generations down to our own time, without being struck anew by the strange mixture of chance and inevitability which infuses them, so that we see over and over again how man's decisions control his destiny and yet how helpless he is made by forces beyond his control. (Rather like our own times!) Members will take turns in suggesting for class discussion questions which may lead us to better understanding of the forces operating in these stories - and the storytellers' purposes behind them. The suggested text is the Oxford World's Classics edition of Le Morte D'Arthur (which somewhat abbreviates and modernises Malory and provides helpful word meanings and notes).

top of the page

LIT 20: MYTHS, FAIRY TALES AND LOST RELIGIONS (Summer Term)
Tutor: Lenore Abraham
Day and time: Thursday 12.45 - 1.45
Venue: Room 1, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Summer.
Number of places: 12
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.

top of the page

LIT 21: PERSPECTIVES ON PLAYS (SPRING & SUMMER TERMS)
Tutor: Richard Peoples
Day and time: Friday 9.30 - 10.30
Venue: Room 2, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Spring, summer.
Number of places: 15
A workshop looking at themes and techniques in classic and contemporary drama. It will involve reading short scenes from plays - scripts will be provided.

top of the page

LIT 22: PLAY READING
Leader: Tom Mor
Organiser: John Jeremy
Day and time: Monday 1.45 - 3.00
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 5
Mixed plays from the sixteenth century until the twentieth century.

top of the page

LIT 23: PLAY READING: FROM AGATHA CHRISTIE TO SHAKESPEARE
Leader: Rosalie Picton
Day and time: Wednesday 10.15 - 11.15
Terms: Autumn, spring, summer.
Number of places: 10
We shall be reading a variety of plays - comedy, thrillers, dramas. Please bring a copy of Julius Caesar for the beginning of the Autumn term. It may be necessary to buy copies of different plays during the year.

top of the page

LIT 24: POETS WRITING IN ENGLISH FROM 1900 TO THE PRESENT DAY
Leader: Monique Turpin
Day and time: Friday 10.15 - 11.30
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 9
In the group we will read poems by poets from across the globe writing in English in the last century up to the present day. Each week a member of the group will choose a poet, give a brief background introduction and select poems for everyone to read aloud and then discuss. All members of the group will be expected to take part and present a poet.

top of the page

LIT 25: KIPLING READING CLASS
Leader: Dr Jeffery Lewins
Day and time: Tuesday 10.30 - 11.30
Venue: Buckingham Room, Magdalene College
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 20
Our group meets weekly in Magdalene College to read aloud the works of Rudyard Kipling. We welcome new members to the topic of Kipling the Children's writer, covering The Just So Stories (illustrated by Kipling himself), The Jungle Book and Second Jungle Book and the Sussex-based stories 'Puck of Pook's Hill' and 'Rewards and Fairies', all including superb and singable verse.

top of the page

LIT 26: THE NOVELS OF MELVYN BRAGG
Tutor: Malcolm Ruel
Day and time: Monday 2.30 - 4.00
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 8
An impressive and interesting person, not least for his extraordinary range of activities and talents. He has written over 20 novels, of considerable range in subject and variety of approaches. I suggest we spend the autumn looking at and discussing three: his first novel published in 1965 For Want of a Nail, and two later semi-autobiographical novels focussing on his father, The Soldier's Return (1999) and his own first marriage, which ended tragically, Remember Me (2008). After that, we can take stock and work out where we want to go. The success of this course depends upon having both male and female members. Initial meeting in the first week of term and then fortnightly or to be decided.

top of the page

LIT 27: READING ALOUD
Leader: Ann Hemsley
Day and time: Monday 10.30 - 12.00
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 6
The group will read aloud prose, including a novel, poetry with a theme, and plays: old and new, classical and modern.

top of the page

LIT 28: READING GROUP (SPRING TERM)
Leader: Sheila Ekins
Day and time: Tuesday 2.00 - 3.00
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 9
This is a reading class which centres on the study of a proposed book in some detail. The selected book will be discussed in appropriate sections and members of the group are invited to contribute to the analysis of the work. The book to be studied is The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (Virago Classic Paperback).

top of the page

LIT 29: SHAKESPEARE'S HENRY V (SUMMER TERM)
Tutor: Dr Ron Gray
Day and time: Thursday 11.00 - 12.15
Venue: The Lecture Theatre, Queens' Building, Emmanuel College (lift available)
Terms: Summer.
Number of places: 30
We will read together, but also compare two film versions of Henry V, by Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh, showing scenes in parallel.

top of the page

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. Laurence Olivier's and Kenneth Branagh's versions of Henry V. Later sessions will look at Akiva Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, Orson Welles' Macbeth and other classic media productions.

top of the page

LIT 31: SLEUTHS ABROAD
Tutor: Judith Braid
Day and time: Alternate Wednesdays 1.30 - 3.00
Venue: Room 1, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn.
Number of places: 10
Explore recent detective fiction in fortnightly tutor-led discussions. We shall start in Italy with A. Camilleri, M. Dibdin, D. Leon, M. Nabb, I. Pears, and Spain with M. Montalban and A. Perez-Reverte, then wend our way through France (G. Simenon and F. Vargas), ending the term in Scandinavia with writers such as K. Ekman, C. Lackberg, S. Larsson, H. Mankell and H. Nesser. All these authors have been translated into English fairly recently and texts are available in paperback.
Note: Starts 7th October.

top of the page

LIT 32: SOME PLAYS BY RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN (SUMMER TERM)
Leader: Christine Speirs
Day and time: Tuesday 10.15 - 11.30
Venue: Room 3, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Summer.
Number of places: 10
We shall be reading Sheridan's 'The Rivals', 'A Trip to Scarborough' and 'The School for Scandal'. These and two shorter plays are all available in a book of plays called The School for Scandal and Other Plays published by Oxford World's Classics at £8.99 a copy. It would be a good idea for us all to read from this publication.

top of the page

LIT 33: THREE SHAKESPEARE COMEDIES
Tutor: Catherine Caves
Day and time: Friday 12.30 - 1.45
Venue: Room 1, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 15
Obviously the most important thing when looking at Shakespeare is to study the text thoroughly, and this we shall be doing. But the beginning of his career coincides with the very difficult last decade of Elizabeth's reign, and the final portion of each class will be devoted to exploring the influence of this decade upon Shakespeare. The three plays I have selected are all comedies, but there is a dark thread running through them all - none of them properly resolved. I hope that we shall enjoy the grace and elegance of these plays, while not losing touch with the underlying sadness, which may or may not reflect the problems facing the late Elizabethans: Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. I shall be working from the Adult CUP paperback edition (available opposite the Senate House) but please bring any version you like, provided that it is one that you are prepared to write in.

top of the page

LIT 34: TWO DORSET POETS (SPRING TERM)
Tutor: Richard Howlett Jones
Day and time: Wednesday 3.00 - 4.00
Venue: Room 2, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 10
William Barnes and Thomas Hardy pair naturally. The aim is to consider both their subject matter and style, selecting from the Penguin Classics: Selected Poems of William Barnes (ed. Andrew Motion); and Selected Poems of Thomas Hardy (ed. Harry Thomas). Members of the class will be asked to read. In one session we will listen to some musical settings. The tutor will provide copies of the poems to be discussed.
Note: 8 weeks only. Starts 13th January.

top of the page

LIT 35: WHO WAS THAT? A FELLOW THAT WRITES PLAYS. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Leader: Denis Bartlett
Day and time: Friday 10.30 - 11.45
Terms: Autumn, spring.
Number of places: 10
We will be reading plays which involve mention of Shakespeare or the appearance of Shakespeare as a character in the play, e.g. Will Shakespeare (Clemence Dane), The Herbal Bed (Peter Whelan), The Dark Lady of the Sonnets (Bernard Shaw). Further details may be available after publication of the class list.

top of the page

LIT 36: AUSTERLITZ (SPRING TERM)
Convenor: Isabelle Fincham
Day and time: Tuesday 10.00 - 11.00
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 8 (minimum 6)
Austerlitz by WG Sebald has been described as "haunting, challenging, compelling."  Do you agree and would you be interested in being part of a group to discuss the themes of this novel and the way they are explored in the text?  Active participation by all class members will be essential.

top of the page

LIT 37: WILLIAM BLAKE'S ILLUMINATED ART AND POETRY (SPRING TERM)
Tutor: David Whitmarsh
Day and time: Wednesday 9.30 - 10.30
Venue: Room 2, 33 Bridge Street
Terms: Spring.
Number of places: 15
We will start with the art and poetry of Blake's most popular works like Jerusalem, Tyger, London and develop as the members wish on to Blake's minor prophecies and even to brief introductions to his major works.  For texts, we will use the Blake Archive that has virtual copies of Blake's works.  Cambridge is fortunate in having several original works by Blake, and hopefully we will view some of these.