Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses
Explore our extraordinary range of History, Culture and Writing courses and lectures. We offer both introductory and specialist in-depth courses to suit all levels of interest and experience, from ‘How to read a film’ and World literature, to Creative non-fiction writing courses and American history and Politics courses.
Our tutors are experts in their fields and experienced educators; many have published, teach in universities or share their expertise in the media. Tutors share their knowledge and passion through presentations, readings, interactive discussion and exercises, analysis, and other activities.
Many students return to take more courses, telling us they enjoy being part of our City Lit Learning community.
Our popular courses often sell out quickly, so we invite you to browse and book your place now.
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- City Lit reading group 2
Course start date: Fri 20 Sep 2024Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Patricia SweeneyShare thoughts and ideas about what you are reading, with books chosen by the group. Please come to the first session with suggestions (contemporary literary fiction in paperback) and having read 'The Wren, The Wren' by Anne Enright. Monthly meetings take place on 20 Sept, 18 Oct, 29 Nov; 17 Jan, 21 Feb, 21 March, 02 May, 30 May and 27 June.Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00 - Art in Britain 1950-2000 - 'This is Tomorrow' (Part 1) Course start date: Fri 20 Sep 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronDiscover the work of selected British artists whose innovative practice shaped the development of modern art in Britain from the 1950s to the 1970s. Explore how and why the ideas and themes behind their work continue to be relevant to today’s audiences. - Art history taster Course start date: Fri 20 Sep 2024 (and 12 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayCurious about art history? Join us for this taster session where we explore different ways into visual art and its histories, from the ancient to the contemporary.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £10.00 - Nineteenth Century American Literary ClassicsCourse start date: Fri 27 Sep 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Richard NilandThis class explores the wonderful world of 19th century American literature, reading classic texts to broaden knowledge of literary history through a range of influential novels, stories, and poems. Among the writers considered in their literary, political, and cultural contexts will be Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Philosophy and literature: from romanticism to (post)modernism Course start date: Fri 27 Sep 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Barrie SelwynLiterature provides a very effective springboard into the understanding of the developing notions of selfhood and human nature in the history of ideas and philosophy sharpens our understanding of literature within the broader context of this history.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Makers not muses: Claude Cahun, Eileen Agar and Isabel Rawsthorne Course start date: Fri 29 Nov 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronExplore the work of three radical artists whose work and practice defied convention in modern art from the 1920s to 1960s. Discover how each artist challenged and transcended society’s expectations of being a ‘muse’ by living freely and making art in a variety of media, from painting and sculpture to collage, photography and performance. - A brief history of printmaking Course start date: Fri 10 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayDiscover the complexity of printmaking through this introduction to its history. Explore the cultural contexts, social ideas and artistic methods that make printmaking distinct to other forms of art.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00 - Art in Britain 1950-2000 – 'This is Tomorrow' (part 2) Course start date: Fri 10 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronDiscover the work of selected British artists whose innovative practice shaped the development of modern art in Britain from the 1950s to 2000. Explore how and why the ideas and themes behind their work continue to be relevant to today’s audiences. - Latin American literary classicsCourse start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Richard NilandFrom Mexico to Patagonia, Latin America has produced some of the most spellbinding literature of the modern age. From dictatorship and death to national identity and the natural world, join us as we investigate the cultural heritage of the continent through some of its best writers.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Philosophy and cultural theoryCourse start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Barrie SelwynWe will look the philosophical underpinnings of culture through the writings of key philosophers who engage critically with the self-images of the post enlightenment era. In particular we well look at the rise and fall of the self and the centrality of aesthetics in modern European philosophy. - Borderlines of madness in 19th century fiction Course start date: Fri 31 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah WiseWe will explore various themes related to insanity and altered states of consciousness by examining a number of 19th-century works of fiction. Novelists and poets often had the greatest insights into the workings of the mind, and many Victorian psychiatrists cited works of fiction in their case studies. Among the authors we will analyse are Charlotte Bronte, Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, Gogol, Herman Melville and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. - Italian cinema: from Neorealism to the genre film Course start date: Fri 2 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Cristina MassaccesiThis cinema course focuses on Italian cinema in the years between 1945 and 1980. It will provide you with an overview of the main historical, cultural and social aspects of Italian filmmaking in Italy by looking at the work of some of its most influential author/directors.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £77.00 - The mirror of nature: art and culture in the 17th century
Course start date: Fri 9 May 2025Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Leslie PrimoThe 17th century produced some of the greatest artists of all time: Rubens, Rembrandt, Velazquez and Bernini to name but a few. Explore the work of these key artists and understand the history, styles and ideas that shaped the century.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Art in Britain since 2000: where are we now?Course start date: Fri 9 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronDiscover how exciting, new UK-based artists use both experimental and traditional approaches to art to address issues of identity, history and personal experience.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00 - Ways of reading: aspects of narrative theoryCourse start date: Fri 16 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jenny StevensWhat do we mean by ‘literary fiction’? What expectations do we bring to the novels we read? Do we really ‘escape’ when we enter fictional worlds? These are just some of the questions addressed in a course which focuses on the analysis of prose fiction. Reading texts as short as one-sentence ‘flash fiction’ to complete short stories, it engages with writing from a wide range of periods and authors, paying close attention to narrative techniques and their effects.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00
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