Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses

In fiction, character and plot are inseparable elements of craft. Without characters there can be no action or plot. In this short course you will learn how to create characters that can drive a narrative forward and deepen its themes.

Study American art, including paintings, illustrations and cartoons from late-nineteenth century Impressionism and Realism to Precisionism, analysing movements and styles, social and political context, materials, and art theory.

Great poetry and prose begin when the writer puts the right words in the right places. Learn how and why the rules and conventions of language matter in this new course, which combines creative writing with a review of essential points of grammar.

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.' Enjoy this introduction to Dickens' work and the London of his time. Morning lecture at City Lit followed by a walk in the area of the city connected to his work.

Once upon a time there was a City Lit workshop all about writing fairytales. The quest: to inspire writers to pen stories of love, fear, forests, revenge, dragons, witches, kings, queens, frogs and magic.

From Edward Hopper to Philip Evergood to Diego Rivera, study American art from the turbulent 1930s, analysing movements and styles, social and political context, materials, and art theory.

Night of the Demon (1957), The Wicker Man (1973) and Frightmare (1974) form part of a less familiar, though equally striking, horror tradition than that of Hammer, and often in very different terms. Explore chillers from the 1930s and 40s, the proliferation of horror in 1950s, 60s and 70s along with more recent examples, while assessing a range of critical accounts of British horror beyond Hammer.

Spend a fascinating day at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum exploring a range of galleries. We shall be looking at the decorative arts, paintings, sculpture and design from across the world and across the centuries in this remarkable museum.

Once your story is on the page, the editing process begins. Where do you start and what skills do you need? This course guides learners through the editing of a story or manuscript, exploring approaches to making line edits, improving narrative structure and more.

Alfred Hitchcock (b.1899) is responsible for some of the most influential films in cinema history. He directed over 50 feature films throughout his career (11 in the 1950s) as well as hosting and directing the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-61). He peaked in the fifties, when he hit his own fifties. Instead of a mid-life crisis he had his most productive period ever and received the official title of the "Master of Suspense”. Just before this he had hit the buffers from 1947 to 1951 with one failure after another but turned things around when he went to Warner Brothers for Strangers on a Train (1951) and then, fortuitously, to Paramount for a golden run of hits from Rear Window (1954) to Psycho (1960). The French declared him an auteur—an artist. The fifties are his late, mature period and these are his most personal and revealing films. Vertigo (1958) was his autobiography.