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 of words: further adventures
Course start date: Thu 16 Jan 2025Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Eleanor JacksonLondon luxuriates in literary references. We follow the footsteps of the authors, poets and playwrights, and some of their creations, as we walk a brand new neighbourhood each week, exploring the literary connections.
London guide: Eleanor Jackson. First meeting point at Green Park tube station, street level, Piccadilly South side.
London guide: Eleanor Jackson. - Looking at paintings Course start date: Tue 1 Oct 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Julia MusgraveLook at masterpieces in major London galleries in this introduction to European painting. Explore different painting techniques and genres (landscape, portrait and history painting) for a basic understanding and increased enjoyment of Western art.Full fee £279.00 Senior fee £223.00 Concession £181.00 - Modern art: movements 1900-1950 Course start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresExplore art and culture in the early 20th century, focussing on the major developments and movements in art including Cubism, Abstraction, Dada and Surrealism and their relationship to wider cultural contexts. - 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 - Women in art collections: a history of artists and sitters Course start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Julie BarlowThis gallery-based course will focus upon the artistic output of women over the past 500 years, covering a range of British and European painters, sculptors, textile designers, photographers and ceramicists. The course will also explore woman as subject matter, the role of the model and our current awareness of the “male gaze”.Full fee £279.00 Senior fee £223.00 Concession £181.00 - London's quartiers Course start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sue JacksonThrough 1 lecture and 7 guided walks, explore some of London’s quartiers – Soho, Mayfair, Covent Garden, Spitalfields, Clerkenwell, St James and Bloomsbury and understand how their very distinct characters were formed. The first session will be delivered via Zoom and other sessions will be guided walks.
London guide: Sue Jackson. - The Victorians: art, architecture and design Course start date: Sat 18 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore the visual culture of Victorian Britain through a range of artworks and disciplines including painting, sculpture, architecture, graphic design, furniture, fashion, and textiles. Includes a visit to the V&A Museum.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00 - Art in Britain 1890-1918 – New English Art Club to WWI Course start date: Mon 20 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Julia MusgraveExplore the works of British artists and their relationship to the legacy of academic painting and the art of continental Europe between 1880-1918. Who led developments and how does the art of the period reflect the times?
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Classic Drama: Agamemnon, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, The Way of the WorldCourse start date: Mon 20 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jenny StevensWe will read and discuss three classic plays: Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore and William Congreve’s The Way of the World. Focusing closely on structure, language and tone, we will analyse how dramatists across time have explored themes such as sexual politics, family relationships and revenge through their plays. In addition, we will consider the social, cultural and historical contexts in which the plays were produced.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - Contemporary Asian fictionsCourse start date: Wed 22 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Aamer HusseinDiscover a careful selection of novels from East and South Asia, by writers living at home and abroad, which reflect the thematic versatility and narrative innovations which are bringing readers to these novels. Ranging from large canvases to intimate portraits, the choice includes: At Dusk by Hwang Sok-Young (Korea), Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai (Japan), Cocoon by Zhang Yueran (Japan), Brotherless Night by V.V Ganeshanathan (Sri Lanks/US).Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - 20th Century German Literature: Czech, Swiss, Austrian, Romanian & German writersCourse start date: Thu 23 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Stephen WinfieldExplore a dazzling range of masterworks from across Central and Eastern Europe that includes many of the seminal figures of 20th century German Literature, from Modernism to the two world wars, the Holocaust and their aftermath, explored chronologically and including among others Rilke, Thomas Mann, Kafka, Brecht, Celan, Bernhard and Herta Muller.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Art and environment in Ice Age Europe Course start date: Thu 23 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Simone ChisenaDiscover the artistic treasures of our most remote past, when our ancestors in the Ice Age created beautiful cave paintings and astounding sculpted works.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00 - Styles in art: from medieval to modern Course start date: Mon 27 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Leslie PrimoA survey of Western art from the Gothic to the Victorian age, discussing Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism, and the ideas shaping each period.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - First Poets of the Modern City: Baudelaire, Whitman, Laforgue, EliotCourse start date: Tue 28 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laurie SmithWe explore how Baudelaire, Whitman, Laforgue and Eliot were the first poets to express in detail both the exciting
opportunities and the emotional and spiritual damage of life in the modern city. We will look in particular how Baudelaire’s poems and Laforgue’s translations of Whitman into French influenced Eliot’s early poetry, culminating in The Waste Land (1922).Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Weird and wondrous: the strange art of Bosch, Brueghel and the Surrealists Course start date: Tue 28 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberWelcome to the weird and wonderful world of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Breughel the elder – two northern Renaissance artists and a larger group of 20th-century artists known as the Surrealists who share many similarities with the strange and curious subjects that they conjured up to ignite discussion and even outrage.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00
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