Online Literature Courses
Explore our exciting range of Literature courses, from Literary History, to specialist courses in Fiction, Poetry and Drama. We offer introductory and in-depth courses to suit all levels of interest and experience, where you can revisit classic texts and discover new writers.
Study online from the comfort of home, with classes that allow you to participate in discussions with fellow adult students and share your passion for literature as part of a learning community. We offer daytime, evening and weekend courses, both short and long. For more information, please see our guide to online learning.
Our tutors are experts in their fields and experienced educators; many also teach in universities or share their expertise in the media. Tutors share their knowledge and passion for fiction, poetry and drama through presentations, readings, interactive discussion, analysis, and other activities.
Many students return to take more courses, telling us they enjoy being part of our City Lit literary community; others are inspired to progress onto university study.
Our popular courses often sell out quickly, so we invite you to browse and book your place online now.
-
Dubliners: between paralysis and epiphany
Course Date: Sat 27 Feb 2021
Location on this date: OnlineDip into James Joyce in a dynamic one-day course with two selections from Dubliners. We will consider the nature of paralysis and epiphany in ‘Two Sisters’ and ‘The Dead’. Please read these in preparation.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £59.00Senior fee: £47.00Concession: £36.00 -
Poetry please! Enjoying poetry
Course Date: Sun 7 Mar 2021
Location on this date: OnlineThis course is for those who enjoy reading and thinking about poetry and for those who would like to appreciate it even more. We will look at a wide range of poetic examples covering different periods of history. There will be some discussion of the meaning of form and technique and its impact on the poem and the reader.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £69.00Senior fee: £55.00Concession: £42.00 -
Play in two days: 'The Winter's Tale'
Course Date: Sat 20 Mar 2021
Location on this date: OnlineRead or seen the play but want to know more? This course examines the background to Shakespeare's 'A Winter's Tale', discusses characters, identifies themes, draws parallels with Shakespeare's other plays, looks at language and analyses key scenes.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £59.00Senior fee: £47.00Concession: £36.00 -
Literature taster: Shakespeare
Course Date: Thu 25 Mar 2021
Location on this date: OnlineEver wondered what studying an online Literature course at City Lit is like? Tempted to try, but not ready to commit to a whole course? Try this taster session on Shakespeare to boost your confidence and whet your appetite for further study!
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £10.00Senior fee: £10.00Concession: £10.00 -
London in poetry: Chaucer to Swift
Course Date: Sat 27 Mar 2021
Location on this date: OnlineLondon has given rise to an remarkable range of poets and poetry. This course focuses on the city as it evolved and was evoked from medieval times up to the early eighteenth-century. Many of the poets we shall consider were born – or lived - in London. We shall trace the ways in which they – and others, visiting the city – have given voice to feelings of fascination, enthusiasm and repulsion.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £59.00Senior fee: £47.00Concession: £36.00 -
Literature taster
Course Date: Sun 28 Mar 2021
Location on this date: OnlineCome and join this taster session to find out what makes a literature class at City Lit so special. The course includes an overview of our literature courses for next term (April-July) and for Summer School (July-August 2021).
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £10.00Senior fee: £10.00Concession: £10.00 -
Literature taster: contemporary fiction
Course Date: Wed 7 Apr 2021
Location on this date: OnlineEver wondered what studying an online Literature course at City Lit is like? Tempted to try, but not ready to commit to a whole course? Try this taster session on contemporary fiction to boost your confidence and whet your appetite for further study!
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £10.00Senior fee: £10.00Concession: £10.00 -
The 'superfluous man' in 19th century literature
Course Date: Tue 20 Apr 2021
Location on this date: OnlineThis class explores the subject of the superfluous man in nineteenth-century literature. From disaffected dropouts to dissolute dandies, we investigate the origins of the subject in the Romantic movement, its flourishing in masterpieces of nineteenth-century Russian literature, and variations on its character and ideas in European and American literature up to the turn of the twentieth century.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £129.00Senior fee: £129.00Concession: £79.00 -
"Crabb'd age and youth": 'Hamlet' and 'Lear'
Course Date: Tue 20 Apr 2021
Location on this date: OnlineHamlet (1600) and King Lear (1606) are arguably the greatest of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Yet their tragic heroes could scarcely be more different. Hamlet has all the enquiring restlessness of youth, Lear the stubbornness of embittered old age. What unites them is Shakespeare’s profound psychological insight and the dazzling poetry of a man at the very height of his poetic power.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £99.00Senior fee: £79.00Concession: £60.00 -
Victorian visions
Course Date: Wed 21 Apr 2021
Location on this date: Online“It was the best of times…it was the worst of times”
How did the Victorians see the world? They lived through one of the most dramatic periods in our history – and their literature reflects that. Victorian Visions looks at a wide variety of themes in Victorian culture: from the city to the home, from dreams to nightmares, from faith to doubt, from moralism to decadence, from ideology to empire.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £159.00Senior fee: £159.00Concession: £97.00 -
American culture of the 50s
Course Date: Wed 21 Apr 2021
Location on this date: OnlineWas 1950s America an affluent, homogeneous society or a post war nation in turmoil? Join this exploration of the
underside of 1950s American culture through the lens of literature, history, film, music and art.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £129.00Senior fee: £129.00Concession: £79.00 -
Novels of Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion
Course Date: Wed 21 Apr 2021
Location on this date: OnlineThis online literature course explores three novels by Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion. We will focus on developing an appreciation of the nuances of Austen’s language and its effects, alongside engaging with the literary, historical and critical contexts of these novels, and how they may illuminate our understanding of them.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £129.00Senior fee: £103.00Concession: £79.00 -
Modernist Manifestoes: 1880 - 1939
Course Date: Fri 23 Apr 2021
Location on this date: OnlineThe word manifesto implies the creation of a new reality – perhaps the more improbable the better – through the act of speech. This course examines the manifestoes and movements of the modernist period (late-19th and early-20th centuries), which sought to radically redefine the possibilities of art, politics and life.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £189.00Senior fee: £151.00Concession: £115.00 -
Popular classics from the 20th century
Course Date: Wed 28 Apr 2021
Location on this date: OnlineSelecting examples from comedy, science fiction and mystery/crime, this course will look at popular novels that have survived the test of time, and examine the relevance of genre fiction. Among the books we will read are:
The Darling Buds of May by H.E.Bates, Endless night by Agatha Christie, The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier,
Far From the Country by Miss Read and The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £189.00Senior fee: £151.00Concession: £115.00 -
Byron’s Don Juan: 'The grand Napoleon of the realms of rhyme
Course Date: Wed 28 Apr 2021
Location on this date: OnlineDon Juan is Byron’s crowning achievement – a picaresque mock epic intended to be ‘a little quietly facetious upon everything’. The poem, however, is more complex and engaging - a vision of life predicated on paradox: witty and melancholy, sarcastic and sentimental, romantic and classical, resigned and defiant. This course will illuminate the many facets of Byron’s unprecedented masterpiece.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee: £189.00Senior fee: £151.00Concession: £115.00
Can't see a course you want?
Add this category to your waiting list to set up alerts and we will update you when new courses are released online.
Add to your waiting list