Literature
We offer a wide range of literature courses at City Lit. From contemporary & classical literature, and novels to short stories, as well as our popular reading groups, you will find a course to suit your literary needs.
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Clothes make the woman: a sartorial history of women in the 20th century
Course Date: Sat 17 Nov 2018
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetDid you know that ready-made clothes were initially disparaged on moral grounds, that Amy Johnson was dressed by Schiaparelli, and that some 1960s’ employers introduced ‘modesty boards’ for mini-skirted staff? Come and find out more.Full fee: £39.00Senior fee: £31.00Concession: £20.00 -
Faith and doubt in Victorian poetry
Course Date: Sun 18 Nov 2018
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetVictorian Britain saw an upsurge of religious affirmation in the context of profound unease concerning the assertions of faith. We shall consider how the work of the age’s most accomplished poets expresses that paradox.Full fee: £49.00Senior fee: £39.00Concession: £25.00 -
A voice from Europe: the legacy of John Berger - novelist, critic, art historian
Course Date: Sat 24 Nov 2018
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetDiscover Berger's half a century of writing in every conceivable genre on literature, art, creativity and many of the intractable issues facing the world today, including “To the Wedding”, “The Seventh Man”, and “The Red Tenda of Bologna”.Full fee: £49.00Senior fee: £39.00Concession: £25.00 -
Literary Evening Lecture: David Constantine - What my poetry owes to translation
Course Date: Fri 30 Nov 2018
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetCome and join us for a stimulating evening of lecture and discussion at our November Literary Evening Lecture, where the writer and translator David Constantine will read from his poetry. He will also talk about how translating from foreign languages has helped him in his own writing. The evening will include a more general discussion of the need for translation in the making of any nation's poetic language.Full fee: £9.00Senior fee: £9.00Concession: £9.00 -
Literature taster
Course Date: Sat 12 Jan 2019
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetDo you want to find out how to go about understanding a poem or how to do a close reading of a work of fiction? Come and find out what makes a literature class at City Lit so special.Full fee: £19.00Senior fee: £19.00Concession: £10.00 -
An introduction to literature: drama
Course Date: Mon 14 Jan 2019 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetRead and discuss plays including 'Much Ado About Nothing' by William Shakespeare and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tenessee Williams, in terms of language, characterisation, ideas , structure and how they work as performance texts.Full fee: £179.00Senior fee: £179.00Concession: £79.00 -
Classic drama
Course Date: Mon 14 Jan 2019
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetRead view and discuss three classic plays: Antigone by Sophocles, Richard II by Shakespeare and Hedda Gabler by Ibsen in terms of themes, language, political, social and historical contexts and how they work as performance texts.Full fee: £199.00Senior fee: £159.00Concession: £88.00 -
Visiting London theatre today
Course Date: Tue 15 Jan 2019 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetSee a play every other week, mostly off West End and fringe theatre. Explore the playwright's work beforehand and analyse and discuss the production afterwards. Fee includes contribution towards theatre tickets. The first session is at City Lit. If you miss this session please contact Humanities on 020 7492 2652. Visits on 22/1, 5/2, 26/2, 12/3, and 26/3. No class 19/2.Full fee: £319.00Senior fee: £319.00Concession: £213.00 -
Poetry cooked and raw: from Emily Dickinson to the Beat poets
Course Date: Tue 15 Jan 2019
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetExplore how poets moved during the 20th century from formal language and regular form towards more natural language, freer forms and more direct expression of feeling, including the Beat Poets, confessionalism and prose poetry.Full fee: £179.00Senior fee: £179.00Concession: £79.00 -
American gothic: the darker side of fiction
Course Date: Tue 15 Jan 2019
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetExplore and discuss the work of great 19th and 20thC writers such as Hawthorne. Melville, Poe, Emily Dickinson and Flannery O’Connor – and learn about the dark streak that runs through so much of the best American literature.Full fee: £189.00Senior fee: £151.00Concession: £83.00 -
Meeting Proust on 'Swann's Way'
Course Date: Tue 15 Jan 2019
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetDiscover Proust's inner world exploration in a close reading of the first volume of In Search of Lost Time: Swann’s Way. A deferred kiss, a dipped madeleine and a whole world unfolds.Full fee: £139.00Senior fee: £111.00Concession: £61.00 -
Women's lives and literature of the 1960s
Course Date: Tue 15 Jan 2019
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetWhat was life really like for women in ‘the swinging sixties’? Explore the myths and realities of that decade via writers such as Lynne Reid-Banks, Edna O’Brien, Nell Dunn and Angela Carter.Full fee: £169.00Senior fee: £135.00Concession: £74.00 -
World fiction: hidden treasures
Course Date: Wed 16 Jan 2019
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetFreshly translated or newly discovered gems of international writing from the second half of the 20th century include Family Lexicon by Natala Ginzburg (Italy), Reunion by Fred Uhlman (Germany/GB), A Broken Mirror by Merce Rodoreda (Catalonia), Basic Black With Pearls by Helen Weinzweig (Poland/Canada) and The Birds by Tarjei Vesas (Norway).Full fee: £169.00Senior fee: £135.00Concession: £74.00 -
An introduction to literature: poetry and prose
Course Date: Thu 17 Jan 2019 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetDiscover the basic tools and techniques used to analyse poetry and prose. Come and enjoy reading and discussing a range of poetry and prose including short stories and a short novel. Lots of lively discussion.Full fee: £189.00Senior fee: £151.00Concession: £83.00 -
The complete Samuel Beckett
Course Date: Fri 18 Jan 2019
Location on this date: KS - Keeley StreetA comprehensive tour of Beckett’s astonishing output in all genres across seven decades and an assessment of his significance today, with close attention to key works including “Murphy”, “Molloy”, “Godot”, “Happy Days” and “Nohow On”.Full fee: £169.00Senior fee: £135.00Concession: £74.00