Fiction Literature Courses
Study online & in London
From Dante to DeLillo, revisit classic literature texts and enjoy discovering new writers and adaptations plus share your views in lively classroom discussions.
Courses available both in-person and online
We offer a range of courses allowing you to choose between online and in-person learning. All our courses are live, interactive, and taught by expert tutors. No matter how you prefer to learn, you’ll receive the same great City Lit experience. See our guide to online learning for more information about accessing our live online courses.
- Henry James: The Portrait of a LadyCourse start date: Wed 10 May 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sophie OxenhamThis short online literature course will explore Henry James’s novel ‘A Portrait of a Lady’ (1881). We will explore James’s narrative methods and concerns, and also engage with contextual and critical material to inform our reading.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00 - Japanese crime fictionCourse start date: Thu 11 May 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Beatrice Ashton-LelliottJapanese crime literature is reaching new audiences, with many classics being translated into English for the first time. This course explores a range of Japanese mysteries, detectives and their recurring themes, from ‘locked room’ classics to the dark side of human nature – with many murders along the way!
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £64.00 - Island adventure storiesCourse start date: Wed 24 May 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Fiona McCullochDiscover and discuss a selection of novels set on desert islands. Why are adventure tales often set on islands? Are these islands paradises or purgatories? Who are civilised characters and who are savages? Why? Since Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), we have been spellbound by stories of shipwreck and survival, so we will explore this further in novels that come after Crusoe, known as 'Robinsonnades'.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £109.00 Senior fee £109.00 Concession £71.00 - The worlds of Toni Morrison: a study of BelovedCourse start date: Mon 12 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Tobin BrothersToni Morrison’s lyric prose helps the reader grasp the psychological devastation wreaked by the institution of slavery by close observation of a community of ex-slaves re-creating their lives in the second half of the 19th century.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00 - City Lit Evening Reading GroupCourse start date: Mon 26 Sep 2022
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Claire AllenShare thoughts and ideas about what you are reading, with books chosen by the group. Please come to the first session with suggestions (contemporary fiction in paperback) and having read Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Monthly meetings on 26 Sept, 24 Oct, 28 Nov; 16 Jan, 20 Feb, 20 March, 08 May, 12 June, and 10 July.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £90.00 - Ulysses: Nostos - the HomecomingCourse start date: Tue 10 Jan 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Tobin BrothersTo meet the challenge of reading Joyce, this online literature course will offer strategies and engage the second half of Ulysses to inspire both the new reader of Joyce and those revisiting his passionate experimentation.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre and VilletteCourse start date: Wed 18 Jan 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sophie OxenhamThis online Literature course focuses on two novels by Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre and Villette. We will develop an appreciation of Brontë’s narrative methods and concerns through close analysis of her language, alongside engaging with the literary, historical and critical contexts of these novels, and the Brontë ‘mythology’ itself.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00 - Twentieth Century British FictionCourse start date: Tue 31 Jan 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Lewis WardOn this course, we will trace the development of the British novel in the second half of the twentieth century through influential examples by Elizabeth Bowen, Iris Murdoch, J.G. Ballard and Julian Barnes. Our journey will include elements of spy fiction, existentialist thought, prophetic dystopia and an audacious attempt to write the history of the world in just ten and half chapters.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £90.00 - New Nature Writing in fiction and poetryCourse start date: Fri 3 Feb 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: David BarnesIn the last 15 years, a new type of nature writing emerged in the UK. It was personal, engaging, and examined the natural world and the environment in fresh and interesting ways. It promised to reconnect a younger generation with the world outside, and to raise awareness of ecological issues in an emotionally resonant way. Includes novels, poetry and memoir by Seamus Heaney, W.G. Sebald, Alice Oswald, Helen Macdonald. Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Kathleen Jamie.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £111.00 Concession £90.00 - George Eliot: MiddlemarchCourse start date: Wed 1 Mar 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sophie OxenhamThis short online literature course will explore George Eliot’s novel, ‘Middlemarch’ (1871-2). Considered by many to be the greatest nineteenth century ‘realist’ novel, we explore its narrative methods and concerns, including its psychologically astute characterisation, and its rich engagement with the ideas and concerns of its time.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00
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