Literature Courses in London
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 in-person or 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.
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 now.
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- A day in the life of the everyday: the twentieth century circadian novel: Mrs. Dalloway, One Fine Day, The HoursCourse start date: Fri 26 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jenny StevensNovels that fit all their action into just one day (‘circadian novels’) have been penned by some of literature’s most esteemed authors. This course focuses on three novels which use the one-day structure to tell their stories: Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925), Mollie Pater-Downes’s One Fine Day (1947), and Michael Cunningham’s The Hours (1999). It explores how they portray the inner life of characters, at the same time as engaging with broader social issues of the time.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - French and Russian literatureCourse start date: Tue 30 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Richard NilandExplore classic texts of 19th century French and Russian literature, discussing literary style, themes, and contexts as a way of developing and sharing responses to celebrated European writing. Among the French writers examined will be Stendhal, Baudelaire, Flaubert and Rimbaud, with our Russians including Pushkin, Lemontov, and Tolstoy.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - British literature of the 1980s: the Granta generationCourse start date: Tue 30 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Lewis WardWho were considered the ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ in 1983, and what became of them? What do their styles and topics reveal about the decade, looking back from 40 years on? Read extracts by all twenty writers plus novels by Pat Barker, Graham Swift and Julian Barnes.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre and Villette
Course start date: Thu 2 May 2024Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sophie OxenhamThis 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. - The world of Bob DylanCourse start date: Thu 2 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Richard NilandThis class explores the work of Bob Dylan, examining his song writing, musical style, and persona in the context of American cultural, political, and musical history, exploring how Dylan engages with American culture through his absorption and reworking of multifarious aspects of both historical and modern Americana.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Twenty-first Century Folklore: myth and magic in the global worldCourse start date: Thu 2 May 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Katie GossThis online course focuses on innovative short fiction from around the globe which reworks folkloric traditions to grapple with conditions of twenty-first century life. As well as engaging with the unique folkloric influences each text draws on, we’ll consider the complexities of the present that they are addressed to – and how the rising popularity of ghost stories, fairy tales, dark fables and surreal myths suggests a renewed fascination with the intrigues of the mysterious, monstrous and inexplicable.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - Get together and readCourse start date: Thu 2 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Claire AllenEnjoy talking with other people about the things you have read? Want to share great stories, poems and drama? Come along and join the conversation. The group is led by a shared reading practitioner trained by The Reader Organisation. - Struggle to be heard: Rimbaud, Cavafy, Tsvetaeva, Binta BreezeCourse start date: Thu 2 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laurie SmithWe look at four poets who struggled to be heard or accepted because their work was so different from what their society expected. What were the barriers they had to overcome and how did they win through to become admired and highly regarded? What made one of the poets stop writing at the age of 21 and the other three continue for the rest of their lives? What makes the poetry of all of them so original, and what can we learn from their resilience?Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £45.00 - Historical fiction: reimagining and rewritingCourse start date: Thu 2 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Kate WilkinsonWhat’s the unique appeal of historical fiction? Why do we read it, and what are we looking for? This course investigates historical fiction written in the twenty-first century and how it reimagines the past for us as contemporary readers. Reading novels and short stories set in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we’ll explore historical fiction’s strategies, challenges and pleasures: how it can bring unknown stories into view and rewrite what we think we know. Includes Francis Spufford's Golden Hill (2016), Emma Donoghue's The Woman who Gave Birth to Rabbits (2002) and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet (2020).Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Classic drama: Antigone, Measure for Measure, The Country WifeCourse start date: Mon 13 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jenny StevensWe will read and discuss three classic plays: Sophocles’ Antigone, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and William Wycherley’s The Country Wife. Focusing closely on structure, language and tone, we will consider how dramatists across time have explored themes such as sexual politics, family relationships and state power through their plays, as well as considering the social, cultural and historical contexts in which they were produced.Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00 - Reading BrexLit: three novelsCourse start date: Tue 14 May 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Kate WilkinsonThe 2016 referendum result was one of the most significant events in recent British history. How can novels, written in that moment, shed light on the run-up to the vote and its immediate aftermath?
On this course we’ll study three fascinating and powerful novels, by Ali Smith, Anthony Cartwright and Adam Thorpe, exploring their stories and the backdrop they present of Britain’s divisions and connections.
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 - The detective in popular modern crime fictionCourse start date: Tue 14 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Christine HawkinsWhat sells crime novels? Does knowing about the detective's other life make readers appreciate or rate their detective skills more? Why does the figure of the male detective remain so dominant in the genre, especially given that many of the texts are by female authors? We will analyse and the discuss the development of the male detective figure in recent crime fiction, including 'A certain Justice' by P.D. James, 'In the Woods' by Tana French and 'Career of Evil' by Robert Galbraith.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £97.00 - Keats and eternityCourse start date: Sun 19 May 2024
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Laurie SmithIn the house where many of them were written, we will explore why Keats’s poems are regarded as exceptionally beautiful. How did he achieve this? We will see that it wasn’t luck or simply inspiration, but the result of choices which reflect important aspects of Keats’ personality. Includes ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, Ode to a Grecian Urn’ and ‘To Autumn’.
This course will take place at Keats House, 10 Keats Grove, Hampstead, London NW3 2RR.Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00 - Ways into advanced literature: disruptors, transgressors and storytellersCourse start date: Wed 22 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Patricia SweeneyExplore the rewards of close reading analysis, focusing on fiction, drama and the literary essay. Read, analyse and debate works from the mid-twentieth century that challenged the status quo and entered into the debates of the time. Includes 'A Single Man' by Christopher Isherwood, 'A Delicate Balance' by Edward Albee and 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' by Joan Didion.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £64.00 - Reading Shakespeare: a director's perspective - Twelfth Night and Two Gentlemen of VeronaCourse start date: Wed 22 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laura BaggaleyTake a fresh look at Shakespeare, exploring selected plays in the company of an experienced theatre director. With performance in mind, we will examine the language of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Twelfth Night,
and discuss how Shakespeare’s use of verse evolves over the course of his career.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £97.00
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