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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- Introduction to global literatureCourse start date: Sat 21 Sep 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rebecca JonesAre you curious about reading literature from across the world? Would you like to encounter some of the world’s finest literary works, reading across cultures and national borders, and in translation? This in-college session will give you a flavour of what it’s like to study and explore what global literature is, reading excerpts from major works.Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £23.00 Concession £19.00 - The East End in Fact and FictionCourse start date: Sat 28 Sep 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah WiseCovering the early 19th century to the early 20th century, we will examine the East End and analyse how it was portrayed in works of fiction, thinking about how imaginative fiction and historical fact intertwine to create local legend.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - How to get an agent
Course start date: Sat 28 Sep 2024 (and 1 other date)Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sophie McKenzieThis intensive workshop offers students insider, need-to-know information on securing a literary agent.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00 - Study day: Kandinsky and Expressionism Course start date: Sat 5 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore Expressionism as it developed in different locations and within different movement, with a focus on Kandinsky as its key example, considering issues such as artistic influences and stylistic developments.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Craft focus: character in fiction Course start date: Sat 5 Oct 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Tasha KavanaghIn fiction, character and plot are inseparable elements of craft. Without characters there can be no action or plot. In this short course you will learn how to create characters that can drive a narrative forward and deepen its themes.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00 - Autobiography into fiction: getting started Course start date: Sat 12 Oct 2024 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Vicky GrutLearn how to turn real-life experiences into gripping fiction in this fun short course for fiction-writing beginners and experienced writers. Develop your writing skills and explore techniques for transforming personal stories into strong narratives.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00 - Study day: Neoclassicism – age of revolution, cult of beauty Course start date: Sat 12 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore the Neo-classical movement, focusing on David as its key example, considering issues such as politics and social change, biography, artistic and theoretic influences, notably that of Winckelmann.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Corruption and colonialism: how the past affects the presentCourse start date: Sat 12 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Tariq HassanIn large parts of the Global South, corruption is rampant but that was not always the case. By upending local values and customs and forcibly replacing indigenous institutions with Westerns structures, colonialism introduced systemic corruption on a grand scale that continues to this day.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £63.00 Concession £51.00 - Literary werewolves and vampiresCourse start date: Sat 19 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Megan BeechOn this short course we will explore the way in which authors in the nineteenth century created and shaped what we write and think about vampires and werewolves today. We will read extracts from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla alongside various short stories, penny dreadfuls, and news articles from the period.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Study day: Manet & the revolutionaries of realism Course start date: Sat 19 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore Realism in the nineteenth century, focusing on Manet as its key example, considering such issues as social and political change, formal and subject developments, theoretic interests and artistic influences.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - An introduction to poetryCourse start date: Sat 26 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laurie SmithAlways wanted to read and discuss poetry? Enjoy this introduction to a range of poetry from the last 400 years and explore how the poets shape our responses. - Constructing the witch: how women became maleficent Course start date: Sat 26 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ann JeffersThis study day will examine the question of the association of women with magic and witchcraft. - Fifties film noir: Kiss me Deadly Course start date: Sat 26 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerFilm Noir was the term coined by French critics to describe a distinctive style in American cinema during the decade after the war. In the transitional 1950s, genres that had been Hollywood staples began to change, evolve, or fade away. Film Noir evolved because it was too vital, too useful, and just too enjoyable to fade away. Just as John Huston’s Maltese Falcon (1941) kick-started film noir in the forties, his Asphalt Jungle (1950) introduced a darker fifties’ noir. Or did noir begin and end with Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) and Touch of Evil (1958)? ((See related courses on Fifties Melodrama and Musicals and 50 Films From the ‘50s: Hollywood’s Last Stand).Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Deciphering the Rosetta Stone Course start date: Sat 26 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Hugo Cook200 years after one of history’s most famous puzzles was deciphered, tour around the British Museum’s new Decipherment exhibition and learn how the mystery of Hieroglyphs was unravelled with the Rosetta Stone, with other archaeological clues, and with a bit of genius.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Japonisme: Japanese influence on European art in the 19th century
Course start date: Sat 2 Nov 2024Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore how 19th century European artists from the Impressionists to Art Nouveau transformed their artistic language with the study of Japanese prints.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00
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