Explore History, Culture & Writing
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.
Filters
- Explore the areas around London's newest transport linksCourse start date: Mon 11 Sep 2023
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Diane BursteinExplore areas adjacent to our newest London stations. Head south for Battersea and Nine Elms, east to Barking Riverside and along the Elizabeth Line to Farringdon, Bond Street, Whitechapel, Abbey Wood, Custom House, Ealing and Southall.
First meeting place: Monday 11 September at 11am: Meet outside Battersea Power Station tube.Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00 - Key texts of 20th and 21st century drama: George Bernard Shaw, Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter and Lucy PrebbleCourse start date: Mon 18 Sep 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jenny StevensThis course will explore the concerns, styles and influences of four dramatic texts from the 20th and 21st centuries and how they reflect the social, political and cultural conditions in which they were written. It focuses primarily on G.B. Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession, Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, and Lucy Prebble’s Enron, making multiple connections between them as the course progresses.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Stories of the IslesCourse start date: Mon 25 Sep 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Julian BirkettTake a journey round the British Isles to discover the best of modern writing from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland - and find how writers living hundreds of miles from literary London have found their own way of telling stories and imagining their worlds. Includes James Joyce to Claire Keegan, Dylan Thomas to James Kelman and Shena McKay.Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00 - Archaeology of London
Course start date: Wed 3 May 2023 (and 1 other date)Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jill HummerstoneExplore the archaeology and history of London through its cultural monuments, topography and material remains to more fully appreciate the rich archaeological evidence of the capital.
Tutor: Jill Hummerstone. Tutor :Jill Hummerstone.Full fee £259.00 - The great philosophersCourse start date: Mon 8 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Oliver JosiahExplore the ideas of major philosophers from Plato to Sartre. How does Western philosophy differ from religion
and science? What problems have the great philosophers tried to solve?
.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £239.00 - Being in the world: Heidegger's philosophyCourse start date: Mon 8 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John Goff“The being of 'being' is itself not a being”. Questioning the meaning of ‘Being’ lies at the root of Heidegger’s critique of the ‘crisis’ of Western culture that his philosophy sought to overcome.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Classic drama: Antigone, Measure for Measure, The Country WifeCourse start date: Mon 15 Jan 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 - An introduction to the art of seventeenth-century Europe: 1590–1690 Course start date: Mon 15 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresOften referred to as “the Baroque”, the seventeenth century embraces some of the most dramatic, dynamic and acclaimed artworks ever produced, yet also some of the most tranquil and gentle. We will explore a wide range of paintings and sculptures from this period, discover why they look as they do, and investigate the powerful religious and historical contexts that influenced its artists.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00 - Styles in art: from medieval to modernCourse start date: Mon 15 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Leslie PrimoA survey of Western art from the Gothic to the Victorian age, discussing Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism, and the ideas shaping each period.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £229.00 Concession £149.00 - Speak memory: the rise and rise of the memoirCourse start date: Mon 15 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Julian BirkettThe last couple of decades have seen an explosion of a relatively new kind of writing – the memoir. Stories of abusive childhoods, extraordinary parents, and uncovered family secrets fill the shelves of bookshops. Some are mockingly dubbed misery memoirs, some even exposed as fakes. But among them are some masterpieces of modern writing – accounts of painful coming to maturity, or of the growth towards a deeper understanding of a world always taken for granted.Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00 - The history and meaning of portraiture Course start date: Mon 15 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Leslie PrimoExamine the changing face of the portrait in art history from the early Renaissance to the present. Look at how and why its meaning and function have changed over the years and why artists are still drawn to it despite photography.Full fee £229.00 - Philosophy and the meaning of lifeCourse start date: Mon 15 May 2023 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Oliver JosiahSome philosophers have insisted that philosophy should explain the meaning of our existence. What does it mean for us to be? And how then should we live? This course examines some seriously philosophical answers.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £239.00 - 'A terrible beauty is born': poetry in revolutionary times
Course start date: Mon 13 May 2024Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laurie SmithIs W H Auden right that “poetry makes nothing happen”? We look at how poets have helped people to understand, cope with and sometimes resist oppression in revolutionary periods from the late18th century to the present.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Classic drama: Agamemnon, The Way of the World, 'Tis Pity She's a WhoreCourse start date: Mon 13 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jenny StevensWe will read and discuss three classic plays: Aeschylus’ Antigone, John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore and William Congreve’s The Way of the World. Focusing closely on structure, language and tone, we will consider how dramatists across time have explored themes such as sexual politics, family relationships and revenge 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 - Japanese philosophyCourse start date: Mon 15 May 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John GoffJapanese philosophy extends well beyond Zen, with several philosophical traditions including that of the modern Kyoto School. Developing distinct cultural, aesthetic and political concepts, Japanese philosophers offer a rich field of thought.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £120.00
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 me to waiting list