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.
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- The Norwich School - a unique society of landscape paintersCourse start date: Fri 9 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresOn this course you will study the fascinating work of the 19th century Norwich School, a loose association of generations of painters from artistic families who worked in Norwich, Norfolk, one of the most important and wealthy regional capitals of the day. You will explore the beautiful landscapes produced by these artists and also discover work produced by remarkable women in the group.
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 - The lost town of Lundenwic: mid-Saxon London 600-900 CECourse start date: Sat 10 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Stuart BrookesLook at the least known episodes in London's history, Lundenwic (AD 600-900) and Lundenburh (AD 900-1000).
Includes an introductory lecture, museum visit and guided walk.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Writing the Oulipo: a taster
Course start date: Sat 10 Jun 2023Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Terry FreedmanDoes your writing need a boost of inspiration? How about counter-intuitively imposing constraints on yourself? Learn about the ideas of the French Oulipo movement and see what happens when you experiment with interesting – and challenging – limitations!
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 £69.00 Concession £69.00 - Introduction to Film SpectatorshipCourse start date: Sat 10 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonThis course will provide a brief introduction to the history of film spectatorship, tracing its origins in the silent era up to the present day. The course will explore a number of films in detail, includingThe Truman Show (Peter Weir 1998 US), Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore 1998 Italy), The Matrix (Wachowskis 1999 US) and others.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - 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 - Not drowning but waving: Edith Sitwell, Stevie Smith and Lorraine MarinerCourse start date: Sat 17 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laurie SmithWe explore poems written by three highly original English women poets. Their styles of writing are unique as they respond to the stresses of their lives, and to their position as women, with wit and humour. Their resilience shows them as the reverse of Smith’s famous line ‘Not waving but drowning’.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Self-publishing: a tasterCourse start date: Sat 17 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Helen CoxWant to keep full creative control of your writing project? Learn more about self-publishing and how to give your book (poetry, fiction or non-fiction) the best chance of achieving high sales.
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 £69.00 Concession £35.00 - Writing eco-poetry: a tasterCourse start date: Sat 17 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah WestcottHow might poets write about the natural world today, and what is an eco-poem?
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 £69.00 Concession £35.00 - How to pitch your screenplayCourse start date: Sat 24 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Alan NixonYou've worked hard on a screenplay but how do you sell it? This short intensive course identifies tools you can select to create a compelling Pitch Treatment. Please note: this course will have a 2-hr break from 12:30-14:30.
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 £69.00 Concession £35.00 - Focus on: 19th-century fashionCourse start date: Sat 24 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore the relationship between nineteenth-century society, from the Napoleonic era to the suffrage movement, and men’s and women’s fashions which witnessed constant change, restrictions, extremes and the start of the dress reform movement.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Writing the familyCourse start date: Sat 24 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Nick BarlayTackle the challenges of writing about family life in this thought-provoking workshop about how to craft personal stories into an engaging narrative.
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 £69.00 Concession £35.00 - Beowulf and the challenges of translationCourse start date: Mon 26 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Thomas WhiteBeowulf is one of the foundational works in the history of English literature. It is at once familiar and strange: its story is well-known, but critics continue to debate its origins and its language and form have long challenged modern readers and translators. This course will explore the poem and its original language, and recent attempts to render that language into modern English.
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 compulsion to repeat in cinema: From Groundhog Day to MementoCourse start date: Sat 1 Jul 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonThere are a surprising number of films that make use of repetition as a motif or as a structuring device for their narratives. Two particularly celebrated examples are Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis 1993 US) and Memento (Christopher Nolan 2000 UK/US). This course will explore this phenomenon, by referencing psychoanalytic film theory and the idea of the repetition compulsion, but also through the detailed analysis of both of these films.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Focus on: 20th-century fashionCourse start date: Sat 1 Jul 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore the ever-changing statement of identity that was twentieth-century fashion through the study of key designers and significant social and political events that shaped the clothes we wore.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Space, time and class in the early 20th century: from Cubism to ConstructivismCourse start date: Tue 4 Jul 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierCubism, Futurism and Constructivism were pivotal movements in the history of modern art – encapsulating all the promise and peril of the 20th century’s troubled birth. From striving for rewrite the rules of representation, to the total transformation society itself, these movements tore up artistic convention, helping reshape perceptions of space, time, and class in the process.
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
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