Unreal city: the history of London through literature from1800 to today

What is the course about?

London’s social and economic history as revealed through imaginative writers’ eyes.

This is a live online course. You will need:
- Internet connection. The classes work best with Chrome.
- A computer with microphone and camera is best (e.g. a PC/laptop/iMac/MacBook), or a tablet/iPad/smart phone/iPhone can be used if you don't have a computer but please note the experience may be less optimal.
- Earphones/headphones/speakers.
We will contact you with joining instructions before your course starts.

What will we cover?

What topics will we cover?
The Regency; social divisions and inequality; Romantic visions of London as a centre of mysterious power; the
arrival of the Metropolitan Police and its impact on crime writing; Charles Dickens as a ‘special correspondent for
posterity; slum fiction – explorations of deprivation and social exclusion at the end of the 19th century; Modernist
visions of London; the Roaring Twenties; Jewish Whitechapel; race and religion in London’s dockside areas;
Communist realism; the bedsitter novel; neo Victorianism; dystopian visions of impending urban disaster; the capital
as a place where young people come to learn about themselves and about life; and as a site of mass migration
across two centuries.

Authors include: William Wordsworth; Thomas De Quincey; Thomas Hood; Edward Bulwer Lytton; Edgar Allan Poe;
Robert Louis Stevenson; Fyodor Dostoevsky; Somerset Maugham; Virginia Woolf; Evelyn Waugh; Israel Zangwill;
George Orwell; Pamela Hansford Johnson; Iris Murdoch; Elizabeth Bowen; Ruth Rendell; Sarah Waters.

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

IIdentify the major fictional portraits of London from 200 years of history.
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- Define key moments in London’s social history.
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- Identify some of the literary trends / shifts in style across 200 years of fiction writing.
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- Pursue further reading on these subjects, with a detailed bibliography/secondary reading list for each session.

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

An open mind and a willingness to listen to and think about views with which you do not always agree are more important than specific levels of skills. Curiosity and an appetite for reading will be helpful.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

Teaching will be delivered via illustrated mini-lecture and seminar; students are strongly encouraged to present their own 15- to 20-minute seminar paper/presentation on any of the fictions or subjects that are of greatest interest.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

No.
Extracts for us to consider in class will be provided in advance. The full reading list will also be supplied in advance,though you are not expected to have read these ahead of class, unless you have lots of time on your hands this summer!

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

HLW209 London's East End in fact and fiction.