Literature
Certificate courses
This two-year course may be taken either as a self-contained qualification or as part of
a degree course in English Language and Literature. There are no formal entry
requirements for this course. Selection will
be by an informal meeting with the course tutors, who may ask for an example of written
work. Application forms can be obtained from the Extramural Office.
The Introductory Year is particularly
beneficial for those who wish to study English
Literature at university level but who, whether
for personal or academic reasons, feel their
skills need de-rusting or developing before committing themselves to a degree course.
The Introductory Year meets in the Centre for Continuing Education and can be
attended either in the evening or in the daytime.
In the second year, students meet on Tuesday evenings in the Department of English,
and follow the syllabus for the Preliminary Unit
of the part-time degree course in English Language and Literature. At the end of
the course, students either receive the
Certificate as a self-contained qualification, or
continue with further units of the degree course.
See also:
Study skills courses
100 Certificate in English Literature: introductory year (daytime)
Description as above
day Thursday 10.00 am-12.30 pm
date from 24 Sep 1998
30 meetings + 3 Saturdays and
individual supervisions: £240.00
place The University, London Road
tutors Myra Cottingham BA
Carolyn Lyle MA BLitt
101 Certificate in English Literature: introductory year (evening)
Description as above
day Tuesday 7.00-9.30 pm
date from 22 Sep 1998
30 meetings + 3 Saturdays and
individual supervisions: £240.00
place The University, London Road
tutors Penny Hunter BA CertFE
Shirley Roberts MA
102 Certificate in English Literature: second year *
Description as above
day Tuesday 6.30-9.00 pm
date from 6 Oct 1998
27 meetings: £270.00
place Department of English, Whiteknights
tutors Myra Cottingham BA
Christine MacLeod MA PGCE
Daytime courses
103 How to enjoy Shakespeare - even more
Following last year's popular course, here is another chance to enjoy Shakespeare.
The course aims to de-mystify our greatest dramatist, and we shall explore some of
the deepest aspects of human life by reading together
Richard III, Much Ado about Nothing and
Othello. Videos will be included. Newcomers are welcome.
day Wednesday 10.00 am-12 noon
date from 7 Oct 1998
10 meetings: £36.00 (£20.00)
place The University, London Road
tutor Shirley Roberts MA
104 Introduction to contemporary literature
This is a class where recent works of literature are discussed in a friendly, informal
atmosphere. In addition to new novels we include modern classics and
occasional sessions on short stories, poetry or drama.
day Thursday 10.00 am-12 noon
date from 8 Oct 1998
20 meetings: £66.00 (£36.00)
place The University, London Road
tutor Shirley Roberts MA
105 Contemporary literature II: novels on the edge *
A course for all those who are already experienced in appreciating twentieth
century literature. We shall study novels by Ian McEwan, Jeanette Winterson, Patrick
Susskind, Margaret Atwood and Vladimir Nabokov in
a lively atmosphere.
day Thursday 10.00 am-12 noon
date from 8 Oct 1998
20 meetings: £66.00 (£36.00)
place The University, London Road
tutor Dawn Clarke BA
106 Pinning down Oscar
From the toast of London to social pariah in the mid-1890s, Oscar Wilde's reputation
has soared in the 1990s. Just who was this multi-faceted writer of fairy tales,
poetry, instructive essays, a gothic novel, and
dazzling stage comedies?
day Wednesday 2.00-4.00 pm
date from 13 Jan 1999
10 meetings: £36.00 (£20.00)
place Caversham Adult Centre, School Lane
tutor Tamie Watters MA DPhil
107 More Victorian literature
This course extends our re-visiting of Victorian literature, and will include works by
the Brontës, George Eliot and Dickens, as well
as some poetry, travel writing and letters. Students will be introduced to recent ways
of approaching literary criticism, and emphasis will be on the role of women writers.
Newcomers are welcome.
day Tuesday 1.30-3.30 pm
date from 27 Apr 1999
10 meetings: £36.00 (£20.00)
place The University, London Road
tutor Myra Cottingham BA
Evening courses
108 From Frankenstein to Orlando
Come and discover the enduring qualities of writers from Mary Shelley to Virginia Woolf
- the language, characters, gripping plots - that all combine to make you want to turn the page.
Texts will include Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein; Henry James' The Portrait of a
Lady; Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Virginia
Woolf's Orlando.
day Monday 7.30-9.30 pm
date from 5 Oct 1998
10 meetings: £36.00 (£20.00)
place The University, London Road
tutor Penny Hunter BA CertFE
109 Women in drama: from Eve to the Snarling Beasties
Examine and enjoy the representation of women on stage, from Lady Macbeth
and Juliet, Mrs Malaprop and Mrs Warren, Blanche du Bois and Bondagers to Bold Girls and
Top Girls, with a glance at Eve and the Snarling Beasties along the way.
day Monday 7.30-9.30 pm
date from 11 Jan 1999
10 meetings: £36.00 (£20.00)
place The University, London Road
tutor Morag Shearlaw MA
110 England and Englishness
How have writers constructed portrayals of 'England' and 'Englishness'? This course
will explore the many and varied ways in which our national identity has been presented
in literature, whether through idealism, nostalgia or social realism, from Shakespeare to
Martin Amis. Some attention will also be given to
the English language and how it has changed over the centuries.
day Thursday 7.30-9.30 pm
date from 14 Jan 1999
10 meetings: £36.00 (£20.00)
place The University, London Road
tutor Charles Whittaker MA
Saturday schools
111 The radical Wordsworth: a bicentenary celebration
1998 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Wordsworth and
Coleridge's ground-breaking volume, Lyrical
Ballads. This day-school will assess the importance of
the volume to the emergence of Romanticism, emphasising its radical aspects and its
ability to be disturbing, comic and comforting.
7 Nov 1998 9.30 am-4.30 pm
£14.00 (£10.00) including coffee and tea.
Lunch £7.00
place The University, Bulmershe Court,
Woodlands Avenue
tutor Myra Cottingham BA
112 Italian novelists today
You might know about Italian food and cities and countryside, but who are the
most interesting writers in Italy today? This
day-school will use a variety of extracts in translation to introduce Italy's current
literary world, and to show how Italian writers represent today's Italy.
31 Oct 1998 10.00 am-4.30 pm
£14.00 (£10.00) including coffee and tea.
place The University, London Road
tutor Daniela Caselli MA
113 Children's literature
Many works of children's literature can be read at an adult level, and many of the
devices used for narrative tension, character
representation and thematic development parallel those of "grown-up" books. This
day-school asks what it is that makes children's literature special to children, but
also available to adults.
14 Nov 1998 10.00 am-4.30 pm
£14.00 (£10.00) including coffee and tea.
place The University, London Road
tutor Stephen Thomson BA
114 Women of adventure
Following last year's successful Intrepid women travellers,
this day-school will introduce yet more spirited and independent women,
from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
This time they travelled to earn a living (most unladylike!), as anything from poet to
pirate, secretary to soldier - all long before votes
for women. Slides and readings will be included.
28 Nov 1998 10.00 am-4.30 pm
£14.00 (£10.00) including coffee and tea.
place The University, London Road
tutor Jane Robinson MA FRGS
115 World War I:
Scars Upon My Heart
This day-school will explore the rich variety of poetry and prose, which has emerged from,
or has been written about, the First World War. Emphasis will be on the war poets, but
some attention will be paid to extracts from Sebastian Faulks'
Birdsong, Pat Barkers' Regeneration and other works, and to
Scars Upon My Heart, a volume of poetry by women.
6 Feb 1999 10.00 am-4.30 pm
£14.00 (£10.00) including coffee and tea.
place The University, London Road
tutor Julia Turkington MA
116 International Women's Day: a celebration of women writers
This is our third annual celebration of contemporary women writers, organised
to coincide with International Women's Day. As usual, the morning will consist of a choice
of three workshops, led by Professor Coral Ann Howells from the University of
Reading, Maggie Butcher from Gresham College London, and a writer (to be announced). In
the afternoon, we hope to have Victoria Glendinning as the keynote speaker,
followed by a session by the national
award-winning poet, Jo Shapcott. Bookstalls will be available.
This is an informal and friendly day.
6 Mar 1999 10.00 am-5.00 pm
£16.00 (£12.00) including coffee and tea.
Lunch £5.00
place The University, London Road
co-ordinators Penny Hunter BA PGCE Myra Cottingham BA
Other events
117 The Extramural Literature Lecture: Miss Mitford and
Mrs Gaskell
The seventh annual Literature Lecture will look at the portrayal of
nineteenth-century rural life by comparing the writing of
Mary Russell Mitford and Elizabeth Gaskell. Mary Russell Mitford's series of sketches and
stories, Our Village (1832), will be of particular
interest, since she uses villages in the Reading area
as models. Mitford's work will be compared to Elizabeth Gaskell's portrayal of a
rural community in Cranford (1853), which is
made up almost entirely of women. The lecture
will be given by Barbara Onslow, from the Department of English, who is
currently working on a book about
nineteenth-century women journalists.
day Friday 7.30 pm
date 20 Nov 1998
Fee: £3
place The University, London Road
tutor Barbara Onslow MA
Literature Seminar Group
This group meets informally once or twice a term to discuss recently-written novels,
plays and poetry. If you are a teacher,
postgraduate student, academic or other serious student
of literature and wish to keep up with recent writing, please contact Penny Hunter
c/o The Centre for Continuing Education.