For the 2020-2021 Academic Year this course is being taught remotely. This means there will be no face-to-face teaching and you will not need to be present in person in Cambridge. The course content will be delivered, and the learning outcomes met, through the use of video-based teaching platforms and a dedicated course Virtual Learning Environment. ”
To transition to remote delivery of the course our academic staff are updating the course structure and timetable. This will allow the course to be academically engaging and of the quality expected from the Institute. A course guide will be available containing this detailed information no later than the end of July. Details of the Unit start dates and assignment submission deadlines are under the Teaching & Assessment tab. For an overview of the course scroll down this page.
What will I be studying?
Unit 1: Reading and interpretation
Introduction and 6 live teaching/open sessions plus pre-recorded lectures. Live teaching sessions will be on Saturdays between 13.00-15.00 and 16.00-18.00 pm GMT.
This unit will introduce students to critical terms which will broaden their understanding of literature and engage them in the task of close analysis. Students will be introduced to key terms in literary criticism such as tragedy, narrative, satire, genre, irony and intertextuality, as they read texts from a range of periods and forms, all with a connection to the theme of ‘interpretation’.We will begin with a study of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, described by one critic as ‘the first detective story in Western Literature’ and develop our thinking about themes of mystery and tragedy through our study of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. We will also consider how we 'unlock' meaning in poetry. The final two blocks of the Unit will focus on two pairings of novels, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus and Henry James' 'The Aspern Papers' and Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child.
Unit 2: Samuel Beckett and Modern Drama
6 live teaching/open sessions plus pre-recorded lectures. Live teaching sessions will be on Saturdays 13.00-15.00 and 16.00-18.00 pm GMT.
This unit will provide an introduction to modern drama, with particular emphasis on the dramatic work of Samuel Beckett, and its impact on writing for the stage from the 1950s to today. We will read Beckett's most important plays, including Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, and Not I, and examine how Beckett left his mark on the work of Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and, more recently, Will Eno. The unit will focus on performance and dramatic technique, and consider Beckett's debt to earlier playwrights, to visual artists, and to the films of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton..
Unit 3: The Nineteenth Century Novel
6 live teaching/open sessions plus pre-recorded lectures.Live teaching sessions will be on Saturdays 13.00-15.00 and 16.00-18.00 pm GMT.
The British nineteenth-century novel charted enormous changes in culture and society from one end of the century to the other and offered the nation a means of understanding itself. It introduced characters and stories which still make sense to twenty-first century readers, and knitted together moral and philosophical discussion, gripping plotlines and expansive canvases depicting complex social worlds. We will analyse some of the great works of nineteenth-century fiction whilst introducing you to some lesser known works. We will investigate the development and varieties of nineteenth-century realism and discuss the wider political and national themes of imperial identity and the effects of industrialisation, as well the more personal politics of the family, sexuality and the nature of Victorian subjectivity.
Find out more
The course guide giving information about course-content and assignments, will be available to download from the website shortly.
If you would like an informal discussion on academic matters before making your application, please contact the Course Director, Dr Jenny Bavidge: jrb203@cam.ac.uk
If you have any questions about the application process, contact our Admissions team: ice.admissions@ice.cam.ac.uk or +44 (0)1223 746262.
For all other enquiries, contact: literature@ice.cam.ac.uk or +44 (0)1223 746212 / 760865.
