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English Literature ebooks available to read for students 

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English Literature ebooks available to read for students 

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Lots of ebooks here available through the LRC that you can read for free!

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Use this link on Digital Theatre + to watch the RSC 2015 version of Othello - a brilliant production that makes the choice to cast the black actor in the role of Iago. You will just need your college email to log in.

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Use these revision resources on Physics and Maths Tutor - there are sections on The Great Gatsby, the pre 1900 poetry collection and Othello - to boost your revision :-)

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Digital Theatre Plus short lecture on structure in Othello 

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Digital Theatre Plus short lecture on structure in Othello 

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Lectures from MASSOLIT on all the pre 1900 love poems

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Lectures from MASSOLIT on all the pre 1900 love poems

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Watch these lectures from Professor John McRae about the pre 1900 love poems to deepen your understanding and analysis.

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These will be really helpful for revision and additional study of the play

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Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest Dowson Analysis

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The Garden of Love by William Blake Analysis

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Sonnet 116 vs Great Gatsby Comparative Analysis

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A Song (Absent from Thee) by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester Analysis

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The Scrutiny By Richard Lovelace Analysis

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She Walks in Beauty by George Gordon Byron (detailed analysis)

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 9 Analysis - video - 21 mins

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 9 Analysis - video - 21 mins

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MASSOLIT - Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: Introduction | Video lecture by Prof. John McRae, Nottingham University

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Introduction as part of a course on Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 8 Analysis - video - 6 mins

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 8 Analysis - video - 6 mins

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MASSOLIT - Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: Introduction | Video lecture by Prof. John McRae, Nottingham University

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Introduction as part of a course on Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 7 Analysis - video - 9 mins

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 7 Analysis - video - 9 mins

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MASSOLIT - Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: Introduction | Video lecture by Prof. John McRae, Nottingham University

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Introduction as part of a course on Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 6 Analysis - Video - 13 mins

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 6 Analysis - Video - 13 mins

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MASSOLIT - Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: Introduction | Video lecture by Prof. John McRae, Nottingham University

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Introduction as part of a course on Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 5 Analysis - video - 7 mins

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 5 Analysis - video - 7 mins

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MASSOLIT - Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: Introduction | Video lecture by Prof. John McRae, Nottingham University

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Introduction as part of a course on Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 4 Analysis - video - 10 mins

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 4 Analysis - video - 10 mins

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MASSOLIT - Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: Introduction | Video lecture by Prof. John McRae, Nottingham University

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Introduction as part of a course on Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 3 analysis - video - 11 mins

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 3 analysis - video - 11 mins

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Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

In this course, Professor John McRae (University of Nottingham) explores F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby. The course begins with a broader introduction to the novel, thinking about the context in which the novel was written and published, its alternative title ('Trimalchio in West Egg'), and introducing some of its key themes - love, loss, wealth, ambition. Each of the following nine sections is dedicated to one of the chapters of the novel, providing close reading and in-depth analysis of the novel's major characters, themes and motifs.

Introduction

This module provides a broad introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby (1925), focusing in particular on the period in which the novel was written and published and the significance of the original title of the novel ('Trimalchio in West Egg') before thinking about some of its key themes - love, loss, wealth and ambition.

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Introduction as part of a course on Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 2 analysis - video - 21 mins

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'The Great Gatsby' Chapter 2 analysis - video - 21 mins

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Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

In this course, Professor John McRae (University of Nottingham) explores F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby. The course begins with a broader introduction to the novel, thinking about the context in which the novel was written and published, its alternative title ('Trimalchio in West Egg'), and introducing some of its key themes - love, loss, wealth, ambition. Each of the following nine sections is dedicated to one of the chapters of the novel, providing close reading and in-depth analysis of the novel's major characters, themes and motifs.

Introduction

This module provides a broad introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby (1925), focusing in particular on the period in which the novel was written and published and the significance of the original title of the novel ('Trimalchio in West Egg') before thinking about some of its key themes - love, loss, wealth and ambition.

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Introduction as part of a course on Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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'The Great Gatsby' chapter 1 analysis - video - 11 mins 

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'The Great Gatsby' chapter 1 analysis - video - 11 mins 

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AQA | English | A-Level | A-level English Literature A

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In Texts across time, students write a comparative critical study of two texts.

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How WW1 changed literature- historical overview

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How WW1 changed literature- historical overview

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World War I, the war that was originally expected to be "over by Christmas," dragged on for four years with grim brutality brought on by the dawn of trench warfare and advanced weapons, including chemical weapons. The horrors of that conflict altered the world for decades-and writers reflected that shifted outlook in their work.

As Virginia Woolf would later write, "Then suddenly, like a chasm in a smooth road, the war came."

Early Works Glorified the War

Among the first to document the "chasm" of the war were soldiers themselves. At first, idealism persisted as leaders glorified young soldiers marching off for the good of the country.

English poet Rupert Brooke, after enlisting in Britain's Royal Navy, wrote a series of patriotic sonnets, including "The Soldier," which read:
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.

Brooke, after being deployed in the Allied invasion of Gallipoli, would die of blood poisoning in 1915.

The same year, Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, upon seeing how red poppies grew in the fields that had been ravaged by bombs and littered with bodies, wrote "In Flanders Fields." The poem, memorializing the death of his friend and fellow soldier, would later be used by Allied militaries to recruit soldiers and raise money in selling war bonds:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
Literary Tone Shifts After Grueling WWI Combat

While both Brooke's and McCrae's works lent patriotic tones to the sacrifices of war early in the conflict, as time wore on, the war's relentless horrors spawned darker reflections. Some, like English poet Wilfred Owen, saw it their duty to reflect the grim reality of the war in their work.

As Owen would write, "All a poet today can do is warn. That is why the true poet must be truthful." In "Anthem for the Doomed Youth," Owen describes soldiers who "die as cattle" and the "monstrous anger of the guns."

Owen's fellow army officer, Siegfried Sassoon, writes of corpses "face downward, in the sucking mud, wallowed like trodden sand-bags loosely filled" in his 1918 poem, "Counter-Attack."

From the opposite side of the firing lines, German writer Erich Maria Remarque also experienced the grim day-to-day life of a soldier. Later, in 1929, he published an unflinching account in his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front.

Among other prominent works reflecting the horrific realities of war was the four-part tome, Parade's End, by English novelist Ford Madox Ford, and from the Eastern Front, Dr. Zhivago by Soviet Russian writer Boris Pasternak, in which the main character describes grotesque injuries inflicted on the war's battlefields.

Ernest Hemingway Pens 'A Farewell to Arms'

In one of the most famous works set during the "Great War," American writer Ernest Hemingway offers a gripping love story between a soldier and a nurse set against the chaotic, stark backdrop of World War I.

A Farewell to Arms is among the writer's most autobiographical: Hemingway himself served as an ambulance driver during the war, was severely wounded on the Austro-Italian front and had been sent to a hospital in Milan, where he fell in love with a nurse.

Virginia Woolf Writes on War's Impact on Society

The literary response to World War I was not only to portray its horrors at the front but also the reverberations of the war throughout society.

Virginia Woolf, who had been a close friend of the fallen poet Rupert Brooke, wove profound references to the war's effects throughout her works.

In the setting of her acclaimed novel Mrs. Dalloway, the war has ended, but everyone remains deeply affected by it, including one of the novel's main characters, a veteran with severe shell shock (now known as PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder).

Modernism Emerges in Works by Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot

The disillusionment that grew out of the war contributed to the emergence of modernism, a genre that broke with traditional ways of writing, discarded romantic views of nature and focused on the interior world of characters.

Woolf's novels reflected this emerging tone, as did the works of Joseph Conrad ( Heart of Darkness) and James Joyce ( Ulysses). T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," considered to be one of the most significant poems of the 20th century, presents a haunting vision of postwar society, with the opening lines:

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel Brave New World questions once-accepted social and moral notions in presenting a nightmarish vision of the future.

World War I devastated continents, leaving some 10 million soldiers and 7 million civilians dead. But writers responded with profound and groundbreaking work as they and the rest of the world grappled with the war's upheaval.

As Remarque wrote in All Quiet on the Western Front: "All these things that now, while we are still in the war, sink down in us like a stone, after the war shall waken again, and then shall begin the disentanglement of life and death."

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How World War I Changed Literature | HISTORY

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World War I altered the world for decades, and writers and poets reflected that shift in literature, novels and poetry.

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MASSOLIT - Relationships (Edexcel Poetry Anthology): John Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1819) | Video lecture by Prof. John McRae, Nottingham University

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses John Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1819) as part of a course on Relationships (Edexcel Poetry Anthology) | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Analysis of "Who So List To Hunt" by Sir Thomas Wyatt

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To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell Analysis

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Critical reading- reading time 20 minutes

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Critical reading- reading time 20 minutes

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An Introduction to Trench Warfare - essential viewing

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A short colorized video of original film taken during WW 1.

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Extended Reading- available from the yellow zone desk.  Postcolonial Novel about WW1

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Extended Reading- available from the yellow zone desk.  Postcolonial Novel about WW1

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At Night All Blood is Black- Wider Reading

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Ae Fond Kiss by Robert Burns || A-Level Poetry Analysis

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As the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust embarks on a year of events marking the 'women who made Shakespeare', Anne McElvoy hears about new research into Ellen Terry and Marie Corelli.

From Lady Macbeth to Portia, Viola and Rosalind - Shakespeare's female characters continue to hold the highest appeal for actors, but less is known about the women in his own life. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is embarking on a year of events and exhibitions looking at the women who made Shakespeare, many of them forgotten, exploring their influence in his lifetime and the women who shaped his legacy beyond. Anne McElvoy hears about the latest research looking at the women in Shakespeare's life, his plays and his legacy. Sophie Duncan has looked at this first tragic heroine and the actress who did so much to promote his legacy, Ellen Terry. Hailey Bachrach has examined how Shakespeare used female characters in deliberate and consistent ways across his history plays. Emma Whipday has written Shakespeare's Sister, a play which follows Virginia Woolf's Room of One's Own in reimagining Shakespeare's sister as the playwright 'Judith Shakespeare'. And, Anouska Lester has looked at the role of Marie Corelli in Shakespeare heritage.

Sophie Duncan is a Research Fellow at Magdalen College, University of Oxford and the author of Searching for Juliet: The Lives and Deaths of Shakespeare's First Tragic Heroine.

Hailey Bachrach is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Roehampton, drama critic and dramaturg who has worked at Shakespeare's Globe. Her book is called, Staging Female Characters in Shakespeare's English History Plays.

Emma Whipday is a BBC Radio 3 AHRC New Generation Thinker and author of Shakespeare's Domestic Tragedies.

Anouska Lester is researching the role of Marie Corelli in preserving Shakespeare's legacy and has recently completed a PhD at the University of Roehampton.

Producer: Ruth Watts

You can find a collection of Free Thinking episodes exploring Shakespeare on the programme website and available to download as Arts & Ideas podcasts and Radio 3 also has podcast versions of some of the dramas to listen to as The Shakespeare Sessions.

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BBC Radio 3 - Free Thinking, Shakespeare's Women

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The women who crop up in Shakespeare's life, his plays and who helped conserve his legacy.

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AQA Past Papers A Level English Literature Unit Codes 
7712/1-Love
7712/2A- WWI

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AQA Past Papers A Level English Literature Unit Codes 
7712/1-Love
7712/2A- WWI

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AQA | AS and A-level | English Literature A | Assessment resources

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© AQA 2024 | AQA is not responsible for the content of external sites

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1988 full film version of Journey's End - available through Planetestream 

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1988 full film version of Journey's End - available through Planetestream 

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Welcome to Planet eStream the complete media management solution. Please enter your username and password.

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Sci-Fi and Dystopian Worlds Reading List

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Sci-Fi and Dystopian Worlds Reading List

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Planet e-stream_ films and documentaries

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Planet e-stream_ films and documentaries

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Welcome to Planet eStream the complete media management solution. Please enter your username and password.

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Othello 10 minute video - the moor as outsider, false comedy, Iago's soliloquys, the handkerchief

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Othello 10 minute video - the moor as outsider, false comedy, Iago's soliloquys, the handkerchief

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Shakespeare: The Complete Works

In this thirty-nine part course, Professor John McRae takes us through the complete works of Shakespeare, beginning with Henry VI, and ending with Two Noble Kinsmen. We begin with an introduction to Shakespeare himself, thinking about him as both a man and a construct. After this, we go through each of Shakespeare's works, one-by-one. Along the way, we consider the evolution of Shakespeare's style and thematic focuses.

Who Was Shakespeare?

We begin with by considering what we know (and more importantly, don't know) about Shakespeare, focusing on: (i) what little we do know about Shakespeare's life, (ii) the other contenders for the authorship of Shakespeare's works, like Christopher Marlowe and the Duke of Pembroke, (iii) deconstructing Shakespeare as a construct in order to look at him as a great experimenter and a person, and (iv) how many plays Shakespeare wrote.

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Who Was Shakespeare? as part of a course on Shakespeare: The Complete Works | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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Guardian Article: What Makes The Great Gatsby great?

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Guardian Article: What Makes The Great Gatsby great?

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MASSOLIT course on the poetry of World War One - 9 short lectures on different aspects of war poetry 

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MASSOLIT course on the poetry of World War One - 9 short lectures on different aspects of war poetry 

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MASSOLIT – The Poetry of the First World War | Video lecture by Dr Peter Howarth,

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Dr Peter Howarth at QMUL discusses The Poetry of the First World War | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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Sonnets: A Love Story (BBC Four Documentary)

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Sonnets: A Love Story (BBC Four Documentary)

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The reign of Elizabeth I saw the beginning of Britain's first black community. It's a fascinating story for modern Britons, writes historian Michael Wood.

Walk out of Aldgate Tube and stroll around Whitechapel Road in east London today, and you'll experience the heady sights, smells and sounds of the temples, mosques and curry houses of Brick Lane - so typical of modern multicultural Britain.

Most of us tend to think that black people came to Britain after the war - Caribbeans on the Empire Windrush in 1948, Bangladeshis after the 1971 war and Ugandan Asians after Idi Amin's expulsion in 1972.

But, back in Shakespeare's day, you could have met people from west Africa and even Bengal in the same London streets.

Of course, there were fewer, and they drew antipathy as well as fascination from the Tudor inhabitants, who had never seen black people before. But we know they lived, worked and intermarried, so it is fair to say that Britain's first black community starts here.

There had been black people in Britain in Roman times, and they are found as musicians in the early Tudor period in England and Scotland.

But the real change came in Elizabeth I's reign, when, through the records, we can pick up ordinary, working, black people, especially in London.

Shakespeare himself, a man fascinated by "the other", wrote several black parts - indeed, two of his greatest characters are black - and the fact that he put them into mainstream entertainment reflects the fact that they were a significant element in the population of London.

Employed especially as domestic servants, but also as musicians, dancers and entertainers, their numbers ran to many hundreds, maybe even more.

And let's be clear - they were not slaves. In English law, it was not possible to be a slave in England (although that principle had to be re-stated in slave trade court cases in the late 18th Century, like the "Somersett" case of 1772).

In Elizabeth's reign, the black people of London were mostly free. Some indeed, both men and women, married native English people.

In 1599, for example, in St Olave Hart Street, John Cathman married Constantia "a black woman and servant". A bit later, James Curres, "a moore Christian", married Margaret Person, a maid.

The parish records of this time from "St Botolph's outside Aldgate", are especially revealing. Here, among French and Dutch immigrants, are a Persian, several Indians and one "East Indian" (from today's Bengal).

In this single small parish, we find 25 black people in the later 16th Century. They are mainly servants, but not all - one man lodging at the White Bell, next to the Bell Foundry off Whitechapel road, probably worked at the foundry.

Some were given costly, high status, Christian funerals, with bearers and fine black cloth, a mark of the esteem in which they were held by employers, neighbours and fellow workers.

Among the names are these:

Christopher Cappervert [ie from Cape Verde] - "a blacke moore"

Domingo - "a black neigro servaunt unto Sir William Winter"

Suzanna Peavis - "a blackamore servant to John Deppinois"

Symon Valencia - "a black moore servaunt to Stephen Drifyeld a nedellmaker"

Cassango - "a blackmoore servaunt to Mr Thomas Barber a marchaunt"

Isabell Peeters - "a Black-more lodgeing in Blew Anchor Alley"

"A negar whose name was suposed to be Frauncis. He was servant to be [sic] Peter Miller a beare brewer dwelling at the signe of the hartes horne in the libertie of EastSmithfield. Yeares xxvi [26]. He had the best cloth [and] iiii [4] bearers"

Among later names, we find:

Anne Vause - "a Black-more wife to Anthonie Vause, Trompetter"

John Comequicke - "a Black-Moore so named, servant to Thomas Love a Captaine"

And, the saddest in this list:

Marie - "a Blackamoor woman that die in the street"

Sometimes the detail in the Botolph's register is absolutely fascinating.

In 1597, for example, Mary Fillis, a black woman of 20 years, had, for a long while, been the servant of Widow Barker in Mark Lane. She had been in England 13 or 14 years, and was the daughter of a Moorish shovel maker and basket maker. Never christened, she became the servant of Millicent Porter, a seamstress living in East Smithfield, and now "taking some howld of faith in Jesus Chryst, was desyrous to becom a Christian, Wherefore shee made sute by hir said mistres to have some conference with the Curat".

Examined in her faith by the vicar of St Botolph's, and "answering him verie Christian lyke", she did her catechisms, said the Lord's Prayer, and was baptised on Friday 3 June 1597 in front of the congregation. Among her witnesses were a group of five women, mostly wives of leading parishioners. Now a "lyvely member" of the church in Aldgate, there is no question from this description that Mary belonged to a community with friends and supporters.

Despite the story of Fillis, the lives of others were far from sweetness and light, of course. The lives of some black people were as free as anywhere in the white European world, but, for many, things were circumscribed and very hard.

Some black women worked alongside their white counterparts as prostitutes, especially in Southwark, and in the brothel area of Turnmill Street in Clerkenwell. Here the famous Lucy Negro, a former dancer in the Queen's service, ran an establishment patronised by noblemen and lawyers. Lucy was famous enough to be paid mock homage in the Inns of Court revels at Gray's Inn.

Her area of London was notorious. "Pray enquire after and secure my negress: she is certainly at The Swan, a Dane's beershop in Turnmil Street," wrote one Denis Edwards in 1602. Shakespeare's acquaintance, the poet John Weaver, also sang the praises of a woman whose face was "pure black as Ebonie, jet blacke".

In around 1600, the presence of black people had become an issue for the English government. Their numbers recently increased by many slaves freed from captured Spanish ships, the presence of black people suddenly came to be seen as a nuisance. In 1601, among the Cecil papers still held at Hatfield House, we hear this:

"The queen is discontented at the great numbers of 'negars and blackamoores' which are crept into the realm since the troubles between her Highness and the King of Spain, and are fostered here to the annoyance of her own people."

The "great numbers" were mainly galley slaves and servants from captured Spanish vessels, and a plan was mooted to transport them out of the country. Was this the first example of government repatriation? In July 1602, Cecil was putting pressure on the merchants, one of whom wrote:

"I have persuaded the merchants trading to Barbary, not without some difficulty, to yield to [ie pay for] the charges of the Moors lately redeemed out of servitude by her Majesty's ships, so far as it may concern their lodging and victuals, till some shipping may be ready to carry them into Barbary..."

Whether this actually happened is unclear. No more then than now, should we take a government's pronouncements on such matters at face value?

But it is at least worth noting that the authorities felt duty-bound to look after food and lodging while the freed slaves were in London. But it cannot be, as is sometimes claimed today, that this edict applied to the many black people who, like Mary Fillis, were living as citizens in London, as they were in Bristol.

Brief as they are, such hints suggest a surprisingly rich hidden narrative for black people in Elizabethan England.

From Lucy Negro to Mary Fillis, their numbers grew in the 17th Century as they were joined by large numbers of people from India and, in particular, Bengal.

Sadly, their own story, in their own words, is lacking, but by the time we reach the 18th Century, we have the remarkable works of prose, poetry and music written by black Britons, among whom the likes of Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano and Ignatius Sancho deserve their place in any list of Great Britons.

By the 18th Century, it is thought as many as 20,000 black servants lived in London. They even had their own taverns where they greeted defeat of the "Somersett case" and the victories of the abolitionists with raucous good humour.

Their numbers were still small compared with the population as a whole, but they already had a role in our national story. What would Mary Fillis make of things today I wonder? And what would we give for her story?

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Britain's first black community in Elizabethan London

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The reign of Elizabeth I saw the beginning of Britain's first black community. It's a fascinating story for modern Britons, writes Michael Wood.

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Narrative structure and voice in 'Gatsby'

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Narrative structure and voice in 'Gatsby'

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Narrative structure and voice in The Great Gatsby

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New film on Netflix on the life of Siegfried Sassoon 

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New film on Netflix on the life of Siegfried Sassoon 

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Link here: Watch Benediction | Netflix

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MASSOLIT course on The Great War and British Society - how did WW1 impact British society between 1918 and 1939?

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MASSOLIT course on The Great War and British Society - how did WW1 impact British society between 1918 and 1939?

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About this Course

About the Course

In this course, Professor Matthew Cole (University of Birmingham) explores the impact of the First World War on British society between 1918-39. In the first module, we think about the ways in which the First World War was a 'total war', focusing in particular on the extent to which it impacted every aspect of life in Britain. In the second module, we think about the impact of the First World War on the British economy and society, before turning in the third module to consider the impact of the war on the British political system. Finally, in the fourth module, we think about the impact of the war on Britain's position in the world, and the extent to which Britain's unwillingness to prepare for the possibility of another European war allowed for the expansion of Nazi Germany and the outbreak of the Second World War.

About the Lecturer

Matthew Cole is Teaching Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Birmingham. He is a historian of modern Britain with a particular interest in twentieth century constitutional and party politics, and local history.

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Britain - The Great War and British Society, 1914-39

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Dr Matthew Cole at Birmingham University discusses Britain - The Great War and British Society, 1914-39 | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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'The Great Gatsby' - Ten KEY QUOTES AND TERMS You Need to Know.

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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module we think about the concept of the American Dream in the Great Gatsby, focusing in particular on what the American Dream was, and the way in which the main characters of the novel - Gatsby, Tom, Daisy, George and Myrtle - operate within the expectations of this key American myth of success.

Course

In this course, Dr William Blazek (Liverpool Hope University) explores F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby. We being by thinking about the concept of the American Dream, focusing in particular on how some of the major characters in the novel operate within the expectations of this key American myth of success. In the second module, we think about how we can understand class divisions in the novel, focusing in particular on how characters from the upper class (e.g. Tom Buchanan) appear to sap or steal energy (or 'vitality') from those lower down the social order (e.g. Myrtle Wilson). After that, in the third module, we think about the presentation of social mobility in the novel, as well as some of the new technologies that represent the new world order of the early 1920s: the automobile and the telephone. In the fourth module, we think about narrative technique and style, before turning in the fifth module to consider the reception of the Great Gatsby and its enormous impact on twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature, theatre, ballet and opera.

Lecturer

William Blazek completed his undergraduate study in Minnesota and then conducted postgraduate research in Anglo-American literature at the University of Aberdeen and the University of East Anglia. He taught at the University of New Orleans, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Glasgow before coming to Liverpool Hope University in 1991. His teaching at Liverpool Hope includes the nineteenth-century literature course American Classics and the final-year core-course Modernism, as well as the MA modules Literary Theory and Criticism, The Literature of the First World War, and American Modernism. He serves as the Department of English research coordinator and postgraduate-research coordinator.

A member of the executive board of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, he is also a founding co-editor of The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review (2002-present) and co-editor of the essay collections American Mythologies (with Michael K. Glenday, Liverpool UP 2005) and Twenty-First-Century Readings of 'Tender Is the Night' (with Laura Rattray, Liverpool UP 2007). His research interests include American literature since 1800, Anglo-American modernism, war literature, and Native American writing. His recent and forthcoming publications include essays and articles on the work of Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Edith Wharton, and he is writing a monograph on the themes of work, love, and war in Fitzgerald and Wharton's fiction. As a Director of Studies for PhD students, he has supervised research on F. Scott Fitzgerald, Saul Bellow, and other twentieth-century authors, as well as war literature and the WWII photography of Lee Miller. He would be especially interested in supervising postgraduate research on American literature and culture, First World War literature, and modernism.

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MASSOLIT - Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: The American Dream | Video lecture by Dr William Blazek, Liverpool Hope University

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Dr William Blazek at Liverpool Hope University discusses The American Dream as part of a course on Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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Bad Blood: The Story of Eugenics - You Will Not Replace Us - BBC Sounds

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In Jazz Age USA, the wealthy political elite embrace eugenic ideas with gusto.

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About this Course

About the Course

In this seventeen-part course, Professor John McRae (University of Nottingham) provides a step-by-step guide for approaching unseen poetry. The first three modules introduce key concepts (e.g. the 'movement' the poem, 'binaries', etc.) as well as the more concrete approaches (e.g. compare the first and last lines, look at the verbs, etc.). In modules four to eight, these concepts and approaches are applied to five unseen poems. This is followed in the ninth module with a discussion of the eleven features of poetry that can provide useful starting points for analysis - lexis, syntax, graphology, semantics, etc. In the final eight modules after that, we demonstrate the same approach with eight more poems - four of them very famous, and four of them less so.

About the Lecturer

John McRae is Special Professor of Language in Literature Studies and Teaching Associate in the School of English at Nottingham University, and holds Visiting Professorships in China, Malaysia, Spain and the USA. He is co-author of The Routledge History of Literature in English with Ron Carter, and also wrote The Language of Poetry, Literature with a Small 'l' and the first critical edition of Teleny by Oscar Wilde and others.

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Unseen Poetry | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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Extended Reading- Canonical WW1 Literature. Copies available from the yellow zone desk.

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Extended Reading- Canonical WW1 Literature. Copies available from the yellow zone desk.

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Othello 10 minute videos - Critical Receptions - the handkerchief, race, Iago, Othello, religion, women

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Othello 10 minute videos - Critical Receptions - the handkerchief, race, Iago, Othello, religion, women

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Shakespeare: Othello

In this course, Professor Lisa Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam University) explores six aspects of the critical reception of Shakespeare's Othello. In the first module, we think about the critical reception of the handkerchief, beginning with Thomas Rymer's criticism that Shakespeare could allow so much human suffering to depend on something so insignificant. After that, we think about the ways in which the play has been read in religious terms, before turning in the third module to the critical reception of race in the play. In the fourth and fifth modules, we think about the critical reception of the characters of Iago and Othello, respectively, before turning in the sixth and final module to the critical reception of women in the play.

The Handkerchief

In this module, we think about the critical reception of the handkerchief in Othello, focusing in particular on: (i) the absurdity, in Thomas Rymer's view, that so great a tragedy could depend on something as insignificant as a handkerchief; (ii) the idea that the handkerchief (white, spotted with red strawberries) might represent something else, e.g. Othello and Desdemona's wedding sheets (white, spotted with hymeneal blood); (iii) the value of cloth in the early modern world, especially Cypriot cloth, and the idea that the handkerchief might not be as worthless as it first appears; (iv) the symbolism of the silk handkerchief in the early modern world, and the extent to which it might represent romantic or sexual relations between two (or more) characters.

Reading List:
- Thomas Rymer, A Short View of Tragedy (1693)
- Lynda E. Boose, 'Othello's Handkerchief: "The Recognizance and Pledge of Love", English Literary Renaissance 5.3 (1975)
- Ian Smith, 'Othello's Black Handkerchief', Shakespeare Quarterly 64.1 (2013)
- Roger Christofides, Othello's Secret (2016)
- Brett Gamboa, Shakespeare's Double Plays: Dramatic Economy on the Early Modern Stage (2018)

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Prof. Lisa Hopkins at Sheffield Hallam University discusses The Handkerchief as part of a course on Shakespeare: Othello | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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Emag is available through the LRC and is geared to A Level students with lots of interesting and accessible articles for you to read. Look out for articles on your core texts too...

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Study with Quizlet and memorise flashcards containing terms like Alliteration, Pathetic Fallacy, Prolepsis and others.

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Emag is available through the LRC and is geared to A Level students with lots of interesting and accessible articles for you to read. Look out for articles on your core texts too...

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Review Wednesday's- write a review of a book or movie you have enjoyed.

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Review Wednesday's- write a review of a book or movie you have enjoyed.

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Follow @LRC.osfc on Instagram for more details or pop into the LRC and ask for more information. Read Mia from Year 13/s review of Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History' here... One LRC (@lrc.osfc) • Instagram photos and videos

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by One LRC (@lrc.osfc)

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They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)- available through planet e:stream

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They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)- available through planet e:stream

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Login using your OSFC password. This fascinating documentary shows a colourised version of real WW1 footage, accompanied by voice overs of WW1 survivors. How does it compare to the literature you have studied?

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Peter Jackson brings to life the people who can best tell the story of World War I: the men who were there. Contains some upsetting scenes. Also in HD. [2018] [AD,S]

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Love Through the Ages_ An Introduction to Historical Contexts

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Love Through the Ages_ An Introduction to Historical Contexts

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About this Course

About the Course

This course explores the theme of love from the earliest English literature to the present day - from authors that you have likely heard of, such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Byron and Keats, to authors that are perhaps less well-known. This is a course that celebrates love in all it forms and between all kinds of people.

About the Lecturer

John McRae is Special Professor of Language in Literature Studies and Teaching Associate in the School of English at Nottingham University, and holds Visiting Professorships in China, Malaysia, Spain and the USA. He is co-author of The Routledge History of Literature in English with Ron Carter, and also wrote The Language of Poetry, Literature with a Small 'l' and the first critical edition of Teleny by Oscar Wilde and others.

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Prof. John McRae at Nottingham University discusses Love Through the Ages | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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About this Course

About the Course

In this course, Professor John Lennard talks through the craft of poetry in a course that draws on his international bestseller, The Poetry Handbook, which has been a favourite with both sixth-form students and undergraduates since its first publication in 1996. As we move through the course, we look at every technical aspect of poetry, including metre, form, layout, lineation, rhyme, diction, syntax, before thinking about how much readers of poetry should draw on historical and biographical context when analysing and interpreting poetry.

Throughout the course, technical discussion of poetry is richly illustrated with examples from some of the greatest poets in the English language, including: William Shakespeare, George Herbert, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Wilfred Owen, W. B. Yeats, Philip Larkin, Seamus Heaney, Geoffrey Hill, and Derek Walcott.

About the Lecturer

Born in Bristol, and educated at Oxford and St Louis, Dr John Lennard has taught English, American, and Commonwealth Literature in Cambridge, London, and Jamaica over more than twenty years. He has written two widely used textbooks (on poetry and drama) and monographs on Shakespeare, Paul Scott, Nabokov, and Faulkner, as well as two collections of essays on contemporary genre writers in crime, science fiction and fantasy, and romance. Enthusiastic, discursive, widely knowledgeable, and a demon for punctuation (on which he has also published extensively), he has been a popular Summer School Course Leader and lecturer for the Institute of Continuing Education since 1992.

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Prof. John Lennard at Independent Scholar discusses Poetry: How to Read and Analyse Poetry | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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Reader's Guide to A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry, including an interview with Barry about writing the novel and some discussion questions that you might like to consider. 

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Reader's Guide to A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry, including an interview with Barry about writing the novel and some discussion questions that you might like to consider. 

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"A deeply moving story of courage and fidelity."-J.M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author of "A modern masterpiece."- The Boston Globe

"Barry succeeds admirably in creating complex individuals who find themselves trapped in a brutal reality."- Los Angeles Times

"Wrenching...[Barry marches] bravely into the darkest, most dangerous terrain of human nature."- The Christian Science Monitor

"Nobody writers better about the trenches of the First World War than Sebastian Barry. In brutally effective prose he lays bare and celebrates the heroism of the young men whose livers were lost on the killing fields of France. His great gift is that he makes you feel he is reporting events that he's witnessed first hand."-Peter Sheridan, author of Everything Inch of Her

"This is Sebastian Barry's song of innocence and experience, composed with poetic grace and an eye, both unflinching and tender, for savage detail and moments of pure beauty. It is also an astonishing display of Barry's gift for creative a memorable character, whom he has written, indelibly, back into a history which continues to haunt us."-Colm Tóibín

"Lyrical...Willie Dunne's voice, like his dilemmas, has the resonance of authenticity."-Hew Starchan, author of The First World War

" A Long Long Way is one of those novels that, as you turn it over in your mind, may just stay with you a long, long time."- The Denver Post

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A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry: 9780143035091 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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A powerful new novel about divided loyalties and the realities of war from "master storyteller" (Wall Street Journal) Sebastian Barry, author of Old God's Time In 1914, Willie Dunne,...

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How to compare The Great Gatsby to pre-1900 poetry

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How to compare The Great Gatsby to pre-1900 poetry

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The Great Gatsby & AQA Poetry Anthology Comparison (Pre-1900)

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Context reading for 'A Long Long Way'- Irish involvement in WW1

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Context reading for 'A Long Long Way'- Irish involvement in WW1

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In summer 1914 Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, stood on the brink of civil war. Parliament had voted for Home Rule - limited self-government - for Ireland, a controversial and divisive policy.

One result of this was that both those in favour of Home Rule and those against it organised their own armed forces: the anti-Home Rule Ulster Volunteer Force and the pro-Home Rule Irish Volunteers.

Here's how a divided Ireland ended up supplying 200,000 men to fight Britain's cause against Germany.

Some of the items below are on display in our First World War Galleries. You can use this article to guide you to their location in the galleries. We have also included additional information that sheds light on the story of the Ireland's contribution to the war effort.

Estimates of how many Irish men fought in the First World War vary, but it is now generally accepted that around 200,000 soldiers from the island of Ireland served over the course of the war. The majority of them would not be the professional soldiers and Territorials who fought in those first clashes in 1914, but volunteers.

The 10th Division was involved in the chaotic Suvla Bay landings in August 1915, and its attacks on Turkish positions at 'Chocolate Hill' and Kiretch Tepe Sirt ridge led to significant casualties. Lack of water and the fierce Turkish summer sun also took their toll on the men. After just two months, half of the 10th Division's 17,000 soldiers were dead, missing, injured or sick.

At 7.30am on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the soldiers of 36th (Ulster) Division began their advance towards the German lines. Their objective was the capture of the Schwaben Redoubt, a German defensive structure built to withstand heavy artillery attack. Colonel William Savage, who commanded 13th Royal Irish Rifles - one of the battalions which made up the Division - reported that, 'Directly the start was made the German MGs could be heard firing at once. From this time I received no messages, & the Companies were lost.' One soldier from the Division man described how bullets could be seen in the air looking like a 'fine shower of hail'. The Division nonetheless managed to seize its objective, one of the few to do so. Yet lacking support and running out ammunition, it was forced to withdraw.

That day, over one in three of the 15,000 soldiers in 36th Division became a casualty and 2,000 lay dead. Four Victoria Crosses were awarded to officers and men of the Division for their gallantry in the attack on the Schwaben Redoubt, two of them posthumously.

The 16th (Irish) Division drew many of its recruits from the Irish National Volunteers, which was created before the outbreak of war to counter any armed opposition to the implementation of Home Rule. The Division landed in France in December 1915 and was in action two months later. In September 1916 on the Somme, it suffered over 4,000 casualties - of which 1,200 were killed - in ten days of fighting at Guillemont and Ginchy. Of Guillemont, one Irish officer wrote, 'There is nothing but the mud and the gaping shell-holes - a chaotic wilderness of shell-holes, rim overlapping rim - and, in the bottom of many, the bodies of the dead.'

The 16th (Irish) Division's capture of Ginchy deprived the Germans of observation posts, from which they could observe the whole battlefield. It also eliminated the salient at Delville Wood, which had been subjected to German artillery fire from three sides as well as counter-attacks by German infantry through July and August.

State munitions factories were also established employing around 2,100 people, mostly women, in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Waterford. Although Irish women did not work in munitions factories in the numbers seen in Britain, their numbers were sufficient to raise a moral panic about their behaviour which led to the setting up of patrols to police the off duty conduct of the women. One patrol member claimed, 'I have turned my flashlight into dark doorways and corners in laneways and disclosed scenes that are truly indescribable'.

Irish women also took on jobs traditionally done by men such as working as bus conductors, farm hands and office clerks. Many women were also involved in voluntary roles such as fundraising and preparing comfort packages for troops.

The Royal Navy had intercepted the rifles and guns which Germany had sent to arm them, and many people in Ireland opposed armed revolt or were reluctant to take part. The result was that the Easter Rising was confined to Dublin, with only around 1,000 rebels taking part.

Britain sent troop reinforcements into Dublin and a week of fierce street fighting followed. An estimated 300 civilians, 60 rebels, and 130 British soldiers and police were killed or wounded. On Friday 28 April, vastly outnumbered, the rebels surrendered.

The following month, 90 participants in the Rising were court-martialled and sentenced to death. Fourteen were executed by firing squad. One of them, James Connolly, had been badly wounded and was unable to stand. He was shot whilst tied to a chair. Many other rebels, including future Taoiseach and President Eamonn de Valera, were imprisoned without trial in Britain. The brutality of Britain's response to the Easter Rising would generate much sympathy in Ireland for the rebels and their cause.

More objects and photographs about the Easter Rising can be seen in the 'At All Costs' area of our First World War Galleries.

The execution of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising had swelled support for a republican movement that demanded complete independence from Britain. In the general election of 1918, the Irish republican party - Sinn Fein - won a majority, set up their own parliament in Dublin and proclaimed Ireland a republic. When Britain tried to suppress the republicans, the situation in Ireland rapidly became a bloody guerrilla war, with both sides resorting to brutal tactics and atrocities.

Widespread revulsion in Britain forced the government to negotiate. In December 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. It saw the establishment of an independent Irish Free State, while six northern counties with a strong Protestant majority remained part of the United Kingdom. It was not, however, the end of the violence. From 1922 to 1923, anti-Treaty republicans, who demanded independence for all Ireland, fought a bitter civil war against the forces of the Irish Free State, which emerged victorious.

In July 2014 Irish President Michael D Higgins attended the dedication of a cross of sacrifice at Ireland's Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. In his address, President Higgins said, 'We cannot give back their lives to the dead, nor whole bodies to those who were wounded, or repair the grief, undo the disrespect that was sometimes shown to those who fought or their families. ... To all of them in their silence we offer our own silence, without judgement, and with respect for their ideals, as they knew them, and for the humanity they expressed towards each other.'

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In summer 1914 Ireland, then part of the UK, stood on the brink of civil war. Parliament had voted for Home Rule - limited self-government - for Ireland, a controversial and divisive policy. One result of this was that both those in favour of Home Rule and those against it organised their own armed forces: the anti-Home Rule Ulster Volunteer Force and the pro-Home Rule Irish Volunteers.

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Study with Quizlet and memorise flashcards containing terms like allusion, rhyme scheme, Personification and others.

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Move Him Into The Sun - an interesting WW1 Literature blog written by an English teacher with lots of interesting summaries and notes on A Long Long Way and some of the poems we study in Up the Line to Death

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Move Him Into The Sun - an interesting WW1 Literature blog written by an English teacher with lots of interesting summaries and notes on A Long Long Way and some of the poems we study in Up the Line to Death

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'Regeneration' by Pat Barker: An Introduction

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'Regeneration' by Pat Barker: An Introduction

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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we provide a brief introduction to the novel, picking up on some of the themes and issues that will be explored in greater detail in the later sections. In particular, we think about the context of the First World War, the figures of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, and how concepts of heroism have changed from the earliest literature to the present day.

Course

In this course, we explore Pat Barker's 'Regeneration'. Set in 1917 in Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, the novel follows psychiatrist William Rivers as he treats shell-shocked soldiers, including the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. This course sees Professor John McRae (University of Nottingham) read through novel chapter-by-chapter, focusing on key moments and episodes in the novel, thinking about the wider themes and issues with which this rich, complex, and enjoyable novel is engaged.

Lecturer

John McRae is Special Professor of Language in Literature Studies and Teaching Associate in the School of English at Nottingham University, and holds Visiting Professorships in China, Malaysia, Spain and the USA. He is co-author of The Routledge History of Literature in English with Ron Carter, and also wrote The Language of Poetry, Literature with a Small 'l' and the first critical edition of Teleny by Oscar Wilde and others.

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MASSOLIT - Pat Barker: Regeneration: Introduction to 'Regeneration' | Video lecture by Prof. John McRae, Nottingham University

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About this Lecture Lecture In this module, we provide a brief introduction to the novel, picking up on some of the themes and issues that will be explored in greater detail in the later sections.

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A WW1 Literary Classic now a Five Star Film- New to Netflix

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A WW1 Literary Classic now a Five Star Film- New to Netflix

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All Quiet on the Western Front | Official Teaser | Netflix

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An excellent discussion of the life and poetry of Wilfred Owen.

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CONTRIBUTORS
Guy Cuthbertson at Liverpool Hope University Jane Potter at Oxford Brookes University Fran Brearton at Queen's University Belfast
Pat Barker, The Regeneration Trilogy (Penguin, 2014)

Guy Cuthbertson, Wilfred Owen (Yale University Press, 2014)

Santanu Das, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Poetry of the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2014)

Santanu Das, Touch and Intimacy in First World War Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2005)

Max Egremont, Siegfried Sassoon: A Biography (Picador, 2006)

Dominic Hibberd, Wilfred Owen: A New Biography (Phoenix, 2003)

Dominic Hibberd, Owen the Poet (Macmillan, 1986)

Tim Kendall, Modern English War Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2006)

Tim Kendall (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of British and Irish War Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2007)

Wilfred Owen (ed. John Bell), Selected Letters (Oxford University Press, 1998)

Wilfred Owen (ed. Jon Stallworthy), The War Poems of Wilfred Owen (Chatto and Windus, 1994)

Jane Potter and Jon Stallworthy, Wilfred Owen: An Illustrated Life (Bodleian Library, 2014)

Harry Ricketts, Strange Meetings: The Poets of the Great War (Chatto, 2010)

Jon Stallworthy, Wilfred Owen: A Biography (Oxford University Press, 1974)
The First World War Poetry Digital Archive The Wilfred Owen Association
Wilfred Owen - Wikipedia

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the outstanding poets of the First World War.

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Wilfred Owen | Poetry Foundation

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Wilfred Owen, who wrote some of the best British poetry on World War I, composed nearly all of his poems in slightly over a year, from August 1917 to September 1918. In November 1918 he was killed in action at the age of 25, one week before the Armistice. Only five poems were published in his…

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Book recommendation- Regeneration by Par Barker

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Book recommendation- Regeneration by Par Barker

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MASSOLIT lectures on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1)

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MASSOLIT lectures on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1)

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About this Course

About the Course

In this course, we explore several aspects of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In the first module, we focus on some of the myths that lie behind the novel. After that, we think about the kind of knowledge that Victor engages with when he is creating the creature, before looking in detail at the creation of the creature, its early life and education, and the relationship between Victor and his creation. In the final module, we think about how the novel engages with and explores the concept of prejudice.

About the Lecturer

David's research interets range from eighteenth-century to contemporary literature, and he has written most extensively about the romantic and the Gothic. He is Life Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Gothic Association, as well as being a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Fellow of the English Association, Fellow of the Institute for Contemporary Scotland, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and Fellow of the Royasl Society of Arts (RSA). With regard to the RSA, he has just completed a two-year stint as Chair of its West Region. He has also published on postcolonial literature, critical theory and psychoanalysis. As well as his qualifications in English, he also has a partial psychoanalytic training, and has recently completed a degree in law. He has published five small volumes of poetry, and performs his poetry regularly in Bristol and beyond.

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Prof. David Punter at Bristol University discusses Shelley: Frankenstein | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.

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Learning Resource Centre Catalogue_ find books here

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Learning Resource Centre Catalogue_ find books here

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MASSOLIT lectures on Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go

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MASSOLIT lectures on Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go

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About this Course

About the Course

In this course, Dr Richard Robinson (Swansea University) explores Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel, Never Let Me Go. We begin by introducing Ishiguro's previous works, before focusing on the idea on the unreliable first-person narrator. After that, we consider a number of themes in the novel, including the presentation of time and memory, the style and voice of the novel, the ideas of 'original' and 'copy', and the relationship between art and creation. In the sixth and final module, we think about the genre of Never Let Me Go: is it a science fiction novel? does it matter?

About the Lecturer

Richard Robinson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English Literature and Creative Writing at Swansea University. He has published widely on modernism and contemporary fiction, in journals such as James Joyce Quarterly, Journal of European Studies, Critical Quarterly, Modern Fiction Studies, Textual Practice and Irish University Review, and is the author of two monographs, Narratives of the European Border: A History of Nowhere (Palgrave, 2007) and John McGahern and Modernism (Bloomsbury, 2016).

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Dr Richard Robinson at Swansea University discusses Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go | High-quality, curriculum-linked video lectures for GCSE, A Level and IB, produced by MASSOLIT.