Literary London: June 8-June 24, 2012
The London Program features two separate courses for undergraduates and graduate students, and a variety of content-related learning experiences in central London.
ENGL 404.01/510.01 Dickens and His City
Assistant Professor David Kaplin
The narrator of Dickens's Sketches by Boz exclaims, "What inexhaustible food for speculation do the streets of London afford!" This course will take advantage of our stay in London by focusing on the extant landmarks of Dickens’ life and literary works. Informed by scholarship such as Alexander Welsh’s The City of Dickens and F.S. Schwarzbach’s Dickens and the City, the course will explore London through the eyes of his principal characters and investigate how urbanization influences the goals, techniques, and politics of realist representation. We will focus on three texts: Bleak House, Sketches by Boz, and Fred Kaplan’s excellent and entertaining biography of Dickens.
ENGL 404.02/520.01 Women Writing London
Associate Professor Adrienne McCormick
This course focuses on women writers of the 20th century, exploring British women’s experiences centered in London history. We begin with two classics by Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own and Mrs. Dalloway. From there, we move on to The Emporer’s Babe, a novel in verse by Bernardine Evaristo exploring gender and race in Roman Londinium via 20th century chick lit; Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier on militant suffragists at the turn of the 20th century; and then to Sarah Waters’ The Night Watch, which explores the experiences of women during the Blitz and WWII London. The second week of the course will turn to representations of the contemporary period, featuring explorations of postcolonial and postmodern London via such works as Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, Penelope Lively’s City of the Mind, plays by Caryl Churchill, and poems by Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, and Moniza Alvi.
Excursions of interest feature an angel tour at Highgate Cemetary, research on Roman London and militant suffragists, and Dickens at the Museum of London, and on Virginia Woolf at the Women’s Library. Explorations of Dickensian London will include walking trips in Lincolns Inn Fields, The Strand, and Regents Park. Other excursions may include trips to view the design history and fashion trends in Britain at the Victoria and Albert Museum of Textiles and Design and the poet’s corner at Westminster Abbey, exploring the Indian and Bangladeshi communities of London at Brick Lane, as well as related exhibits at the British Library, the British Museum, and the Tate Modern. Students will also get to visit Oxford, touring the campuses and seeing what college life in England is like. We will also take a day trip to Stonehenge, Avebury, and Lacock. Time in London will also be allowed for general sightseeing, so that students can experience the London Eye, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Tower of London and the like.
These courses satisfy the CCC 12 Upper-Level category for non-English majors, and provide a required author course and program elective for English majors, minors, and concentrators.
Please contact Adrienne McCormick for additional information. adrienne.mccormick@fredonia.edu
Housing:ApartmentsCourse Dates: June 8 - June 24, 2012
Eligible Participants: Students in good academic standing and community members are welcome to apply.
Application Deadline: February 1
Cost: Summer 2012 Budget
Payment: Full payment of the Course Fee is due to the International Education Center by February 15, 2012
Application: Apply Now- notification of acceptance into the program will be sent to students on a rolling basis from now until February 1, 2012. Payment of the course fee will guarantee your place in the program.
Pay the course fee with electronic check or credit card online.