127012 KO Critical Readings in Literature (2017S)

There are many Londons. Through the pages of fiction this course lets you explore some of them. By engaging in critical reading the course examines the different ways that the places and peoples of London have been imagined, by writers from the Victorian period to the Post-Millennial era. Over ten weeks we will examine five very different novels using different critical frameworks that include: Victorian serial fiction, fin de siècle gothic, modernism, postcolonialism and post-Millennial contemporary fiction. The set texts include (in this order): "Oliver Twist", "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde", "Mrs Dalloway", "Lonely Londoners" and "NW". Weekly classes will alternative between lecture and discussion-led contexts to student-led close readings of the texts.