English Literature Enrichment Curriculum
AEP 2022-23 English Literature Enrichment Curriculum
Groups and Timetable
Group A |
Group B |
Group C |
Group D |
| Subject tutor: Cathy | Subject tutor: Caroline | Subject tutor: Cathy | Subject tutor: Caroline |
| Thursday 3rd November, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 8th November, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 15th November, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 22nd November, 5-6:30pm |
| Thursday 1st December, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 6th December, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 13th December, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 10th January, 5-6:30pm |
| Thursday 19th January, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 24th January, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 31st January, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 7th February, 5-6:30pm |
| Thursday 2nd March, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 7th March, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 14th March, 5-6:30pm | Tuesday 21st March, 5-6:30pm |
Resources and Recordings
Group A
I hope you have all had a good break over the festive season and are now getting back into the rhythm of term-time. I am really looking forward to seeing you for our third English session on Thursday 19th January at 5pm.
In this session, we are going to turn to how we might read prose, following our opening sessions on reading poetry and early modern drama. We’ll start by asking about how prose works and then, using a short story by American writer, Ernest Hemingway, we will look at how a structuralist critic might approach it. Then we turn to a brief sketch by Virginia Woolf and reflect on how a feminist reading might help us to explore it.
In preparation for the session please do the following – you can do it in bits or all in one go. It should take about an hour or perhaps 90 minutes in total. I have divided them into separate documents to make things easier!
Essential reading
1. Read and make notes (any thoughts at all) on Hemingway’s ‘Cat in the Rain’.
2. Read document entitled Structuralism – main ideas and what structuralist critics do.
3. Read V Woolf ‘A Sketch of the Past’.
4. Read document entitled What Feminist Critics Do.
Optional reading
Very much up to you, if you have the time, then please do read this too – but there will be time in the class to have a quick read.
David Lodge analysis of first paragraph
I also attach the extract for your follow-up piece of work – there are options too – in case you want to look ahead to what I’d like you to do after the class.
Homework for prose session – opening of ‘The Dead’ by James Joyce
Looking forward to seeing you in the session itself!
Bring along your short homework on one aspect of one of the scenes we discussed last time. Have a short paragraph or even a few sentences ready to share. If you missed the last class, no need to do the work (unless you did the reading and really want to!) – just see you in the session.
Cathy
8.1.23
Recording
Group B
Pre-session resources
Cat in the Rain (Ernest Hemingway)
Extension activities
Thinking about the question ‘What is Literature?’ makes us aware that the answers are innumerable; it is, in fact, an unanswerable question, as attitudes towards what constitutes Literature shift and change constantly, reflecting changing societies. However, if we are going fully to enjoy and respond to literary texts, I think it’s a question which we need to keep tucked away somewhere in our mind, to be brought out and dusted off once in a while!
EITHER
To record your current thoughts, write an answer in whatever form you find most helpful to the question ‘What is Literature?’
OR
Choose a specific text and make a case for it to be classed as ‘Literature’. This could be one of the ones we looked at today, or could be an A Level text, or could be something you love but you’ve been told it’s not ‘good literature’ and you should be reading Shakespeare instead!
Whichever task you choose, aim to write about 300 - 500 words – not a whole essay! Have fun with the task – there are no Assessment Objectives to worry about….
Any questions then email outreach@lucy.cam.ac.uk.
Pre-session resources
Recording (and resources to be used in the session)
Group C
Resources
Structuralism - main ideas and what structuralist critics do
A Sketch of the Past (V Woolf)
David Lodge analysis of first paragraph
Recording
Homework
Extension resources
Both of these books are helpful to extend your experience of ways in which, as English students, you can approach fiction. They are both written by academics but are writing for a general audience, as their two books started life as a weekly column for The Independent on Sunday and the Washington Post (Lodge) and The Guardian (Mullan).
David Lodge, The Art of Fiction, Penguin, 1992
John Mullan, How Novels Work, Oxford, 2006
Pre-session resources
Please read 'Hybrid genres' first, as this explains the others.
Two mid-points (Measure and Merchant)
Miserly grey of a London sky on Carnival Monday
The final paragraphs of 'The Dead' Joyce
Recording
Group D
Pre-session resources
Pre-reading and thinking - What is Literature?
Cat in the Rain by Ernest Hemmingway
Extension activities
Thinking about the question ‘What is Literature?’ makes us aware that the answers are innumerable; it is, in fact, an unanswerable question, as attitudes towards what constitutes Literature shift and change constantly, reflecting changing societies. However, if we are going fully to enjoy and respond to literary texts, I think it’s a question which we need to keep tucked away somewhere in our mind, to be brought out and dusted off once in a while!
EITHER
To record your current thoughts, write an answer in whatever form you find most helpful to the question ‘What is Literature?’
OR
Choose a specific text and make a case for it to be classed as ‘Literature’. This could be one of the ones we looked at today, or could be an A Level text, or could be something you love but you’ve been told it’s not ‘good literature’ and you should be reading Shakespeare instead!
Whichever task you choose, aim to write about 300 - 500 words – not a whole essay!
Have fun with the task – there are no Assessment Objectives to worry about….
Any questions then email outreach@lucy.cam.ac.uk.
Caroline
Pre-session resources
In-session resources
Recording
English
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