This course looks at comedy in drama, novels, and films from Classical Greece to the twentieth century. Focusing on examples from Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Molière, Wilde, Chaplin, and Billy Wilder, along with theoretical contexts, the class examines comedy as a transgressive mode with revolutionary social and political implications. This is a Communications Intensive (CI) class with emphasis on discussion, and frequent, short essays.

In 1758, Samuel Johnson noted that the itch of scribbling had seized the nation. 'The rage of writing has seized the old and young' across all segments of society, he observed, so that now 'the cook warbles her lyrics in the kitchen, and the thrasher vociferates his heroics in the barn.' Johnson's observation drew attention to an important development in the eighteenth century literary world: the emergence of the labouring class writer. Over the course of the century increasing numbers of agricultural labourers, household servants, bricklayers, shoemakers, milkmaids, soldiers and sailors not only tool up writing, but also published their work, and, in some cases, made a significant impact on contemporary literary culture. This collection of resources looks at these writers.

This collection of resources considers the role of Oriental fiction in the development of the English novel in the 18th century.

Poetic miscellanies represent a particularly important and popular mediation of poetry in the eighteenth century, since they represent one of the most visible points of contact between the shaping of the literary canon, and the commercial demands of print culture. Yet they remain little used or studied because of their bewildering number and variety: at the most conservative estimate, there were a thousand published between 1700-1800, yet the contents of most of these are relatively unknown and unexamined. In this collection, you will be able to learn more about and explore some miscellanies from the time.

The writers included in this collection of resources present richer understandings of exactly what it means to be a "colonial", to be writing from a "colony". If it is the short stories of Rudyard Kipling, with their subtle critiques of Anglo-Indian society, the bleak ambivalence of Joseph Conrad's winding syntax, or the outright anti-imperial critiques of Olive Schreiner, these writers configure a space that can be considered at least postcolonial, if not anti-colonial, into their fiction.

Many books and university courses, trying to compensate for a history of the neglect or mistrust of plays as performance, use the phrase "from page to stage" to think about the dramatic possibilities of their texts. In fact, for the early modern theatre, the phrase needs to be the other way around--from stage to page. Plays were performances first, and only later, and then only sometimes, books. This section of Great Writers gathers resources--podcasts, eBooks, websites--to explore the two interconnected lives of the early modern play--as an event in time and space on the stage of the Globe or Blackfriars theatre, and as a material printed object, on sale to Elizabethan and Jacobean readers in the booksellers' quarter around St Paul's Churchyard.

This section brings together resources from the across the Great Writers Inspire site to illustrate how these can be used as a starting point for exploration of or classroom discussion about economic and social literary criticism. The 'Economic and Social Literary Criticism' essay introduces a series of topics and questions and gives examples of resources to explore. It is aimed at teachers, students and anyone who is interested in literature who wants to put text into context and be inspired by Great Writers.

This section brings together resources from the across the Great Writers Inspire site to illustrate how these can be used as a starting point for exploration of or classroom discussion about the political aspects of literature. The 'Feminist Approaches to Literature' essay presents a basic introduction to feminist literary theory, and a compendium of Great Writers Inspire resources that can be approached from a feminist perspective. It introduces a series of topics and questions and gives examples of resources to explore. It is aimed at teachers, students and anyone who is interested in literature who wants to put text into context and be inspired by Great Writers.

This collection of resources considers the obsession with high and low art forms found in late 17th and early 18th English literature.

Ezra Pound's maxim, "Make it new" ("Canto LIII") is often quoted as a succinct summary of modernism. What's most inspirational about modernism, in my view, is its determination to question the basic assumptions of our lives, and art's relation to them. Everything is up for grabs--from how we think, to what kind of world we should live in, from the impact of new technologies, to what kind of role the artist should play in contemporary life. This collection of resources looks at Modernism in literature.

This section brings together resources from the across the Great Writers Inspire site to illustrate how these can be used as a starting point for exploration of or classroom discussion about the authorship.The 'Notions of Authorship' essay introduces the topic and offers suggestions of how to approach it. It also gives examples of resources from the Great Writers Inspire to explore. The introductory essay is aimed at teachers, students and anyone who is interested in literature who wants to put text into context and be inspired by Great Writers.

This section brings together resources from the across the Great Writers Inspire site to illustrate how these can be used as a starting point for exploration of or classroom discussion about the political aspects of literature. The 'Approaching Political Literature' essay introduces a series of topics and questions and gives examples of resources to explore. It is aimed at teachers, students and anyone who is interested in literature who wants to put text into context and be inspired by Great Writers.

This section brings together resources from the across the Great Writers Inspire site to illustrate how these can be used as a starting point for exploration of or classroom discussion about genre. The 'Questions of Genre' essay introduces a series of topics and questions and gives examples of resources to explore. It is aimed at teachers, students and anyone who is interested in literature who wants to put text into context and be inspired by Great Writers.

This collection contains essays, eBooks and other material related to or created during the time of reformation and reform in England.

This collection of resources looks at the simmering debate between science and natural theology raged across the Victorian period and it's influence on literature.

The Elizabethan and Jacobean theatres specialized in new plays which had relatively few performances over a period of a few weeks. There was thus a huge appetite for fresh writing, and hundreds of plays, many now lost, were produced, often collaboratively. In this section of Great Writers Inspire some of these non-Shakespearean plays and authors are introduced through a combination of podcasts, eBooks and supporting materials.

In the Victorian era, Gothic fiction had ceased to be a dominant literary genre. However,the Gothic tropes used earlier in the eighteenth century in texts such as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho were transported and interwoven into many late-nineteenth century narratives. These tropes included psychological and physical terror; mystery and the supernatural; madness, doubling, and heredity curses. This collection of resources looks at Gothic fiction.

This collection of resources looks at the history of publishing in 19th Century England including magazines, serialized fiction, lending libraries, and the three-volume novel.