Key facts

Type	Oxford Qualification - Part-time
Start date	Sep 2012
Subject area(s)	Literature
Fees	Fees for 2012-2013 are £1,850 (EU students) and £3,500 (Non-EU students).
Application status	Applications being accepted
Application deadline	Thu 31 May 2012
Course contact	If you have any questions about this course, please email ppaward@conted.ox.ac.uk.

Overview

This course offers an exciting possibility to study English literature at degree level. Leading to the Oxford University award of a Foundation Certificate in English Literature it is equivalent to the first year of a full-time undergraduate English degree.

On completion of the Foundation Certificate, many students go on to complete their English Literature degrees, some in Oxford, others elsewhere, applying for entry in year two of a degree course. Applicants should note that successful completion of the course does not confer automatic right of entry to any institution: acceptance by an Oxford College is at the discretion of the College Admissions Tutor.

However a significant proportion of students from the course have achieved considerable success: over fifty students have moved on to full-time study at Oxford colleges since 1995, while others have gained places at other universities, such as Warwick, Exeter, UCL, Oxford Brookes, Cardiff, Glasgow and Birmingham.

Do you enjoy reading a wide range of books, and discussing your reading with others? If so you might enjoy the challenge of the Foundation Certificate in English Literature.

• Two-year course, equivalent to the first year of a full-time undergraduate degree

• Tutorials, seminars, and dedicated day schools at Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education

• Free access to English Faculty lectures and the Bodleian Library

• Students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and are offered support and guidance throughout the course. Please click on our student spotlight for one student's experience of the course.

Open Evening

All those who have an interest in studying English Literature are invited to come to our Literature Open Evening at Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, from 6.00pm to 8.00pm on Tuesday 24 April 2012. This is a chance to see the Department, meet the tutors and discuss the course.

Description

The Course Aims

• To familiarise students with a range of English literary works from Shakespeare to the present
• to relate these works to their relevant contexts – literary, historical, social and intellectual
• to inculcate general skills in the analysis of literature, including an ability to read closely and to recognise and apply approaches in contemporary literary theory
• to enable students to develop the analytical and communication skills needed to present literary critical arguments orally and in writing.

There are three main elements to the Foundation Certificate in English Literature

• Criticism: History, Theory and Practice

• Victorian and Modernist Literature

• Renaissance Literature and Shakespeare

The course involves:

• 10 two-hour classes in the evenings each term

• 2 one-hour tutorials each term

• A one-week Shakespeare summer school and six day schools over the two years

Who is it for?

Successful candidates are mature individuals who can show, both in their application and at interview, strong motivation and a prior interest in literature. They will have to demonstrate an effective command of written English and some proficiency in discussing their reading.

This course is intensive and intellectually challenging, and demands a high level of commitment from its students. Applicants should note that they are likely to need to devote at least 12 hours a week to private study. However, if you have little or no recent experience of study or examinations you should not be deterred from applying for a place. Relevant qualifications, particularly if recent, will normally be favourably regarded; but formal qualifications are not essential and other considerations may be more important.

Comments from previous students

"This course has been beautifully structured to match the mature student who aspires to a better education but lacks direction and confidence. The teaching has been sensitive and stimulating, as well as a great deal of fun. Students are encouraged and given practical, comprehensive instruction. I found this course to be a fantastic opportunity to re-awaken skills I had long forgotten I might have possessed, and it has not only changed my approach to literature but also the way I think about many other things."

"Being on the Foundation Certificate has totally re-drawn the boundary of my ambitions, and promoted and fostered a genuine sense of confidence and ability. It has taught me a great deal about myself, and quite genuinely changed the direction of my life for the better."

Programme details

Course Structure

The course covers a range of English literature from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. Among the authors studied will be Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Hardy, Conrad, Yeats and Woolf. Close analysis of works by these and other authors, reinforced by general discussion of modern critical theory and practice, will provide the basis for an enhanced appreciation of the pleasures and problems associated with the serious reading of literature.

Classes will meet once a week, on Tuesday evenings, starting with a pre-course meeting on 26 September 2012. There will be ten classes per term, each of two hours’ duration.

In addition there will be a Shakespeare summer school of five days' duration between year one and year two, as well as a series of six day schools, one a term. Some of these day schools will be part of the Public Programme, while a number will be designed specifically for Foundation Certificate students. Each day school will be linked to the syllabus, usually by its subject matter, though the third will focus on preparation for examinations.

There will be two one-hour tutorial sessions for each student in each term; there will normally be a maximum of two students in each tutorial group.

The course will consist of three principal elements, each subdivided, to offer a total of six sections over its two-year span. The three elements are:

i) Criticism: History, Theory and Practice
ii) Victorian and Modernist Literature
iii) Renaissance Literature

YEAR ONE

Section 1: Introduction to the course and to the study of literature
The introductory sessions will raise fundamental questions about why and how we should study literature and then concentrate on detailed analysis of poetry and fiction. The emphasis will be on techniques of close reading, but we also hope to impart a sense of literary history and an understanding of the links between literature and its wider contexts.

Section 2: Victorian fiction and poetry
This section will deal first with works by three Victorian novelists: Dickens, Charlotte Brontë and Hardy. Seminar discussion will focus on David Copperfield, Jane Eyre and Tess of the d’Urbervilles. The second part of the section will offer a survey of the main forms and themes of Victorian poetry. Discussion will concentrate on Tennyson, Browning, Christina Rossetti and Hopkins. Both fiction and poetry will be related to their social and intellectual contexts.

Section 3: Renaissance poetry
The third section will be largely devoted to the study of Renaissance poetry and to the contemporary critical debate about its form and purpose. We shall examine a selection of poems by Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, John Donne and George Herbert. In this term a special day school will be devoted to preparation for the first-year examinations.

Shakespeare Summer School
Focusing centrally on two comedies, two tragedies and two history plays, the one-week summer school will combine close textual analysis with an exploration of the wider context of Shakespeare’s work. The texts will be: A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Winter's Tale; Hamlet; King Lear; Richard III; Henry IV Pt I.

Calendar for Year One: 2012-13

Pre-course meeting
Wednesday 26 September 2012

Michaelmas Term
Wednesday 3 October to Wednesday 12 December 2012 inclusive, with the exception of 7 November.

Hilary Term
Wednesday 2 January to Wednesday 13 March 2013 inclusive, with the exception of 6 February.

Trinity Term
Wednesday 10 April to Wednesday 19 June 2013 inclusive, with the exception of 15 May.

All evening meetings are on Wednesdays from 7.00pm - 9.00pm in Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford.

Day Schools
Saturday 13 October 2012 Reading Modern Fiction
Saturday 16 March 2013 Victorian Fiction
Saturday 11 May 2013 Exam preparation

Shakespeare Summer School
Monday 16 - Friday 20 September 2013

Year One Examinations (provisional dates)
Saturday 22 June 2013 11:00am - 1:00pm Victorian Literature
Saturday 22 June 2013 2:30pm - 4:45pm Criticism
Sunday 23 June 2013 2:30pm - 4:30pm Renaissance Poetry

YEAR TWO

Section 4: Modern critical theory
The fourth section will examine major issues in critical theory in the light of modern developments. Among the topics to be discussed will be the author, genre, narrative and the production and reception of texts; among the topics will be Structuralism, Deconstruction, Marxist and Feminist criticism, New Historicism and Post-Colonial theory.

Section 5: Modernist literature
This section is an exploration of the rise of Modernism in Britain and Ireland, grounded in an awareness of the social, political and ideological developments of the early years of the twentieth century. We shall be focusing primarily on the following texts: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; James Joyce’s Dubliners; TS Eliot’s The Waste Land; Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway; and the poetry of WB Yeats.

Section 6: Renaissance drama
The sixth section will deal with the drama of the Renaissance, excluding that of Shakespeare, which will be the focus of the summer school. Among the texts likely to be taught will be: Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II and Dr Faustus; Ben Jonson’s Volpone and The Alchemist, and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil. The course will conclude with preparation for the second year examinations.

Lectures

As well as the lectures arranged specifically for the Foundation Certificate, you will be entitled, for no extra payment, to attend the wide range of lectures organised by the University’s Faculty of English. You will also be entitled to enrol, at half the normal tuition fee, on any of the Departmental literature Day Schools which do not already form part of the course.

For details of this year's Oxford Literary Festival please see www.sundaytimes-oxfordliteraryfestival.co.uk/

Assessment methods

Assessment

Assessment will be based both on coursework (essays submitted during the period of study) and on written examinations, held at the end of each of the two years. There is an attendance requirement of at least 75% of the total number of class hours; attendance is expected at all six day schools and the Shakespeare summer school.

Coursework will account for 30% of the total marks, 15% for each year. Participants will write six essays in the first year and six in the second, each of 1500-2000 words; two essay topics from each subject area in each year. In each year, the five highest marks will be taken into account, while the lowest mark will be discounted. Coursework will be reinforced by a series of paired tutorials, two in each term for each student. These will centre on the preparation of essays and on suggestions for further development.

The Shakespeare Summer School, between years one and two, also has a coursework requirement. One essay, written immediately after the Summer School, will count towards the fnal total of 11 assessed essays.

Examinations: Written examinations will take place at the end of each year of study; there will be three two-hour examinations in each year. The examinations set at the conclusion of year one will account for 35% of the total marks for the course; the examinations set at the end of year two will account for a further 35% of the total. Participants will answer six questions in each year, two from each subject area.

Teaching methods

Teaching Staff

The Course Directors are Dr David Grylls and Dr Sandie Byrne.
Dr. Grylls is a specialist in nineteenth-century literature whose publications include books on Gissing, Dickens and the history of parent-child relations. He is Director of the Department’s literature programme and reviews for the Times Literary Supplement and the Sunday Times.
Dr Sandie Byrne was formerly Fellow and Tutor in English at Balliol College, Oxford, and Professor of English at the University of Lincoln. She is the author of a number of books and articles on nineteenth-and twentieth-century literature.

Most other tutors on the course are drawn from the English Faculty at Oxford University.

Student Support

Much of the academic support will come from the Course Directors, who may be contacted at any time during office hours by students wishing to discuss matters relating to the course. In addition, the Department runs a programme of Study Skills workshops designed to enable you to develop and improve the skills needed for effective study. These workshops are free to students enrolled on the Foundation course. For full details of the programme please contact 01865 280892.

Contact Information

Course Directors

If you would like an informal discussion on academic matters before making your application you may contact the following:

Dr David Grylls 01865 270397 david.grylls@conted.ox.ac.uk

Dr Sandie Byrne 01865 270356 sandie.byrne@conted.ox.ac.uk

Award Programme Office 01865 280154 / 270369
For queries on applications and admissions ppaward@conted.ox.ac.uk

Student Advice 01865 280355
For general guidance and advice, credit transfer, special needs provision, residential category and sources of funding: registry@conted.ox.ac.uk

Study Skills 01865 280892
For information about Study Skills courses: studyskills@conted.ox.ac.uk

Day & Weekend School Office 01865 270368 / 270380
For information on day schools and weekend courses: dayweek@conted.ox.ac.uk

OUDCE Reception 01865 270360
For general enquiries about OUDCE or to leave messages if other staff are not available.

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