Reading Literature Critically



Overview

This course will introduce you to the key skills of English Studies, in particular close critical analysis and the use of contextual information.

In this course we shall hone our skills of close critical analysis of prose, poetry, and drama. Through exercises in the analysis of sixteenth- to twenty-first-century poems, plays, and narrative fiction in English, you will learn how to develop your opinions about literary texts into informed and convincing arguments. You will be introduced to key concepts and movements in literary criticism, and to key terms of the critical idiom. We shall also consider how placing texts in their literary, historical, and cultural contexts can help us to understand them.

Programme details

Course starts: 30 Sep 2025

Week 1:   What is literature?

Week 2:   Analysing fiction 1: narrative voice and characterisation

Week 3:   Analysing fiction 2: dialogue and monologue

Week 4:   Poetic form 1

Week 5:   Poetic form 2

Week 6:   Presentations 

Week 7:    Free Verse

Week 8:    Drama

Week 9:    Using the critical idiom and contextual material

Week 10:   A sense of an ending

Certification

Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme (CATS) Points

Only those who have registered for assessment and accreditation will be awarded CATS points for completing work to the required standard. Please note that assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail. Please follow this link for more information on Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme (CATS) points

Digital Certificate of Completion 

Students who are registered for assessment and accreditation and pass their final assignment will also be eligible for a digital Certificate of Completion. Information on how to access the digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course attended. You will be able to download the certificate and share it on social media if you choose to do so.

Please note students who do not register for assessment and accreditation during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun.

Fees

Description Costs
Course fee (with no assessment) £300.00
Assessment and Accreditation fee £60.00

Funding

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

Tutor

Dr Edward Clarke

Edward Clarke’s poetry collections include Cherubims (Kelsay Books, 2022) and A Book of Psalms (Paraclete Press, 2020). His critical books include The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry (Iff Books, 2014) and The Later Affluence of Yeats and Stevens (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

Course aims

  • To enable students to become more attentive, analytical, and critical readers.
  • To enable participants to gain knowledge of characteristic techniques employed in English literary texts
  • To enable participants to understand the use of contextual information
  • To enhance participants' skills of close critical analysis

Teaching methods

Tutor talk followed by discussion; small group work; analyses of extracts provided

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will be expected to:

1. Have confidence in using the critical idiom.

2. Be able to produce effective close critical analyses of literary texts.

3. Have encountered a range of writing in different genres and styles.

Assessment methods

An informal presentation on a literary text to be delivered in class during week six.

Critical commentary on a literary text (1,500 words) to be submitted at the end of the course.

Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation will submit coursework.

Application

To be able to submit coursework and to earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £60 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. Please use the 'Book now' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an Enrolment form for short courses | Oxford University Department for Continuing Education

Students who do not register for assessment and credit during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

Level and demands

The Department's Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, i.e. first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.

Terms & conditions for applicants and students

Information on financial support