Kursbeskrivning
Discover the secret truth of English literature in the 1800s – the best writers were all women! Join a six-week course at Folkuniversitetet and enhance your grasp of English culture and your language skills with creative writer and teacher Sebastian Secker Walker.
Umeå Folkuniversitetet will host a six-week course looking at the work of Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice), Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights), George Eliot (Mill on the Floss), the American Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin) and the poet Christina Rosetti. We will explore novels and poems and discover how, despite being widely dismissed and looked down upon, female English writers outshone their male counterparts and raised the standard of literature to new heights. If you enjoy English as a second language and want to deepen your appreciation of the culture that comes with it, this is for you.
Language level
Preferably you are B2 aspiring to reach C1 (intermediate speaking and reading levels) or a native speaker. The conversation will seek to include everyone. If you are unsure of your current language level, you can read more about the levels and take our free online test.
Content
Each class will focus on a specific novel by a particular female author, ranging from Jane Austen to Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte, George Eliot and American Harriet Beecher Stowe. There will also be a class focussing on the poetry of Christina Rossetti. To gain the maximum from the course, participants should be prepared to read at least one novel for themselves outside class. We will explore the social context of each work, and consider how each writer uses the English language for emotional effect.
Working Methods
We will look at the life story of each author and then look at key passages from their most famous novel, read aloud by Sebastian. Participants will be invited to share their emotional and intellectual responses, and together we will examine how the author used vocabulary and syntax to create something timeless and magical.
Date, time and location
Our lessons at Folkuniversitet take place every two weeks, starting from February 28th. The sessions follow a regular pattern, except for the third lesson, which is a week after the second and three weeks before the fourth.
Course dates:
- Feb 28th
- March 13th
- March 20th
- April 10th
- April 24th
- May 8th
Course leader
Sebastian Secker Walker graduated from Oxford University in 1983 before spending two years at UCLA film school and then making a career in London as a television screenwriter and script editor. In addition to four years lecturing in screenwriting at the Royal Holloway University of London, he has seven years’ experience of teaching English literature in a secondary school, taught regularly at the London Film Academy and set up the screenwriting programme at the Central London Film School. Since moving to Umeå four years ago he has been writing a TV drama series set in Britain and Scandinavia and has organised several Shakespeare workshops for Swedes exploring Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Intresseanmälan
Ny kunskap öppnar dörren till lycka och välmående Folkuniversitetet är ett oberoende studieförbund som erbjuder folkbildning och vuxenutbildning i hela Sverige. Vi står för pedagogisk förnyelse, ett nära samarbete med universiteten och är fristående från politiska, religiösa och fackliga intressen....
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