An analysis of Oliver Twist examining the tension between social reform and conformity, exploring how Dickens uses the figure of the orphan to critique the Poor Law and Victorian attitudes to poverty and crime.
An analysis of the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, examining the textual evidence for the theory that they may be half-siblings and what this means for our reading of the novel.
An overview of women’s lives and literary culture in 17th-century England, with particular attention to writers including Mary Wroth and Aphra Behn and their place in the early modern literary tradition.
A playlist exploring the English Reformation with particular focus on martyrdom, examining why Protestants and Catholics were burned for their faith during the Tudor period.
An examination of the reality of Victorian women’s lives, challenging the idealised Angel in the House stereotype and exploring women’s roles in 19th-century society.
A study of Mary Astell, often considered the first English feminist, exploring her arguments for women’s education and her place in 17th-century intellectual and religious life.
An account of the English Civil Wars of the 17th century, examining the conflict between Crown and Parliament, the role of Puritanism, and the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
A short introduction to the main dialects of Middle English and the influence of Norman French on the English language between 1066 and 1450, with reference to key works including the Ormulum, Ayenbite of Inwyt, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Piers Plowman, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.