Workers’ Educational Association

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Short Activity Outline

This outline describes what will be covered in this activity.

Activity Title / Day School: Nineteenth Century Literature-Charles Dickens-His life & books
Activity ID / C2415706 / Tutor / Graham Handley
Start date / 30.08.2011 / Day(s)/time(s) / Tuesday 10.30am -3.30pm
No. of sessions / 1 / Hours per session / 4 / Fees / £15.00
Venue: Enfield Baptist Church Hall, Cecil Road, Enfield,
WEA Branch/Partner contact details / WEA Enfield and Southgate Branch: 0208 882 0615/ 0208 882 0207.
Prior booking is essential and send cheques and an sae if receipt requiredto: Chris Laughton, 13 Uplands Way, N21 1DH.
020 8 3601124
Publicity Description
This course will emphasise, through lecture, discussion, examination and evaluation of extracts from his fiction, the unique literary and human qualities in the works of Charles Dickens, together with an account of his life and the ongoing interest in his writings. Photocopied extracts will be distributed on the day.
Programme/Main Topics Covered
The lecture on Dickens’s life and works will be followed by questions, discussion, and the examination of extracts from A Christmas Carol, Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit, and Our Mutual Friend. (These extracts will be given to each student on arrival at the course – pre-course reading of one or more of the above works is encouraged but is not essential).
Learning Outcomes
1. demonstrate an enhanced ability to appreciate of the main aspects of Dickens’s writing, his life and his concerns.
2. retain some knowledge of the period in which Dickens wrote, particularly with reference to social conditions.
3. develop a disciplined and imaginative close reading of literary extracts and their relationship to the overall work.
Suggested Further Study
Any novels by Dickens, including those mentioned above, and novels by other Victorians, for example George Eliot, Mrs Gaskell, W.M. Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy, and biographical /critical studies of Dickens, for example that by Peter Ackroyd. Film and television adaptations of Dickens’s works. A summer literature course ‘What the Dickens!’ is running at the Museum of London – check the WEA brochure.
Brief tutor profile
Dr Graham Handley has taught and lectured for more than 60 years, specialising in the Victorian period. He has published widely, editing and introducing the classic texts of the time and also writing critical studies of individual authors.

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