The Serious Pleasures of Literary Reading: Women’s Writing Through Time

We very much look forward to welcoming both new and returning students to the University of Southampton. Unless otherwise stated, all courses will be taught in person at our Avenue Campus.

We would like to advise that you will need to have the appropriate technology and suitable internet connection in place, as we will be making use of online materials. At Southampton, we use a virtual learning environment (VLE) called Blackboard which is used to deliver learning materials and real-time online teaching for our students.

The Serious Pleasures of Literary Reading: Women's Writing Through Time

Time travel with us on a journey to discover how women’s writing has developed over the centuries. What were the social conditions in which women wrote? How did changes in laws and different movements lead to a rise in women’s writings?

Please note: if you select the staff or student price option, you must use an online store account that has been set up with your University email address and fill out your University staff or student ID number when prompted as part of the questionnaire data section.

This 6-week course will take place in person on Tuesday evenings from 7pm to 9pm starting on
29 April 2025 and finishing on Tuesday 3 June 2025.

Please see our price list below:

• Standard price - £115.00
• Staff/student/alumni price - £100.00

(Image credit: wayhomestudio at Freepik.com)

Course Description

The course will start by discussing the writings of Jane Austen and her continued influence today. It will then move on to the Victorian writers such as Mary Shelley and the Brontë sisters. In later weeks we will engage with an overview of the three waves of feminism, exploring what each of these feminist waves entailed and the writing that emerged as a result. A slight detour takes us into the world of women writing crime fiction, with a focus on Agatha Christie, to consider women writing in an often male-dominated genre. Wide ranging and varied, this course will open up new perspectives on some of literature’s greatest female writers.