FILM
LICENSED TO THRILL – HITCHCOCK AND THE BIRTH OF BOND.
Tuesday, 10.30-12.30 (John Carpenter)
19 September – 28 November 2023
Half Term: 24 October
Asked by producers Salzman and Broccoli to consider directing a Bond movie, Hitchcock reportedly said he already had, ‘It’s called North by Northwest’ , he said.
This course will take a deep dive into Hitchcock’s 1959 masterpiece and its equally dazzling precursor from three decades earlier ‘The Thirty Nine Steps.’
As well as considering how these films showcase Hitch at two fascinating moments in his artistic career, we will also explore how both films are bound closely to the format and ensuing success of the Bond franchise.
LITERATURE
ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY? SHORT STORY GEMS.
Thursday, 13.30 – 15.30 (John Carpenter)
19 September – 28 November 2023
Half Term: 24 October
Each session will feature an atmospheric reading of at least one short story – drawn from a treasury of eclectic gems. We will also explore the stories through discussion and analysis and you will take away a hard copy of the text. Each week’s story will be a surprise but the course will definitely feature stories by Saki, Katherine Mansfield, Muriel Spark, Graham Greene and Ray Bradbury as well as some lesser known but stunning examples of the form.
LITERATURE
TWO AMERICAN NOVELS FROM THE 30s
Thursday, 10.15-12.15 (Dr Stephen Palmer)
21 September – 30 November 2023
Half term: 26 October
Nathaniel West’s novel, The Day of the Locust (1939) is reminiscent of The Great Gatsby, in that both books deal in their respective ways with the consequences of dream and aspiration in the lives of individuals and collectives in a country, the United States, which has made dreaming such an essential part of its identity. It’s a story also which has to be interesting as it features a character called ‘Homer Simpson’ (the original, as it were)! Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), for its part, is now regarded as a classic text of Black American women’s fiction, although by the time she died in 1960, she and her work had fallen into some obscurity. In 1975, however, Alice Walker wrote an essay which re-ignited interest in Hurston’s work. Set in Florida, Their Eyes Were Watching God
makes great use of Black Southern US dialect and tells a story which, although not universally well-received at the time of publication, can be read as affirming a unique culture and as staking a claim for women’s part in it.
Editions:
“The Day of the Locust and Miss Lonelyhearts“, Nathaniel West ISBN-10:0099573164
“Their Eyes Were Watching God“, Zora Neale Hurston ISBN-10:0860685241
Other useful texts:
“Looking for Zora” (1975), Alice Walker (can be downloaded online)
“Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick” (Collected Stories), Zora Neale Hurston (2020).There is also a film of The Day of the Locust (1975), starring Donald Sutherland.
LITERATURE
J.G. BALLARD: JOURNEYS IN INNER SPACE
Thursday, 13.15-15.15 (Dr Stephen Palmer)
21 September – 30 November 2023
Half Term: 26 October
When he first encountered Science Fiction in the 1950s, Ballard recognised it as a form in which he could work. However, he wasn’t interested in telling stories of rocketry, aliens and outer space, but of ‘inner space’ (a term coined by J B Priestley). Influenced by Freud and the visual art of the Surrealists, Ballard wanted to tell stories in which the outer worlds he depicted related to the inner psyches of his characters, and in turn to the psychic landscapes of human beings living in the age of the atom bomb and mass consumerism. On this course we will look at three of Ballard’s novels covering the length of his writing life – The Drowned World (1962), The Unlimited Dream Company (1979) and Kingdom Come (2006) – while referring to a number of his non-fiction writings and other works which cast some light on his art and thought.
Editions:
The Drowned World (1962) (most recent edition: 9780871403629)
The Unlimited Dream Company (1979) (Available on Kindle and online retailers like World of Books)
Kingdom Come (2006) (most recent edition: 9780871403193)
Other useful texts:
Miracles of Life (autobiography) (2008), J G Ballard
A User’s Guide to the Millennium (essays and other writings) (1997), J G Ballard
POETRY MATTERS: STRUTTING AND FRETTING
Friday, 10.15-12.15 (Janet Dann)
15 September – 8 December 2023
Half Term: 27 October
Themes for our autumn term will draw inspiration from Shakespeare, as we mark 400years since the publication of the First Folio of his plays, in 1623, seven years after his death. As ever we will range widely in our choices of poems to share together, and we may even discuss a little of Shakespeare’s work….anyone for sonnets?
FILM
FRENCH CINEMA IN 1930s
Friday, 13.30-15.30 (David Clare)
22 September – 1 December 2023
Half term: 27 October
France in the 1930s was tossed on the same rough seas as its European neighbours: economic depression, wage and price inflation, and political extremism.
Sound familiar? But what of its cinema?
By mid-decade, when the studios had belatedly equipped for sound, directors like Renoir, Carné, Duvivier and Grémillon were beginning to define their personal styles into what film critics would soon term ‘poetic realism’. We look at two films made at the time of Blum’s embattled Front Populaire government, both featuring France’s star leading man of the 30s, Jean Gabin, and examine how they reflect the mingled optimism and fatalism of their period. They are Renoir’s La grande illusion, and Carné’s Le quai des Brumes.