Courses in London
London: The City as Visual Text
Instructor: Sarah Cochrane
Required course, 4 credits
Click here to see a course syllabus
This course will examine the art and architecture of London while considering the political, religious, economic and social forces that shaped their creation and current function. Discussion of historical texts and visits to important buildings, neighborhoods and museums will trace the development of the English city from its ancient roots to the 20th century. By the end of the course, students will be able to readily distinguish between Medieval Gothic and Gothic Revival buildings, as well as identify Elizabethan, Classical Revival and Postmodern architectural styles and recognize the role that each played in London’s history. While the main focus of the course will be architecture, other arts such as portrait painting and tomb sculpture will also be addressed.
The Theatre of London: From Page to Stage
Instructor: Richard Mallette, Professor of English, Lake Forest College
Required course (Spring 2010), 4 credits
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This course will survey performances in three areas of the London theatre: West End (especially the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company), Off-West End, and Fringe. Students will learn to understand what they see in performance by discussing in class how a production interprets a theatrical script and by writing reviews. We will focus on how performances we see engage and challenge the audience, on how acting, directing, and design bring a text to theatrical life. We will see plays ranging from Shakespeare and other European classics to contemporary plays in small venues. In addition to reading and attending a variety of plays together, we will draw on other theatrical resources London has to offer: actors, critics, museums, and backstage tour.
The purpose of this course is to develop the students' theatrical experience by allowing them to see, read, discuss, and write about a wide range of plays on offer in. We will approach London theatre from several perspectives. First, we will read texts of selected plays, both before and after seeing them in production. Second, we will attend productions as a group. Third, during scheduled classes we will discuss our experiences, both before and after seeing the productions. Finally, students will write critiques of how the productions interpret the texts we have read.
Literary London: London In and As Text and Performance
Instructor: Kelly Stage, Professor of English, Ripon College
Required course (Spring 2011), 4 credits
Click here to see a course syllabus
This course focuses on London as a center of literary and cultural production. By the end of the module, we will have explored the changing spaces and places of London over the course of its development from small city to global capital. We will examine the way literary and historical texts, as well as urban spaces and contemporary performances, portray the dynamics of urbanism and the creation of a London identity. Our texts will expose a number of urban developments and crises, including plague, disaster, economic shifts, the criminal underworld, class division, ecological awareness, and the development of trendy metropolitan social cliques. Recent historical, literary, and cultural criticism will frame our readings of primary materials, which will include diverse materials such as poetry, drama, prose, maps, diary entries, essays, and newspapers. We will contemplate the way literature, drama, and non-fiction accounts imagine London and we will use the city and its institutions (including the theater) as a text as well. How, we will ask, do London and Londoners define and redefine their identities across periods and today? How do the problems and opportunities of dynamic shifts, such as changing economic activity, national political centralization, and imperialism and its aftermath, become legible in the texts, performances, and fabric of the city?