Faculty of English Language and Literature

The Faculty of English Language and Literature is by far the largest English Department in the UK, with over 75 permanent postholders, a further 70 Faculty members, 900 undergraduates and 300 postgraduates. The Faculty has a very distinguished research and teaching record, covering all periods of English Literature. Oxford’s English Faculty is one of the most illustrious Schools of English in the world. Established in 1894, it has numbered among its members some of the most important critics and scholars in the field, including J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Edmund Blunden, Nevill Coghill, Helen Gardner, Richard Ellmann, Terry Eagleton, and many others. We are now home to nearly eighty Professors, Readers, and Lecturers, with about the same number again of Tutors and Research Fellows based in Colleges. At any one time, there are roughly a thousand students studying within the Faculty at undergraduate level, and another three hundred at graduate level in the largest English graduate school in the country. Traditionally teaching and research in the Faculty has covered the entire history of literature in English from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day, along with language studies. More recent growth areas include world literature and film studies.

All episodes

Title	Description	People	Date
1. The Art of Biography and the Biography of Art	First lecture in the Oscar Wilde series in which Sos Eltis talks about Wilde's life and his work, De Profundis.	Sos Eltis	14 October, 2013
Love and Sex in Victorian Fiction	Victorian fiction is commonly thought of as treating love sentimentally and lacking all reference to sex. In this talk drawing on material from a book he is writing, Dr David Grylls, Fellow of Kellogg College, will contest such a view.	David Grylls	4 October, 2013
Smallpox in poetry	Smallpox was rife in the eighteenth century, leaving its mark both on its sufferers, and on the literature of the period. This podcast explores its history in verse.	Elizabeth Atkinson	16 September, 2013
The poetry of war	Explores the aesthetics and impact of war poetry in the early eighteenth century, focussing on Joseph Addison's poem, The Campaign.	Abigail Williams	16 September, 2013
The Ladle: a comic poem	Matthew Prior's The Ladle was one of the most popular poems of the eighteenth century. This podcast explores its appeal.	Louise Curran	16 September, 2013
Music in miscellanies	Much popular music of the eighteenth century is found in poetic miscellanies. But how was it performed?	Giles Lewin	16 September, 2013
Pastoral Poetry	Introduces the poetry of rural life, and its debt to classical sources.	Kathleen Lawton-Trask	16 September, 2013
Politics in poetry	This podcast explores the culture of Jacobitism in the eighteenth century, using a popular ballad.	John McTague	16 September, 2013
The life of epigrams	This podcasts introduces the popular eighteenth century epigram.	Dianne Mitchell	16 September, 2013
Petticoats and fashion	An introduction to the world of fashion and the politics of the petticoat, seen through the poetry of the time.	Elizabeth Atkinson	16 September, 2013
Information about Great Writers Inspire	Further information about the educational resource: http://writersinspire.org.	Sarah Wilkin	29 August, 2013
Why should we study Elizabethan Theatre?	Professor Tiffany Stern of University College, Oxford, discusses her current research and proposes why we should still study Elizabethan Theatre.	Tiffany Stern, Ilana Lassman	19 August, 2013
Why should we study medieval romance?	Dr Nicholas Perkins of St Hugh's College, Oxford, discusses his current research and proposes why we should still study medieval romance.	Nicholas Perkins, Sarah Wilkin	12 August, 2013
Why should we study the humanities?	For those wanting a further challenge, Professor Helen Small of Pembroke College, Oxford, discusses the difficulties facing the study of the humanities today.	Helen Small, Ilana Lassman	31 July, 2013
Why should we study Johnson?	Professor Ros Ballaster of Mansfield College, Oxford, discusses her current research and proposes we should still study Samuel Johnson.	Ros Ballaster, Sarah Wilkin	31 July, 2013
Why should we study Postcolonial Literature?	Professor Elleke Boehmer of Wolfson College, Oxford, discusses her current research and proposes why we should study Postcolonial writers such as Achebe.	Elleke Boehmer, Sarah Wilkin	31 July, 2013
Why should we study Chaucer?	Dr Laura Ashe of Worcester College, Oxford, discusses her current research and proposes why we should still study Chaucer.	Laura Ashe, Ilana Lassman	31 July, 2013
Why should we study Shakespeare?	Dr Emma Smith of Hertford College, Oxford, discusses her current research and proposes why we should still study Shakespeare.	Emma Smith, Ilana Lassman	31 July, 2013
Why should we study Dickens?	Dr Robert Douglas-Fairhurst of Magdalen College, Oxford, discusses his current research and proposes why we should still study Dickens.	Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Ilana Lassman	31 July, 2013
Achebe and the African Writers Series	A special seminar held at the Postcolonial Writing and Theory Seminar at Wadham College on 2nd May 2013.	James Currey, Becky Ayebia Clarke, Ruth Bush, Asha Rogers	10 July, 2013
'The Village in the Jungle' as colonial memoir: Woolf writing home	Victoria Glendinning, biographer of Leonard Woolf, offers her insights from extensive archival research into the life of Woolf in Ceylon and Britain.	Victoria Glendinning	18 June, 2013
'The Village in the Jungle' Roundtable Discussion	This Roundtable Discussion offers several ways into the life and work of Leonard Woolf from the perspectives of several academics.	Hermione Lee, Anna Snaith, Elleke Boehmer, Nisha Manocha, David Trotter, Susheila Nasta	18 June, 2013
Sri Lankan Traditions and the Imperial Imagination: Leonard Woolf's 'The Village in the Jungle'	Novelist and academic, Chandani Lokuge, gives her keynote at the symposium. She brings Sri Lankan linguistic and cultural traditions to Woolf's The Village in the Jungle.	Chandani Lokuge	18 June, 2013
Book as Object; Panel Discussion for Oxford English Graduate Conference 2013	Panel discussion talk on 'Book as Object' for the Oxford English Graduate Conference 2013.	Paul Nash, Nick Cross, Stephen Walter	17 June, 2013
Acting Masterclass: "Lend me your ears"	A second Masterclass on how Shakespeare spins rhetoric for the actor, with Sam Leith, journalist and writer, and author of 'You Talkin' to Me'. Students from Oxford University Drama Society will take part in the masterclass with an audience.	Gregory Doran, Sam Leith	7 June, 2013
Acting Masterclass: 'Pyramus, you begin'	A practical Masterclass with Greg Doran from the Royal Shakespeare Company looking at what clues Shakespeare puts into the verse for the actor. Students from Oxford University Drama Society rehearse Romeo and Juliet in front of an audience.	Gregory Doran	7 June, 2013
Peter D McDonald in conversation with Amit Chaudhuri	Peter D. McDonald talks to Amit Chaudhuri about his work as a novelist, critic and musician, focusing on his interest in the specificity of the many media he uses and on the challenge of thinking about cultural interconnectedness in new ways.	Peter McDonald, Amit Chaudhuri	5 June, 2013
Peter D McDonald in conversation with Derek Attridge	Peter D. McDonald and Derek Attridge reflect on their different approaches to the questions of literature and public value, and on the bearing this has for teaching and research today.	Peter McDonald, Derek Attridge	4 June, 2013
Peter D McDonald in conversation with Antjie Krog	Peter D. McDonald talks to Antjie Krog about her relationship to Afrikaans, English and African languages, about the promise and perils of translation, and about the challenges of and for writing in a multilingual democracy.	Peter McDonald, Antjie Krog	4 June, 2013
Peter D. McDonald in conversation with Arvind Krishna Mehrotra	Peter D. McDonald talks to Arvind Krishna Mehrotra about his work as a poet, critic and translator, focusing on the idea of triangulation and his interest in the intersections between languages and literary traditions.	Peter McDonald, Arvind Mehrotra	23 April, 2013
Oriental Tales and Their Influence	Prof. Warner and Prof. Ballaster begin their conversation with Antoine Galland's translation into French from Arabic of the 'Alf Layla wa-Layla' as the first two volumes of 'Les Mille et Une Nuit' in the first decade of eighteenth century.	Ros Ballaster, Marina Warner	26 March, 2013
The Merchant of Venice	This lecture on The Merchant of Venice discusses the ways the play's personal relationships are shaped by models of financial transaction, using the casket scenes as a central example.	Emma Smith	20 November, 2012
Taming of the Shrew	Emma Smith uses evidence of early reception and from more recent productions to discuss the question of whether Katherine is tamed at the end of the play.	Emma Smith	9 November, 2012
A Midsummer Night's Dream	This lecture on A Midsummer Night's Dream uses modern and early modern understandings of dreams to uncover a play less concerned with marriage and more with sexual desire.	Emma Smith	5 November, 2012
Language and History	Prof. Simon Horobin examines how the English language has changed over time, addressing such vexed questions as whether Jane Austen could spell, the fate of the apostrophe and whether people who 'literally' explode with anger are corrupting the language.	Simon Horobin	30 October, 2012
Much Ado About Nothing	Emma Smith asks why the characters are so quick to believe the self-proclaimed villain Don John, drawing on gender and performance criticism to think about male bonding, the genre of comedy, and the impulses of modern performance.	Emma Smith	30 October, 2012
Hamlet	The fact that father and son share the same name in Hamlet is used to investigate the play's nostalgia, drawing on biographical criticism and the religious and political history of early modern England.	Emma Smith	23 October, 2012
As You Like It	Asking 'what happens in As You Like It', this lecture considers the play's dramatic structure and its ambiguous use of pastoral, drawing on performance history, genre theory, and eco-critical approaches.	Emma Smith	23 October, 2012
Kipling, the Elton John of his age?	Professor Elleke Boehmer discusses why Kipling's writing, and his poetry of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in particular, launched him to international fame across the British Empire.	Elleke Boehmer, Dominic Davies	8 October, 2012
Postcolonial Women Writers	Professor Elleke Boehmer notes the distinct lack of women writers on the Post/Colonial Writing page of the Great Writers website, and explores why this is the case.	Elleke Boehmer, Dominic Davies	8 October, 2012
Oscar Wilde's Women	Sophie Duncan introduces Oscar Wilde by setting him in an accurate historical context.	Sophie Duncan	19 September, 2012
Great Writers Inspire Great Writing	Alex Pryce considers how writers are readers, influenced and inspired by the works of other writers.	Alex Pryce	19 September, 2012
Julian Thompson on Rudyard Kipling	Dr Julian Thompson considers a writer described by Kingsley Amis as 'our greatest writer of short stories'.	Julian Thompson	19 September, 2012
DH Lawrence: A Postcolonial Writer?	Professor Peter McDonald draws on the work of Indian novelist and literary critic, Amit Chaudhuri, to open up new ways of how we can think about D.H. Lawrence, not only as a Modernist, but also as a Post/Colonial writer.	Peter McDonald	28 August, 2012
Joseph Conrad and Postcoloniality - Part 2: Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim	Professor Peter McDonald talks to Great Writers Inspire about the Post/Colonial aspects of Joseph Conrad's writing.	Peter McDonald	28 August, 2012
Joseph Conrad and Postcoloniality - Part 1: Conrad and Chinua Achebe	Professor Peter McDonald talks to Great Writers Inspire about the Post/Colonial aspects of Joseph Conrad's writing. In this first part, Peter takes Chinua Achebe's 1975 critique of Conrad as a starting point.	Peter McDonald	28 August, 2012
Aime Cesaire and Derek Walcott	Jason Allen offers a comparative discussion of two important Caribbean poets and playwrights, Aime Cesaire and Derek Walcott, to emphasize the impact of Caribbean literature upon the postcolonial world.	Jason Allen, Dominic Davies	24 August, 2012
The language of Shakespeare	Actors and the director talk about how they have approached and worked with their student production of the Shakespeare play - Two Gentlemen of Verona. They discuss some of the challenges of the text and what they have done to overcome these.	Kate O'Connor	23 August, 2012
Understanding Shakespeare	The actor Nick Lyons talks about the challenge of the language barrier and how he dealt with it for his role in the student production of the Shakespeare play Two Gentlemen of Verona.	Nick Lyons	23 August, 2012
Two Gentlemen of Verona: The view from the Director	The director talks about how she adapted the script and directed the student Shakespeare production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. She describes what makes the play great, and discusses issues related to editing and direction.	Kate O'Connor	23 August, 2012
The Tempest: For you am I this patient log-man	The director and actors talk about the log-scene in The Tempest and how they interpret and perform it. Includes scenes from rehearsals and performance.	Archie Cornish, Dylan Townley	23 August, 2012
The Tempest: Our revels now are ended	The famous Shakespeare scene from The Tempest, performed by actors from an Oxford student drama society.	Dylan Townley	23 August, 2012
The Tempest - Our revels now are ended: Conveying Shakespeare's meaning	The actor Dylan Townley talks about the language of Shakespeare. He describes how understanding and using the meter can help an actor or reader to bring out the poetry in a text. Includes a scene from The Tempest.	Dylan Townley	23 August, 2012
The Tempest: Prospero	Actor Dylan Townley talks with director Archie Cornish about the character Prospero. They describe how they have chosen to portray him in this Oxford student performance of The Tempest, and discuss on what they base their interpretation.	Archie Cornish, Dylan Townley	23 August, 2012
The Tempest: Direction and interpretation	Director Archie Cornish and actor Dylan Townley - Prospero - talk about adapting, directing and performing a student Shakespeare production of The Tempest.	Archie Cornish, Dylan Townley	23 August, 2012
Teaching Shakespeare in Schools	A teacher talks about how she teaches Shakespeare in school, using video clips and references from contemporary culture to get the students to understand, relate to, and engage with the text.	Joyti Chandegra	23 August, 2012
The Tempest - Our revels now are ended: Bringing a scene to Life	The director Archie Cornish, and actor Dylan Townley, introduce the Revel speech in The Tempest. They also discuss the context in which it appears.	Archie Cornish, Dylan Townley	22 August, 2012
Shakespeare and the Stage	Professor Tiffany Stern gives a short talk on William Shakespeare and how his plays were performed in Elizabethan England.	Tiffany Stern	22 August, 2012
Julian Thompson on Sir Walter Scott	Dr Julian Thompson introduces 'the least read great writer in our literature'. He describes the popularly of Walter Scott in his own time and suggests some highlights of the 'living Scots' of his fiction.	Julian Thompson	1 August, 2012
Shakespeare and Voice	Linda Gates, Professor of Voice at Northwestern University (USA) discusses how Shakespeare's poetry and plays lend themselves to vocal performance by discussing how breath can be used to 'punctuate the thought'.	Linda Gates	1 August, 2012
Shakespeare and Voice	Linda Gates, Professor of Voice at Northwestern University (USA) discusses how Shakespeare's poetry and plays lend themselves to vocal performance by discussing how breath can be used to 'punctuate the thought'.	Linda Gates	1 August, 2012
What is a Classic? English Graduate Conference 2012 Panel Debate, Talk 3	Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, draws on her experience as a trustee of the Booker Prize and as a judge for many other literary prizes to offer a response to the question, 'What is a Classic?'.	Helena Kennedy	19 July, 2012
What is a Classic? English Graduate Conference 2012 Panel Debate, Talk 3	Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, draws on her experience as a trustee of the Booker Prize and as a judge for many other literary prizes to offer a response to the question, 'What is a Classic?'.	Helena Kennedy	19 July, 2012
What is a Classic? English Graduate Conference 2012 Panel Debate, Talk 2	Judith Luna, the Senior Commissioning Editor at Oxford World's Classics, draws on her practical involvement in re-launching the Oxford World's Classics series in 2008 to give a publisher's take on the question, 'What is a Classic?'.	Judith Luna	19 July, 2012
What is a Classic? English Graduate Conference 2012 Panel Debate, Talk 2	Judith Luna, the Senior Commissioning Editor at Oxford World's Classics, draws on her practical involvement in re-launching the Oxford World's Classics series in 2008 to give a publisher's take on the question, 'What is a Classic?'.	Judith Luna	19 July, 2012
What is a Classic? English Graduate Conference 2012 Panel Debate, Talk 1	Dr Ankhi Mukherjee, Wadham college, Oxford, speaks to the question 'What is a Classic?' by examining the residual influence of the Eurocentric literary canon in the age of world literature and emergent formations of canons and classics.	Ankhi Mukherjee	19 July, 2012
What is a Classic? English Graduate Conference 2012 Panel Debate, Talk 1	Dr Ankhi Mukherjee, Wadham college, Oxford, speaks to the question 'What is a Classic?' by examining the residual influence of the Eurocentric literary canon in the age of world literature and emergent formations of canons and classics.	Ankhi Mukherjee	19 July, 2012
Shackled by Language: The Representation and Self-Representation of English-Speaking Black Voices in Black Atlantic Writing	Cecilia Bennett considers the use of the English language in black Atlantic narratives.	Cecilia Bennett	18 July, 2012
Rewriting Jane Eyre: The Avenging 'Angel in the House' in Michael Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White	Erin Nyborg draws parallels between Michael Faber's 2002 novel The Crimson Petal and the White and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.	Erin Nyborg	18 July, 2012
Olive Schreiner	Dominic Davies talks about Olive Schreiner, the postcolonial South African author, and how her work, The Story of the African Farm, engages with the critical question of European hegemony in literary understanding and expectations of literary works.	Dominic Davies	17 July, 2012
'Some exquisitely-dressed stage favourite': Shakespeare and the suffragettes	In this talk, Sophie Duncan examines suffragists' interactions with Shakespeare and his works, as performers, directors, consumers and critics.	Sophie Duncan	17 July, 2012
A Discussion of Emily Dickinson's 'I started early, took my dog'.	Dr Sally Bayley presents an illuminating reading of Emily Dickinson's 'I started early, took my dog'. In her reading, she seeks out allusions to Shakespearean plays including Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice. She then answers questions about the poem.	Sally Bayley	16 July, 2012
The Romance of the Middle Ages	Dr Nicholas Perkins talks about how romance functions as a genre in the middle ages, especially about how gifts and tokens were exchanged as signs of fidelity, specifically in Sir Orfeo, Sir Gawain, and King Horn.	Nicholas Perkins	21 June, 2012
Dickens's Points of View	Professor Jon Mee, University of Warwick, discusses how Dickens's fiction can be considered 'cinematic' by drawing attention to the shifting points of view in Oliver Twist, Our Mutual Friend, and other novels.	Jon Mee	14 June, 2012
Jane Austen's Manuscripts Explored	Professor Kathyrn Sutherland from the University of Oxford talks around the manuscripts of Jane Austen, what we can learn from them about her family life but also her writing style and techniques.	Kathryn Sutherland	8 June, 2012
The Watsons: Jane Austen Practising	Professor Kathryn Sutherland from the University of Oxford talks about some of Jane Austen's manuscripts from the novel "The Watsons" and what we can learn about her from these.	Kathryn Sutherland	8 June, 2012
Great Writers Inspire- An Introduction to the Project	A short introductory video to the "Great Writers Inspire project.	Joshua Carr	23 May, 2012
Literature and Form 4: What is "Comparative Literature"?	Dr Catherine Brown gives the fourth and final lecture in the Literature and Form lecture series. With a philosophical discussion on what Comparative Literature is and how we can study 'literature in comparison'.	Catherine Brown	21 May, 2012
Literature and Form 3: Multiple Plotting	Dr Catherine Brown gives the third lecture in the Literature and Form lecture series. Including the differing ways writers plot their work; from multi-plotted works like Ulysses (Joyce) to double plotted works like Daniel Deronda (George Eliot).	Catherine Brown	21 May, 2012
Literature and Form 2: Chapters	Dr. Catherine Brown offers a series of talks introducing different writing forms and their use in great novels: In the second lecture, Brown talks about the ways in which writers choose to break up their works into chapters, parts, and volumes.	Catherine Brown	21 May, 2012
Literature and Form 1: Unreliable Narrators	Dr. Catherine Brown offers a series introducing different writing forms and their use in great novels: In the first lecture, Brown discusses the use of the unreliable narrator, particularly in Nabokov's Lolita and McEwan's Atonement.	Catherine Brown	21 May, 2012
What is a Great Writer? An academic panel discusses the question.	In this panel discussion from the Great Writers Inspire Engage Event workshop, Dr Seamus Perry, Dr Margaret Kean, Professor Peter McDonald and Dr Ankhi Mukherjee discuss what we mean when we talk about greatness in writing.	Seamus Perry, Margaret Kean, Peter McDonald, Ankhi Mukherjee, Rebecca Beasley	15 May, 2012
Julian Thompson on Wilkie Collins	Dr. Julian Thompson considers how Wilkie Collins's fiction was pioneering across a variety of genres, including detective fiction and gothic thrillers.	Julian Thompson	15 May, 2012
Chaucer	Professor Daniel Wakelin discusses the work of Chaucer and explains how he was one of the first to use everyday spoken English as a literary language in the 14th Century.	Daniel Wakelin	17 April, 2012
Ezra Pound	Dr Rebecca Beasley explains why we should read Pound, someone she considers as the central figure in early 20th Century poetry movements.	Rebecca Beasley	10 April, 2012
Mary Leapor	Dr Jennifer Batt talks about Mary Leapor, an 18th Century kitchen maid who wrote accomplished verses and won accolades from literary society.	Jennifer Batt	27 March, 2012
DH Lawrence 7. Reception History	Catherine Brown gives the Seventh and final lecture in the DH Lawrence series.	Catherine Brown	19 March, 2012
DH Lawrence 6. Birds, Beasts and Children	Catherine Brown gives the sixth lecture in the DH Lawrence series.	Catherine Brown	19 March, 2012
John Milton	Dr Anna Beer shares a few short extracts of Milton's poem Lycidas and discusses what they show about Milton's very special qualities as a writer.	Anna Beer	15 March, 2012
The Lure of the East: the Oriental and Philosophical Tale in Eighteenth-Century England	Professor Ros Ballaster discusses the objectives of oriental tales published in the second half of the 18th Century which use the sheer power of storytelling to conjure up alternative worlds.	Ros Ballaster	13 March, 2012
Only Collect: An Introduction to the World of the Poetic Miscellany	Dr Abigail Williams, Director of the Digital Miscellanies Index, explains how these popular collections of poetry designed to suit contemporary tastes were used in the 18th Century.	Abigail Williams	9 March, 2012
Why Dickens?	Dr Robert Douglas-Fairhurst talks of Dickens' life and influences and why these have made his works so popular.	Robert Douglas-Fairhurst	2 March, 2012
DH Lawrence 5. The Alps	Catherine Brown gives the fifth lecture in the DH Lawrence series.	Catherine Brown	28 February, 2012
DH Lawrence 4. The World at Large	Catherine Brown gives the fourth lecture in the DH Lawrence series.	Catherine Brown	28 February, 2012
DH Lawrence 3. Christianity	Catherine Brown gives the third lecture in the DH Lawrence series.	Catherine Brown	28 February, 2012
King Lear	Showing how generations of critics - and Shakespeare himself - have rewritten the ending of King Lear, this sixteenth Approaching Shakespeare lecture engages with the question of tragedy and why it gives pleasure.	Emma Smith	22 February, 2012
DH Lawrence 2. Humour	Catherine Brown gives the second lecture in the DH Lawrence series.	Catherine Brown	15 February, 2012
DH Lawrence 1. Consciousness	Catherine Brown gives her first lecture in the D.H. Lawrence series.	Catherine Brown	15 February, 2012
Babbling a Dialect of France: Loanwords, French, and Johnson's Dictionary	Professor Mugglestone discusses the concept of loanwords in relationship to Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language.	Lynda Mugglestone	13 February, 2012
King John	At the heart of King John is the death of his rival Arthur: this fifteenth lecture in the Approaching Shakespeare series looks at the ways history and legitimacy are complicated in this plotline.	Emma Smith	10 February, 2012

Faculty of English Language and Literature

Related

Series in this collection

Writers in Dialogue

Staging Shakespeare

Interviews on Great Writers

English Graduate Conference 2012

Literature and Form

D.H. Lawrence

Samuel Johnson

Great Writers Inspire

George Eliot

MSt English Language

All episodes