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The University of Sheffield

Literature of the English Country House

The University of Sheffield via FutureLearn

Overview

Reconstruct the literary history of the English country house

For over 450 years, country houses have attracted the attention of celebrated writers like Thomas More and Charles Dickens.

On this six-week course, you’ll trace depictions of country houses through the works of some of England’s most celebrated writers and some lesser known authors. You’ll journey through the early 16th century to the late 19th century, exploring what the country houses depicted in literature represent and say about society at the time.

Explore the country house as a tool for social commentary

From Jane Austen to Oscar Wilde, many writers throughout history have used their work to highlight social inequality and difference.

Drawing on a range of perspectives including politics and gender, you’ll discuss what close readings of key texts can tell us about contemporary attitudes, and develop your own textual interpretations.

Expand your knowledge of the literary canon

Guided by experts in English Literature, you’ll gain insights from leading academics in the fields of various forms and periods of literature.

Collaborating with your fellow learners throughout, you’ll be introduced to new perspectives and approaches to literature, enriching how you engage with both the texts on this course and beyond.

Access materials from the Special Collections archives at the University of Sheffield

Using archival material including prose, poems, and plays, you’ll develop key close reading skills and research approaches, allowing you to interpret each text more thoroughly and deepen your knowledge of literary history.

By the end of this course, you’ll have explored a wide range of texts centred on the English country house. Using the perspectives you’ve explored, you’ll be able to discuss representations of country houses in literature and engage with texts more deeply.

This course is designed for anyone who enjoys reading and discussing literary texts in English. It would be particularly beneficial for those who are preparing for further study in English Literature, building your text analysis skills. If you are already at degree level in English, this course will supplement your studies.

Syllabus

  • Introduction
    • Welcome to the course
    • An introduction to close reading
    • Thomas More's 'Utopia'
    • Research approaches: literature and history
    • Quiz and review
  • Reconstructing the literature of the country house
    • Welcome to Week 2
    • Research approaches: context, composition and reception
    • Working with manuscript material
    • Quiz and review
    • Additional activity
  • Politeness and the 18th-century country house
    • From coffee houses to country houses: politeness and conversation in the 18th century
    • Understanding print culture
    • Women, politics and the literature of the country house
    • Quiz and review
  • Minds and manners: Jane Austen and the country house
    • The country house in 'Pride and Prejudice'
    • Quiz and a look forward to next week
    • Additional activities
  • The malevolent or reclusive owner
    • Nameless deeds
    • Research Approaches: intertextuality
    • Behind closed doors: 'Great Expectations' and the reclusive owner
    • Quiz and reflections on the week
  • Exit through the giftshop: Transformation
    • Oscar Wilde and the end of the century
    • 'The Importance of Being Earnest'
    • Wilde times
    • Check your understanding
    • Making connections
    • Final reflections

Taught by

Jim Fitzmaurice

Reviews

4.8 rating, based on 212 Class Central reviews

4.7 rating at FutureLearn based on 274 ratings

Start your review of Literature of the English Country House

  • Diana Reynolds Roome completed this course.

    This course has been quite a revelation to me in several ways. I had never considered the English country house in relation to literature before, so as I have loved both for years, making a connection between them was very enriching. Decades ago…
  • Anonymous
    Thank you so much for assembling this course! Had it not been for the scholarly yet accessible discussion provided by the educators and the judicious selection of extracts to study, I would probably never have explored half the texts covered. I woul…
  • Anonymous
    Interesting taster course into literature of the country house through four centuries. I would certainly like to continue to study literature through the 20th and 21st centuries connected to the country house.
    The course was well run and I enjoyed the insight into different authors, some of whom I had studied previously on my Literature degree and others I need to read more about.
    Many thanks
  • Anonymous
    A big Thank You to all of you and your great efforts to lead us through a very interesting course with a lot of food for our brain. It was very interesting to have a share in your expertise, deep knowledge and most of all your enthusiasm for reading literature.

    I guess I will be more aware about discription of country houses, their possible meaning for the story and their distinct architecture. I take away a lot of stimulation, when in future reading a book to do it not only for fun, but I also will try to see intertextuality.
  • Katarzyna Wiktoria Klag

    Katarzyna Wiktoria Klag completed this course, spending 5 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be medium.

    The course was very interesting and engaging, I learnt quite a lot on it and it motivated me to read literature which I have not tried before. The course uses the technique of close reading - short fragments of literary works are close-read (analysed); you do not have to read them in their entirety, but it definitely helps. I enjoyed the lectures which analyse the excerpts in detail and provide new ways of understanding them.
  • Anonymous
    I took this course just for fun, and it really was. I am a retired teacher who still loves to learn, and this course was totally enjoyable. I have read most of the books that were discussed, but the course gave me new perspective on the times in which the authors lived and how they wrote.
  • Anonymous
    Congratulations to the lecturers and their imagination in putting this course together. My experience of English literature at school was rather boring I'm afraid, but this has given me a lot of information and advice on how to read texts. I look forward to reading more widely.
  • Anonymous
    This is a great course, informative and educational, with good resources and excellent educators. It is very interactive - more so than a lot of the others I have done, but also has extra resources and links that add to the interest. It really made me think!
  • Anonymous
    By taking the course Literature of the English Country House I have learned new approaches on the study of english literature and I have enjoyed knowing a bit more of some great literary works and their authors. As most novels and writings studie…
  • Anonymous
    This is a gem of a course! Each week focuses on a different era in country house literature, and a different aspect or issue related to the period. The course is extremely well structured and the video lectures are excellent. It has been a while since I have read older literature and the course provided a great reminder of how rewarding and enjoyable it is. Having now completed the course I feel inspired to continue exploring some of the genres covered in the course and to apply the techniques covered to my future reading.

    Overall this is an excellent course; there are exercises each week and having taken the time to complete these and discuss them I feel that I have taken a great deal from the experience. Highly recommended!
  • Anonymous
    An enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable course. There ought to be more like this on Futurelearn, which is lacking in literary course.
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    If you enjoyed English novels, this is a very absorbing, enlightening and interesting course. I have learnt different ways of approaching books; that first reading doesn't always help you to under the entire meanings ( or hidden meanings of a book,…
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    Having just stopped work at the age of 70, I decided that I needed to keep the brain ticking. Having read English and taught it for many years it was good to have the chance to share and be taught again. Sometimes I found the presentations a little…
  • Profile image for Norman Sherwood
    Norman Sherwood

    Norman Sherwood completed this course.

    I have taken several hundred on-line courses from a huge variety of institutions. I would rate this course among the very top of those courses. In terms of depth, linkage to further study, quality of the video presentations, and providing a motiv…
  • THANIA

    THANIA completed this course.

    Interesting,one can learn many new things about Literature and the country house,fantastic mentoring. The country house travel through centuries gives you the opportunity to see how it evolved,flourished and declined in time and how it is still pres…
  • Anonymous
    I’m grateful for the opportunity to study this course. It’s wonderfully construed and embraces an analysis of literary works from the early 16th (Thomas More’s Utopia to the late 19th centuries (Oscar Wilde’s plays), thus connecting different epochs into one, ever changing continuity through the image of the country house. For me, this course has revealed new authors, and the authors I was familiar with were presented in a new and unexpected way. I’m especially grateful for getting acquainted with Georgiana Cavendish and for discovering the relation between Ann Radcliff’s and Jane Austen’s works. The lecturers in all these six weeks were not just knowledgeable but artistic and passionate about their subjects. Thanks a lot to the team!
  • Anonymous
    I’m grateful for the opportunity to study this course. It’s wonderfully construed and embraces an analysis of literary works from the early 16th (Thomas More’s Utopia to the late 19th centuries (Oscar Wilde’s plays), thus connecting different epochs into one, ever changing continuity through the image of the country house. For me, this course has revealed new authors, and the authors I was familiar with were presented in a new and unexpected way. I’m especially grateful for getting acquainted with Georgiana Cavendish and for discovering the relation between Ann Radcliff’s and Jane Austen’s works. The lecturers in all these six weeks were not just knowledgeable but artistic and passionate about their subjects. Thanks a lot to the team!
  • Barb Anderson

    Barb Anderson completed this course.

    This course allowed me to look at the literature of the period through a different lens. I was exposed to new authors, re-familiarized myself with old favourites and developed a new appreciation for the Gothic Novel. I will never read a piece of lit…
  • Anonymous
    I enjoyed the course and was introduced to some new genres and new authors. The concept of close reading was new to me and I find myself employing it in my leisure reading although I’m not sure how successful I’ve been without the guidance of the professors. I enjoyed the videos that showed the interiors and exteriors of the country houses helping with me to visualize the discussion topics. I also enjoyed being able to see the old manuscripts and documents. The course was easy to complete with a nice mix of video, readings and questions to think about. The course inspired me to read some of the authors discussed and to revisit some literature that I have already read.
  • Dave Rawlings completed this course, spending 6 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be easy.

    This course is primarily a literature course that introduces and discusses various ways of improving an understanding of literature one reads. It uses the country house as a theme for applying those approaches, although the link is somewhat tenuous…

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