Start Date
30 September, 2025
There will be 10 weekly meetings on Tuesday, 11am - 1pm, starting from 30 September.
Overview
On this course we’ll read and discuss five novels which explore the relationship between humans and the natural world in diverse ways and forms. In Margaret Atwood’s apocalyptic Oryx and Crake, humans assume the role of gods transforming themselves, animals, and their world with disastrous consequences. In Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, a woman stops eating meat and this is the starting point for a devastating study of power, mental health and identity. Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, is narrated by an animal lover who values the landscape she inhabits. She’s also a woman in search of explanations for murder. In Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, six astronauts examine their own lives as they observe the earth from the international space station. And Sarah Perry’s Enlightenment looks to religion and astronomy, in a tale of friendship and love. These texts look forwards and back, skywards and earthwards, interrogating the ways in which humans try to understand their world.
- Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 2003
- Han Kang, The Vegetarian, 2007
- Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, 2009/2018
- Samantha Harvey, Orbital, 2023
- Sarah Perry, Enlightenment, 2024
This course aims to examine key themes in contemporary fiction with particular emphasis on humans and their relationship to nature. Through reading and discussion, students will develop their knowledge of diverse forms of satiric, symbolic, and scientific representation.
This course will appeal to anyone interested in reading literary fiction which deals with significant contemporary issues. Students will be invited to contribute their own ideas on the set texts through responses to discussion topics. There will be large and small group activities. No prior knowledge is required.
Syllabus
Please note that this is indicative but not definitive. It is possible that there may be some small changes to the format.
Week 1: Introduction - Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 2003
Week 2 : Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
Week 3: Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
Week 4 : Han Yang, The Vegetarian
Week 5 : Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, 2009/2018
Week 6 : Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead,
Week 8 : Samantha Harvey, Orbital, 2023
Week 9: Sarah Perry, Enlightenment, 2024
Week 10: Sarah Perry, Enlightenment, 2024
Please note that the ‘last date available to book’ date is only a guide. We reserve the right to close bookings earlier.
In order to avoid disappointment, please be sure enrol as soon as possible. Registrations will not be processed until the following day if received after 3pm.
Course Lecturer: Dr Shirley Jones
At Continuing Education, I currently run courses on contemporary women's writing, and the thematic strand, The Monthly Novel. Previously I have also taught courses on classic authors, such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Dorothy Wordsworth. My Ph. D was a study of the Victorian writer, Margaret Oliphant.
Outside of Continuing Education, I am a member of a writers' group and I run the Redbrick Writers, a community writing group at the V G & M.
Courses fees: Full fee £155/Concession £80
Back to: Continuing Education