This course will be concerned with understanding the city of London’s evolution through its various literary, cultural, political, historical, and architectural incarnations. Our primary focus of this seminar-style course will be “litarary London,” the examination of how various writers have characterized and documented life within this vibrant, cosmopolitan city. Of great importance will be key historical, political, and social movements as they realet to the evolution of London and its denizens dating from Roman times to its current status as a Post-modern cultural and financial capital.
A major component of this course will be an eight-day trip to London. The city of London and its surrounding areas will become a classroom for our students, allowing a physical realization of their conceptual work. During the trip, they experience first hand the historical sights, museums, cultural attractions and neighborhoods they study in the course. By experiencing this course and trip, our students will have a greater understanding of the literary and cultural traditions of England, and a greater comfort with a foreign culture and its people. Students will also begin to understand the importance of being a “world traveler,” and its implications and responsibilities.
The trip includes an eight-nights’ stay in the cozy, Royal Borough of Kensington, West-London, roundtrip airfare, day excursions to both Canterbury and Hampton Court Palace (home of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and other great royal figures), cultural and religious destinations including Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, The Tower of London, London Eye, The British Museum, Speakers’ Corner, Tate Britain and Tate Modern Art Galleries, and the National Gallery. We will catch three theatrical performances in London’s famous West End. As a group, we will embark on historical and exploratory walks through some of London’s more famous neighborhoods, including guided walks along the River Thames into Southwark, as well as a haunting tour through the dark streets of Whitechapel, where the legendary Jack the Ripper once prowled.
The class is taught in a seminar-style format, with three teachers leading discussions and evaluating coursework. It is an honors-level class in both work and content, and it allows our students to pursue individually designed research and thinking under direct guidance of experienced teachers. The course meets once per week on Wednesday evenings from 5:30-8:30 PM. The course counts as credit for a British Literature Honors course for Juniors and as a Senior Elective Credit for Seniors.
Students are expected to:
- Read primary and secondary source material
- Write extensively on various topics including literature, history, and film
- Conduct independent research while in London and America
- Compose a research paper due at the end of the school year on a topic of their interest
- Keep a travel journal while in London
Some topics that we encounter in our coursework include:
- The Roman conquest and settlement of Londinium – 60 AD
- Medieval London, looking at The Canterbury Tales, and Thomas Beckett, Canterbury Cathedral
- The War of the Roses
- Elizabethan London, Shakespeare’s London
- The Restoration and the Age of Enlightenment (mostly through the poets of 17th, 18th Centuries)
- The Great Fire of London (1666) – London’s rebuilding after the fire
- Victorian London – through Dickens’ Oliver Twist
- WWII London, the Nazi air-raids
- Contemporary London, where are they going now, new architectural trends, representation in film and literature, multi-cultural distributions and its effects on culture
- Art and historical studies that prepare us for our visits to The Tates and the British Museum
Outside of these specialized topics, the course meetings are always concerned with becoming more knowledgeable about British culture, art, and history as it has evolved over the years, and through this learning, gaining a better understanding of our own American culture and values. Students will have an increased knowledge of England’s influence on a global scale for the past two thousand years. Our discussions are not always limited to literary incarnations involving the city of London. They are concerned with how the city has been characterized through movements in film, music, art and architecture as well.
View our slideshow of London Seminar 2007
