ENGLISH AT HOMERTON - Homerton College

ENGLISH AT HOMERTON – INFORMATION AND READING LISTS
Teaching in the English Faculty, as in most Cambridge Faculties, takes three main forms: lectures,
seminars and supervisions.
Lectures are arranged centrally by the Faculty. They last about fifty minutes, and often a lecturer will
offer a course of eight lectures, one in each week of full term. There are no compulsory lectures, and
students are free to attend lectures on areas which appeal to them and which are given by lecturers
whose style they like. Some are on general topics, others are on particular authors or even texts. You
may attend lectures offered by any other tripos (ie, History, Philosophy) if you wish, once you have
found out when they take place.
Seminars are also arranged on a wide variety of topics. These usually consist of groups of 10-15
undergraduates, who meet to discuss their work with one or more member of the Faculty. Discussions
are often informal, and there is usually plenty of opportunity for undergraduates to contribute. Each
specialised paper in Part II has a corresponding seminar, but Part I courses such as Literary Theory
and Language for Literature also have them.
At supervisions undergraduates discuss their recent work with a supervisor. For many students this is
their chief point of contact during a week with a member of the Faculty. The supervisor is very often a
Fellow in English at the student’s own College. Many Colleges, however, also send their students to
see experts from other Colleges for some subjects. Since supervisions are arranged by the Colleges
rather than by the Faculty what happens in them varies from College to College. Usually they last
about an hour and take place once a week; usually they consist of two undergraduates and one
supervisor; and usually each undergraduate would write an essay on a different topic for each weekly
supervision. But these can and do vary.
Homerton English
Part I of the Tripos (studied for the first two years) is historical, critically examining texts from the
Middle Ages to the present day, but that doesn’t mean you read everything in order. We encourage
students to make selections, with their supervisors, from the whole range of the course and to develop
their own interests, within the parameters of the papers being studied that term.
In Part II students must offer one, and may offer two, 7,500-word dissertations on subjects of their
own choice and one special subject chosen from a range of 40 or so papers (or one dissertation and
two special papers). All final year students take Tragedy and Practical Criticism, which are at the core
of the Part II course.
At Homerton, weekly supervisions are offered on the term’s main course, sometimes supported by
classes widening the discussion of the paper concerned and by supervisions in Practical Criticism. In
addition, in the first two years, teaching can be provided in preparation for the Foreign Language
paper in Part I (or alternatively by the University for the paper on Language for Literature). Note that
Spanish is not a foreign language option for that paper.
In 2009 Homerton will offer the Modern (1830-present day) period as the first to be studied, in the
Michaelmas term of your first year, followed by the eighteenth century in the Lent term, and
Shakespeare in the Easter term. In the second year the first term explores Medieval literature; the
second explores Renaissance and seventeenth century literature; and the final term of the second year
is used for revision prior to Part I exams. This programme is flexible and at all times will be linked to
the lectures and seminars offered centrally by the Faculty of English.

Term 1 – Literature from 1830 – the present day
The core components of the first term’s teaching are George Eliot’s Middlemarch and James Joyce’s
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. You should ensure you have read these thoroughly during the
summer before you begin. The timetable will map out closely to this:
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4:
Week 5:
Week 6:
George Eliot, Middlemarch
George Meredith, Modern Love
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
James Joyce, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
T.S. Eliot, Prufrock, The Waste Land and other Modernist poetry
Week 7: David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas (2005)
Week 8:
Any text/s from 1830-2010 to be agreed among the group
Additional reading for the first term could include, but is not limited to:
George Eliot,
Charles Darwin,
Charles Dickens,
Thomas Hardy,
The Mill on the Floss
On the Origin of Species Ch. 4 and 5 (1 st or 2 nd edition, preferably)
Bleak House, Great Expectations, Hard Times
Tess of the d’Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge
G. M. Hopkins, Selected Poetry (Oxford, ed Catherine Phillips)
Virginia Woolf,
T.S. Eliot,
To the Lighthouse, Between the Acts
Collected Poems
These are all suggested texts and are not compulsory, but to get a sense of some of them would be
advantageous. It will be useful to have read Darwin before the first session on Middlemarch. Dickens
is suggested, as his being of such towering importance to Victorian literature, some familiarity of his
works would seem to be essential. Dubliners is included in the main reading list because many
students find it an enjoyable way in to Joyce’s increasingly complex writings (and the ambitious
should not hesitate to move on to Ulysses if they enjoy these texts) It cannot be overemphasized that
anything you read from a period that you enjoy will enhance your appreciation of any of the period
papers, so if you find you especially like Meredith, or David Mitchell, don’t stop with what’s been
suggested here – read and absorb as much by (and about) your favourite authors as you have time for.
Similarly, if Middlemarch sparks your interest in the political or medical debates from the early 1830s,
you should not hesitate to explore the history. Good critical works (NB, York Notes do not count as
good critical works – seek out serious academic criticism) on any text will enhance your appreciation
of them.

Practical Criticism
Every week for the whole of your time studying English at Cambridge you will spend supervisions
looking closely at texts in order to develop your close reading skills. This is known as Practical
Criticism and forms the core of English studies here. Preparation for this is limited but the following
all give very helpful pointers for the student wishing to do well:
I.A. Richards,
Practical Criticism (1929, still in print)
James Fenton, An Introduction to English Poetry (2002)
Derek Attridge, Meter and Meaning (2003)
Pamela Thurschwell, Sigmund Freud (2000)
For convenience, an annotated bibliography and Amazon links to these texts and those on the previous
page can be found at http://bit.ly/dcECsp. Some of Richards’s methods have been adapted since 1929
but the book still serves as a good introduction. Fenton is excellent, and highly readable, on the
minutiae of English verse, while Attridge takes a more detailed and technical look. Thurschwell’s
book is an outstanding and accessible introduction not only to Freud but his role in shaping modern
literary critical theory. And finally, you can never read too much poetry in preparation for a degree in
English.
Lent Term 2011 – Literature from 1688-1847
The main texts studied in the third term will be Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, selected poems by Pope and
Swift, Richardson’s Pamela, Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, Lewis’s The Monk, Wordsworth’s Lyrical
Ballads, Keats’s Odes and Austen’s Emma. To some extent the course will be shaped around students’
suggestions and preferences, so reading any texts from the period will be good preparation for the
paper. Notes on editions for these texts can be found at http://bit.ly/czajE9. Don’t concern yourself
with other texts listed there, which were from a different year’s syllabus.
Easter Term 2011 – Shakespeare
Aim to have read the ‘core’ text for the Shakespeare paper which is Troilus and Cressida, as well as
three or four each of the comedies, tragedies, and histories as well as a ‘late play’ (The Tempest, A
Winters Tale, Cymbeline, Measure for Measure, Pericles) or two by the time you arrive. Reading very
much more, including the sonnets and longer poems, is not a bad idea.
Faculty Reading lists
The English Faculty website has comprehensive (and sometimes overwhelming) reading lists for every
paper. The reading lists are closed to browsers outside of the central computer system, but if you wish
to expand on your reading before arriving at Cambridge, you are welcome to e-mail the address below
with questions and we’ll do our best to satisfy your enquiry.
Cambridge eight week terms can seem very short when you have big books to read and write about, so
getting an early acquaintance with those you may well want to study later in the year is clearly a good
idea. If you haven’t done much early literature before, then reading some Chaucer, such as a
Canterbury Tale or two, would be useful. Shakespeare figures in all parts of the course, and at the end
of Part I we will expect you to have read the majority of the plays, so getting started on reading more
of his works is crucial. Above all, enjoy your reading.
If you have further enquires relating to your English course at Homerton, contact the Director of
Studies in English, Dr David Clifford, via e-mail (djhc2@cam.ac.uk), or by post directly to the
College.