Literature in England
By Mia Carter, PhD
QUESTION:To you, what the most exciting part of the program? What makes it unique?
ANSWER: The Oxford Summer Program gives students the opportunity to study British Literature in the cultural and historical environment in which it was written. The Shakespeare course is one of the program's cornerstones; students read the selected plays, visit relevant Shakespeare sites, and attend performances of the plays at the Globe and The Royal Shakespeare Company. We will be doing the same for Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf. I will be teaching the Woolf class abroad for the first time; it is one of my fairly regular classes here at UT. I really want to do a fun river punt in imitation of a scene in Jacob's Room, one of Woolf's early experimental novels, for our first reading assignment-but I will see if I get the students ready for that challenge! We will do a London Mrs. Dalloway walk and a tour of Bloomsbury; we will also be visiting two or three Woolf sites in Sussex. I am most excited about the London Mrs. Dalloway walk and Sussex tour of Woolf's Monk's House and her sister (the modernist painter) Vanessa Bell's Charleston Farmhouse. Both of the houses contain great modernist painting, craftwork and decor. And Monk's House, Woolf's country retreat, also has some of her writings, photos and library collection. Being in the very house in which Woolf wrote some of her work can enhance the reader's sense of her life and times. I remember how excited I felt to actually hold one of her letters to her niece Angelica, here at the HRC. The Oxford Program brings literature to life, whether a student is studying Austen, Shakespeare or Woolf. Oxford University is one of the oldest and greatest universities in the world; it is steeped with history and culture. It is an honor and unique privilege to be able to live and study there.