Unreal City: London in Literature

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From William Blake’s apocalyptic Lambeth to Zadie Smith’s postcolonial north-west suburbs; from Dickens’s bustling panoramas to Patrick Hamilton’s hangover-ridden 1940s haunts, London has inspired many powerful visions of the planet’s most complex city.

This course will survey fictional representations of the metropolis, exploring the birth of modern policing; dystopian visions of impending disaster; and London as a site of mass migration across two centuries. Teaching will be by lecture and seminar/group discussion.

Meet the Tutor

Sarah Wise

Sarah is an award-winning writer and historian. She teaches 19thcentury social history and literature at the University of California’s London Outreach Center.

Her TV work includes BBC1’s Secret History of Our Streets, BBC2’s The Victorian Slum and has twice been the history expert for ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ Her books include Inconvenient People, shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize; The Italian Boy, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, and awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Golden Dagger; and The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum, shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize.

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Need to Know

Metadata

Time
19:00 - 20:30
Price
Full £89 / Conc. £67
Day
Tuesdays
Duration
90
Venue
Bishopsgate Institute
Tutor
Sarah Wise
Max Students
10
No. of Sessions
6
Course Code
WR20211

Dates and Times

Unreal City: London in Literature

– , 19:00 - 20:30

This course has already started and can no longer take further bookings. If you would like to hear what’s happening at Bishopsgate Institute join our mailing list

A Social History of Victorian London (1830s-1890s)

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A Social History of Twentieth Century London (1900s-1970s)

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A Short History of the 1930s

Walking Tours: London's Literary Landscapes

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