Jane Austen Online Course

Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education will offer an online course on Jane Austen starting January 2010. The course description reads:

Jane Austen’s six major novels have hardly been out of print for two hundred years. Many readers enjoy them but cannot always define the qualities that make Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion so enduring and so rewarding for reading and rereading. This course helps students to learn to analyse Austen’s characteristic style and techniques and thus gain an enhanced appreciation of her art. It also looks at the historical and literary contexts of the novels, allowing students to gain a greater understanding of their themes and sub-texts. The course is suitable for those new to Austen’s writing as well as for the devoted Janeite. Though the topics covered range across all six major novels, and those who have read all six will be able to use that knowledge, each week’s required reading includes key sections of one novel."

Assessment methods: Assessment will be based on a short piece (100-200 words) to be submitted by the end of week four, and a longer (800-900 word) written piece due at the end of the course.

Level and demands: Level one, 10 weeks, approx 10 hours per week, therefore a total of about 100 hours.

Go to the website for cost and registrations. Status: Applications are being accepted.

Posted by Vic, Jane Austen's World