Faculty of English Language and Literature

The Faculty of English Language and Literature is by far the largest English Department in the UK, with over 75 permanent postholders, a further 70 Faculty members, 900 undergraduates and 300 postgraduates. The Faculty has a very distinguished research and teaching record, covering all periods of English Literature. Oxford’s English Faculty is one of the most illustrious Schools of English in the world. Established in 1894, it has numbered among its members some of the most important critics and scholars in the field, including J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Edmund Blunden, Nevill Coghill, Helen Gardner, Richard Ellmann, Terry Eagleton, and many others. We are now home to nearly eighty Professors, Readers, and Lecturers, with about the same number again of Tutors and Research Fellows based in Colleges. At any one time, there are roughly a thousand students studying within the Faculty at undergraduate level, and another three hundred at graduate level in the largest English graduate school in the country. Traditionally teaching and research in the Faculty has covered the entire history of literature in English from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day, along with language studies. More recent growth areas include world literature and film studies.

Series in this collection

All episodes

Title	Description	People	Date
Legal issues in state censorship	Peter McDonald and Liora Lazarus discuss the legal issues of state censorship especially in Apartheid era South Africa.	Peter McDonald, Liora Lazarus	17 November, 2009
The Roaring Girl: Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker	Based on a contemporary scandal of a woman who dressed in male clothing, this play of topsy-turvy genders has fun with some very modern ideas about sexuality, identity and whether we are what we wear.	Emma Smith	13 November, 2009
The Revenger's Tragedy: Thomas Middleton	A blackly camp tragedy - Hamlet without the narcissism - set in a court corrupted by lust and self-interest, this play is both fascinated and repelled by its own depravity.	Emma Smith	6 November, 2009
The Shoemaker's Holiday: Thomas Dekker	Like a Busby Berkeley depression-era musical, Dekker's comedy is a feel-good antidote to a context of shortages, political malaise and general pessimism, but real life in the shape of war, class antagonism and civic tensions, always threatens to intrude.	Emma Smith	6 November, 2009
Arden of Faversham: Anon	A true crime story of the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife and her lover, this play is concerned with the politics of the household, with gender roles within marriage, and presents a black comedy of botched murder attempts rather like The Ladykillers.	Emma Smith	5 November, 2009
The Spanish Tragedy: Thomas Kyd	Popular tragedy in which Hieronimo pursues aristocratic murderers of his son Horatio and takes revenge. It speaks, like Hollywood Westerns, to questions about private revenge versus public justice, and to the vexed religious questions of its age.	Emma Smith	5 November, 2009
Tolkien and Languages: Ancient and Invented	Interview with Dr Elizabeth Solopova from the Bodlian Library on the influence of medieval language on Tolkien's fiction.	Stuart Lee, Elizabeth Solopova	1 December, 2008
Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary: 'The Ring of Words'	A discussion with the authors of 'The Ring of Words', an exploration into Tolkien's work as a lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary.	Stuart Lee, Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, Edmund Weiner	23 October, 2008
Old English in Context Lecture 4 - Manuscripts	Fourth and final lecture by Dr S D Lee, University of Oxford, on Old English in Context. 7/2/08.	Stuart Lee	8 February, 2008
Old English in Context Lecture 3 - Religion and Magic	Lecture 3 in a series on placing Old English in Context, Religion and magic. Delivered by Dr S D Lee, Faculty of English, University of Oxford - 31/1/08.	Stuart Lee	31 January, 2008
Old English in Context Lecture 2 - Society	Lecture delivered by Dr Stuart D Lee, 24/1/08, English Faculty, University of Oxford on Anglo-Saxon society in relation to the literature.	Stuart Lee	24 January, 2008
Old English in Context Lecture 1 - Historical texts	Lecture by Dr S. D. Lee, Faculty of English, Oxford University - placing Old English literature in its historical and social context.	Stuart Lee	17 January, 2008
Anglo-Saxon Tour - British Museum	Enhanced Podcast Tour of the Anglo-Saxon exhibits on display at the British Museum by Dr S. D. Lee, Faculty of English, University of Oxford, 27th April 2007.	Stuart Lee	26 April, 2007
Beowulf reading, ll. 26-52	Reading from Beowulf ll. 26-52 by Stuart D Lee, University of Oxford. Recorded March 2007.	Stuart Lee	29 March, 2007
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reading	Reading from an entry in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle by Stuart D Lee, University of Oxford. Recorded March 2007.	Stuart Lee	28 March, 2007
Old English Tour - British Library	Audio Only Tour of the Old English Manuscripts on display at the British Library by Dr S. D. Lee, Faculty of English, University of Oxford, 21st March 2007.	Stuart Lee	21 March, 2007

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