Teaching Archive
Daily Themes

Daily Themes

In 1979, the celebrated poet, scholar and critic, John Hollander took over the long-standing Daily Themes course at Yale and, drawing on his vast knowledge of literature, turned it into an outstanding example of a module in writing which is founded, in his words, on ‘a set of lessons about how to engage with past literature, past models of writerly practice, about how they teach us to write.’ We offer this course as a brilliant example for teachers wishing to bring together ‘criticism’ and ‘creative writing’, reading and writing – and especially instructive for the way it reflects Hollander’s unusually well-informed understanding of Renaissance teaching practices.

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Teaching Through Imitation

Teaching Through Imitation

In Teaching through Imitation you will find an essay by Thomas Karshan on the history, theory, and practice of imitation in relation to his Ludic Literature MA module, an account by Will Rossiter of his use of imitation in his final-year undergraduate module 'The Italian renaissance', and an essay by Tim MacGabhann on the experience of studying literature through imitation.

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Place Writing

Place Writing

By Jos Smith of UEA. In Speculative Nature Writing, you’ll find a creative-critical exercise designed by Jos, exploring how historical and personal attitudes to nature are registered in the forms and subgenres of nature writing. In The Poetics of Place, you’ll find an overview of the first half of Jos’s MA module of the same name, giving a sense of how a course on place writing might be structured to draw on both creative and critical ideas.

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Reimagining Dostoevsky

Reimagining Dostoevsky

Three texts that engage with Dostoevsky through parody and imitation, edited by Nicolas Padamsee. A Notes from the Underground-inspired piece by Peter Bloxham; rewritings of Dostoevsky in the styles of Nabokov and O’Brien by Caitlin Ingham; and a reimagining of The Double in the age of social media by Nicolas Padamsee.

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Alice in Wonderland Workshop

Alice in Wonderland Workshop

Katherine Lockton runs poetry workshops at South Bank Poetry in London, where she has also been editor of poetry since 2011. Drawing on her extensive experience both teaching and writing poetry (with a publication history that includes work in PN Review, Magma,...

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