2019 Programme

Saturday 26th January at 3:00pm:  Professor Claire Harman spoke to us on

'Walking Invisible’ with Charlotte Bronte  in Woodstock Town Hall

Charlotte Bronte published 'Jane Eyre' in total anonymity and tried to protect herself and her sisters for as long as possible, but what happened when her identity was exposed, and how did this passionate but private woman cope with the fame (and notoriety) when it came? Claire Harman, whose biography of Bronte was published in 2015, considers the difficult choices facing a revolutionary writer who wanted to both ‘walk invisible’ and ‘be forever known’ and will draw on her novels 'Villette' and 'Jane Eyre' along with diaries and letters. Claire Harman, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 2006, is Professor of Creative Writing at Durham University, and The Royal Literary Fund Fellow of St Hugh’s College, Oxford.

Saturday 23rd February at 3:00pm:  Professor Zachary Leader spoke to us on

'Saul Bellow:  Getting into Trouble' in Woodstock Town Hall

Saul Bellow, ‘the sturdy backbone of twentieth century American literature’ (Philip Roth), and winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976, liked to say that he spent his mornings at his desk and his afternoons getting into trouble. But he got into trouble at his desk as well.  This talk will focus on some of the controversies and difficulties he faced, or made for himself, both in his life and on the page, particularly over race, politics, and women. 

Among the works to be discussed are 'Humboldt’s Gift', 'Mr Sammler’s Planet', 'Ravelstein', and 'The Dean’s December'. Zachary Leader is one of America’s foremost literary biographers. The first volume of his biography of Saul Bellow, 'Saul Bellow: A Literary Life' was published in 2015, and volume 2 has been recently published to widespread acclaim.

Wednesday 27th March at 8.00pm:  Professor Michael Parker  spoke to us on

The Art of William Trevor  in St Hugh's Hall, Hensington Road

Professor Michael Parker will examine the fiction of this fine writer whose works so closely reflected the changing culture of these islands. His novella, Reading Turgenev, will serve as a focus in exhibiting Trevor’s characteristic deftness in realising characters, places and different times, and his profound capacity for compassion. Reference will be made to other examples of his fiction which offer a poignant meditation on transience and ‘the fragility of human relationships’. 

Professor Parker teaches at the Oxford Department for Continuing Education and is a visiting professor at Oxford Brookes University. 

Thursday 18th April at 8.00pm:  Dr Lyndall Gordon spoke to us on 

Out of Africa: Olive Schreiner and Women’s Wish to Change the World  in St Hugh's Hall, Hensington Road

Schreiner’s outsider voice burst on England with 'The Story of an African Farm' in 1883. The fearless voice of a young woman rises on the African veldt. The author became revered as a feminist who looked beyond women’s suffrage to the evils of imperialism and the Boer war and the wider wrongs of violence and inequality. Lyndall Gordon’s recent book 'Outsiders: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World', a group biography of Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte, George Eliot, Olive Schreiner, and Virginia Woolf, places Schreiner in the context of these women who all wrote as passionate outsiders in their contemporary culture. Lyndall Gordon is a Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and of the Royal Society of Literature.

Tuesday 18th June at 8.00pm:  Dr Keith Hopper spoke to us on

My nicely polished looking-glass’ - The Early Fiction of James Joyce  in Woodstock Town Hall

One of the 20th century's foremost experimental writers is introduced in this talk through his earlier, more accessible works. In a letter to his publisher in 1906, James Joyce declared: “It is not my fault that the odour of ashpits and old weeds …. hang round my stories. I seriously believe that you will retard the course of civilisation in Ireland by preventing the Irish people from having one good look at themselves in my nicely polished looking-glass”. This talk will consider 'Dubliners' (1914) and 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' (1916) in the context of the Irish Literary Revival. Dr Keith Hopper teaches at the Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education. 

Thursday 19 September at 8.00pm:  Dr Freya Johnston spoke to us on 

The Baron of Lies  in The Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock

Baron von Munchausen’s name has long been a byword for tall tales. This talk traces the history of the original Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymous von Munchausen (1702-97) in an attempt to rediscover a real person and the basis for his fame. It also traces the long afterlife of this legendary story-teller in Europe and America, an afterlife that encompasses anecdotes, nonsense literature, social satire and books for the nursery as well as political propaganda and startling films. Dr Freya Johnston is a Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford.

Wednesday 23 October at 8.00pm:  Professor Abigail Williams spoke to us on

Cruelty and Laughter: Swift and Satire  in The Church of St Mary Magdalene

Has there has ever been a more unusual clergyman than the Anglo-Irish Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin? His great and sophisticated satires on human nature culminated in his masterpieces 'Gulliver’s Travels' (1726) and 'A Modest Proposal' (1729) His exposure of the vanities of the human mind still resonate today. Professor Abigail Williams is a Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford. She is one of the General Editors of 'The Complete Works of Jonathan Swift' (CUP 2013).

Saturday 16 November at 3.00pm:  Professor David Dwan spoke to us on

Orwell and Happiness  in Woodstock Town Hall

Can one or should one be happy? Orwell was obsessed by this issue. He often doubted the psychological liability of happiness, while also wondering if one had a right to happiness. But he would also defend that right from a puritanical socialism. Considering the broad sweep of Orwell’s writings from 'A Clergyman’s Daughter' to 'Nineteen Eighty-Four',  this talk sets out to examine Orwell’s conflicted views about pleasure, joy, and human flourishing. Professor David Dwan’s study, 'Liberty, Equality and Humbug: Orwell’s Political Ideals' (OUP 2018) describes the moral conflicts of Orwell’s work. He is a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford.