How To Read a Novel

In the course you’ll discover four of the main building blocks of modern fiction: plot, characterisation, dialogue, and setting using examples from a range of texts. You’ll also explore the formal strategies authors use, how they came to be, and how they affect us as readers.

The course will be based on 4 novels, which change each year. These novels are based on ones shortlisted for the James Tait Black Fiction prize.

You will learn:

• Specific techniques relating to plotting and temporality including flashbacks, unreliable narration and framed narratives
• Ways of understanding character, such as behaviour and motives
• Issues relating to the presentation of dialogue, including conversational mood and dialect voices
• Impact of various settings on the development of plot and character
• Discuss my reading of contemporary fiction with a large online learning community

This course is for anyone who enjoys reading. You don’t need to have read all four books before you commence the course, but you may find it enhances your learning experience if you have. 

Introductory: No previous knowledge required