-Boat Trip on the Cherwell
-Literary Walking Tour of Oxford
-Visit to Christ Church Cathedral
-C.S. Lewis nature reserve
-Harry Potter walking tour in London
-Imperial War Museum

Location:

Oxford, United Kingdom

Program Type:

Study Abroad

Degree Level:

Undergraduate

Term:

Summer

Program Overview

Program Description:

Arrive Date: 6/29/2013 End Date: 7/27/2013

Ever since Alice fell down the rabbit-hole on the grounds of Christ Church college, Oxford has been at the center of modern fantasy literature. Oxford was home not only to Lewis Carroll, but also to C. S. Lewis, Kenneth Grahame, J. R. R. Tolkien, Diane Wynne Jones, and Phillip Pullman. Even J. K. Rowling is rolled up in the Oxford mythos, as the Potter films use many Oxford locations. We will read novels from each author, considering how the “City of Dreaming Spires” has shaped their work. We also question how these fantasies themselves have shaped the modern imagination and why they have become so central to our times.

COURSES
English 163S: Topics in British Literature and Culture (4 units)
Study of writers, playwrights and novelists who worked in Great Britain. Examination of Elizabethan, Restoration, Augustan, Romantic/Victorian, and the Modernist/Post-Modernist periods. GE credit: ArtHum, Wrt.
Prerequisite: course 3 or University Writing Program 1.
AND
English 198: Directed Group Study (4 units)
(P/NP grading only.)

Tentative List of Excursions:

-Boat Trip on the Cherwell
-Literary Walking Tour of Oxford
-Visit to Christ Church Cathedral
-C.S. Lewis nature reserve
-Harry Potter walking tour in London
-Imperial War Museum


Upper-division units (open to freshmen through graduates). Taught in English. UC Davis courses taught by University of California, Davis faculty.

Please contact UC Davis Summer Abroad for the most up-to-date information concerning program costs. Programs start around $4,000.

All students enrolled in a Summer Abroad program (Davis and Non-Davis) will have the opportunity to apply for a Travel Award ($500 - $1,500.) Travel award deadline: March 5, 2013. Enrollment deadline is April 5, 2013.

Setting Description:

Students will be housed in dormitory-style accommodations at the Colleges of the University of Oxford. Breakfast will be provided at the accommodations. For lunch and dinner students are encouraged to visit the Covered Market or other local food vendor. Some group meals will be provided by the program.

From the Instructor, Amy Clarke:

Oxford, England is a near perfect location for a summer abroad course. The city itself holds multiple attractions: its history as one of the world’s most revered universities, its architecture, the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum, and its natural environs. For students with limited travel funds, it is a destination in and of itself. But it is also an easy daytrip into London and from there a gateway to other spots in England or the rest of Europe. For the purposes of this course, it presents the ideal opportunity to question how a specific literary form, fantasy, arises out of place. It’s no exaggeration to say that modern fantasy—think The