Economic and Social Literary Criticism

This section brings together resources from the across the Great Writers Inspire site to illustrate how these can be used as a starting point for exploration of or classroom discussion about economic and social literary criticism.

The 'Economic and Social Literary Criticism' essay introduces a series of topics and questions and gives examples of resources to explore. It is aimed at teachers, students and anyone who is interested in literature who wants to put text into context and be inspired by Great Writers.

This essay offers suggestions for how material on the Great Writers Inspire site can be used as a starting point for exploration of or classroom discussion about economic and social criticism. Questions for reflection or discussion are highlighted in the text. Links in the text point to resources in the Great Writers Inspire site. The resources can also be found via the 'Economic and social criticism' start page.

Read the essay: Economic and Social Literary Criticism by Kate O'Connor

Image licence:

By Flemish painter (http://www.museum-brotkultur.de) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

#	Title	Description	Contributor
1	Work, Time and Stress: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives	These talks explore stress & overwork in both education and professional life in the...	Sally Shuttleworth, Marie Tidball
2	Race and Empire, 1660-1760	In this introductory lecture, Ruth Scobie outlines some of the historical contexts of literature...	Ruth Scobie
3	Manuscript and Print, 1660–1760	In this introductory lecture, Carly Watson outlines the material forms in which literary texts...	Carly Watson
4	What is a Literary Period?	In this introductory lecture, Clare Bucknell considers how we define a literary period and...	Clare Bucknell
5	Nineteenth-Century Stuff: Dickens, Paperwork and Paper Sorrows	In this Open Day taster lecture, Sophie Ratcliffe investigates the material culture of the...	Sophie Ratcliffe
6	Are traditional texts always what they seem? Great Expectations pt2 (lecture)	Video lecture by Simon Swift, University of Leeds and discussion board. In this second...	Simon Swift
7	The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory (lecture)	Lecture by Professor Paul H. Fry, part of Open Yale course 'Introduction to Theory of Literature...	OpenYale
8	The Classical Feminist Tradition (lecture)	Lecture by Professor Paul H. Fry, part of Open Yale course 'Introduction to Theory of Literature...	OpenYale
9	Dickens’s law makers and law breakers: Barnard's Inn and beyond	Free public lecture from Gresham College. Available as video, audio and transcript. ...	Andrew Sanders
10	Mary Leapor	Dr Jennifer Batt talks about Mary Leapor, an 18th Century kitchen maid who wrote accomplished...	Jennifer Batt
11	18th Century Labouring Class Poetry	Dr Jennifer Batt gives a talk on Stephen Duck, one of the 18th Century labouring-class poets	Jennifer Batt

#	Title	Description	Contributor
1	Dickens' Railways	Professor Stephen Gill, Lincoln College, gives a talk about the influence the Railways had on...	Stephen Gill
2	Mary Leapor	Dr Jennifer Batt talks about Mary Leapor, an 18th Century kitchen maid who wrote accomplished...	Jennifer Batt
3	Why Dickens?	Dr Robert Douglas-Fairhurst talks of Dickens' life and influences and why these have made...	Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
4	18th Century Labouring Class Poetry	Dr Jennifer Batt gives a talk on Stephen Duck, one of the 18th Century labouring-class poets	Jennifer Batt
5	The Shoemaker's Holiday: Thomas Dekker	Like a Busby Berkeley depression-era musical, Dekker's comedy is a feel-good antidote to a...	Emma Smith

#	Essay Title	Description	Contributor
1	Aphra Behn and Poetic Culture	This essay is the last of four distilled from a lecture series on Aphra Behn given by Dr....	Abigail Williams, Kate O'Connor
2	The Anonymous Jane Austen	Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the most famous authors in the western canon (possibly helped...	Kate O'Connor
3	Stephen Duck	Briefly, in 1730, the most talked about poet in England was an agricultural labourer. The story...	Jennifer Batt
4	Mary Leapor	A servant maid who died in relative obscurity at the age of just twenty-four, Mary Leapor (1722-...	Jennifer Batt
5	Eighteenth century labouring-class writing	By Jennifer Batt	Jennifer Batt
6	Charlotte Brontë: A Wish for Wings	Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) was born on April 21, 1816, the third daughter of Rev. Patrick and...	Erin Nyborg
7	Ben Jonson: Renaissance Playwright, Renaissance Man	Ben Jonson 1572-1637) was an early modern playwright whose popularity rivaled that of...	Kate O'Connor
8	Spiritualism, Science and Atavism	In the Victorian era, Gothic fiction had ceased to be a dominant literary genre. However, the...	Charlotte Barrett
9	Renaissance Theatre	When John Brayne built the Red Lion Theatre in London’s Whitechapel in 1569, he could hardly...	Emma Smith

#	Title	Description	Author
1	Great expectations	ebook version of Great expectations	Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870
2	Lady Windermere's Fan		Oscar Wilde
3	The Ballad of Reading Gaol		Oscar Wilde
4	Jane Eyre	Illustrated by F. H. Townsend	Charlotte Brontë
5	Venus and Adonis		William Shakespeare
6	The Rape of Lucrece		William Shakespeare
7	The Manifesto of the Communist Party	[From the English edition of 1888, edited by Friedrich Engels]	Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels
8	A Room of One's Own		Virginia Woolf
9	Christopher Marlowe (works of)	Edited by Havelock Ellis ; with an introduction by J. A. Symonds. ...	Christopher Marlowe
10	A Tale of Two Cities		Charles Dickens

#	Resource Title	Description	Contributor
1	Commerce and Culture, Lecture 2: Shakespeare's Theater	...	Paul A. Cantor
2	Course: Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus	Online course from the Open University. Description: "What does Christopher Marlowe's...

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Economic and Social Literary Criticism