A busy year for the Literary Society
12 Jan 2012
The Upper's Literary Society has flourished this year with a wide-ranging and exciting programme of events as follows:
- Anthologise – Ruby Andrews (U6CMW), Chris Dodsworth (9R) and Alex Turner (9T), keen poets and writers, were invited to attend the launch of this new national poetry competition spearheaded by Carol Ann Duffy. The Upper has been selected as a flagship school for the compeition.
- The highly acclaimed Pembroke Players delivered a physical drama workshop to students from Years 7 to Lower Sixth based on their touring production of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’.
- Lucinda Dawkins (Old Persean) returned to The Perse to give a fascinating talk about her production of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ at Oxford Playhouse which integrated literary criticism, theatrical technicality and academic analysis of the novel itself.
- Sixth form led student seminars:
- Olivia Miller (U6AJR) shared her enjoyment of Wilkie Collins’ sensation novels with a particularly detailed focus on ‘The Woman in White’;
- Marco Young (U6JBP) offered a fascinating insight into 'the horror, the horror!' of Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', enlightened by Freud and Jung’s theories;
- Dan Einav (U6GSW) explored in depth the nuances of language and controversy in ‘A Clockwork Orange’;
- Emily Hutchinson (U6DJC) encouraged us to read Wordsworth and furthered understanding of the Romantic movement and language.
- Using the research captured in his book ‘The Real Ancient Mariner’, Robert Fowke gave two seminars which drew interesting and unique parallels between real life piracy and Coleridge’s 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.
- Literary Society and Classical Society presented a collaborative overview of tragedy in an exciting and informative staff-led seminar which traced the development of the genre from its classical roots in Greek drama right up to its relevance to the modern day.
