Teaching students for fifteen years has allowed me to recognise the particular deficiencies of my own experiences.

One choice every teenager needs to make is whether they follow a vocational or academic route. I would define the sciences and mathematics as a vocational route in the sense that they lead more easily to employment. The humanities should instead have a broader ambition: to guide conversations about what it is to be better people and for us to lead better lives.

Of course, in 2020 such conversations are tempered by the burgeoning power of neoliberalist thought. Economic forces underscore the nature of public discourse, especially as people increasingly receive their knowledge through the echochambers of social media and openly partisan media. We live in a time whereby human nature is laid bare with little ambition – our leaders should lead for the ideals of our communities, not for the naked personal benefit and marketing-narratives. The language they use should not appeal to the strains of base hate and human inadequacy, as enticing and voter-friendly as such negative campaigning will be. Their language should also be away from academia, of esoteric wonderings and ambitious abstractions, and instead into ideas formed with pragmatic truisms and hard choices.

I took all humanities subjects in my A-Levels because I thought I was studying the human spirit, its relation to society and more. I read initially psychology at university before becoming frankly disheartened by the necessary limits of its epistemological ambition to be taken seriously as a science. I moved to literature before realising that I instead wanted to study the narrative of philosophy instead. But rightly so I committed to completing the course, reading around the humanities where I could.

I achieve well-enough, but my frameworks of understanding were shaky and piecemeal. I had worked hard at everything officially put forward to me by my teachers, but my only guides proved to be playful French theorists with their flawed relativism and contentious finger-signalling against humanity. It was not until I read for my MA in Education that I finally read around fields of psychology and sociology to a satisfying degree. Such musings gave me the language to understand the (necessary?) limits of my own education, especially in terms of its lack of intellectual frameworks. I read Grombrich and Sutherland, Polpolwski and Alexander, and through them accessed the historical frameworks I needed to guide my understanding of the humanities. I learned of the relativism of voice discourse and of the politically-motivated decisions to deprioritise the teaching of grammar and history in the 60s and 70s. I realised the neoliberal paradigms that motivated the formations of school academy chains, with their emphasis on strong systems over individual brilliance. I realised how the messy and associative thinking of the individual humanities teacher challenges more necessarily pragmatic ambitions when he becomes a school manager. In all of these and more I now had the historical navigations to guide my thought.

There were several points of angst in my university education where I really needed a framework like this. Dropped into the course I was exposed to key thinkers as if I was familiar to their ideas as well as their names. Sartre and Nietzsche, Hume and Locke, Keynes and Smith: all these and more offered radically new ideas, as dislocated and detached as much as were attractive and stimulating. I wrote several short books about my desires to find or form a syllabus to combine these thinkers and their positions to where I had come. Alas, no-one paid to care about that mission could really be concerned. Nor, perhaps, should they. In lieu of such guides, I left university with a range of dislocated political and philosophical thought, trapped in perpetual relativism and cynical post-modernism. I was employable enough to satisfy figures for the course and university, with celebratory grades. My schooling was good; my education was inadequate.

So what would I change now? I would want to give myself some of these ranges histories in the form of the following podcast series and books. These would serve as your guides, giving you far more time than possible by a teacher or parent. These would give you an internally coherent range of historical, political and philosophical thought, guiding you by nodal signposts of historical significance into threads of understanding.

At the very least, I would recommend that any learners read and listen to the minimum range of podcasts and books below. They will guide you through the full range of Western history. Only when you access that entire range will any detailed study of particular thinkers be truly learnt. Time and space will become more relevant as you realise that modern relates to 400+ years ago. And only then can you be educated for life, not just school!

What is the Place of Literature in a School’s Curriculum?

Literature enjoys a peculiar place in the school curriculum. It is not vocational like Mathematics or business studies. It is not focused like History or Geography. It is not as immediately contemporary as Media Studies or Politics. But for many people, literature is their best subject.

There are some see the study of literature as merely the reading of specific books for an exam. Passing exams is occupationally important but focusing only on the exam is a tragic misunderstanding of the subject. Northrop Frye said famously that literature sits between philosophy and history: literature takes its framework from all of human history while it takes its ideas from philosophy.

So understanding a few books is not enough – your ambition should be to understand the whole range of human history and the very best ideas of philosophy. This is your heritage. This is your right. This is your duty.

How do Universities see Literature?

As you move towards university and beyond, knowledge of culture becomes essential. It provides you with both with a framework to understand new things, and as something that enriches your life in general.

Universities see literature as the gold-standard A-Level because it expects you to pursue an interest in all human culture. Such pursuit must be beyond the time and space of school. It should be a lifelong quest to be educated, and for that education to make your relationships, your jobs and your life better and richer and far more profoundly satisfying.

So Why Listen to Podcasts?

Reading ideas in private is a relatively new experience in human history. For millennia people would be educated through talk and listening, a back-and-forth exchange of ideas and thought. Podcasts are

Podcasts are essentially any audio that you can put on your phone. They are especially useful as you can listen to them whilst walking, or on a commute, as well as studying more formally.

The ability to listen to a podcast in any environment means you can continually educate yourself in your spare-time, and reclaim some of your mind from the distractions of phone adverts and Reddit…

 

 

Gregory Anderson 2019

  

What are our minimum expectations?

As a minimum, you must listen to all the Massolit videos of our Set Texts, preferably more than once. You should listen to them over the summer, and again before studying the books. (each text = 1 to 2 hours)

As another minimum expectation, you must listen to all of the ‘History of Ideas’ podcasts (3 hours).

As another minimum expectation, you should listen to the courses in Tragedy, Romanticism, and poetry (90 minutes to 3 hours each).

As another minimum, you are expected to listen to the History of English Literature Crash Course (10 hours).

Ideally, you will listen to the Crash Courses for Drama and for History. This will give you a framework that will allow you to understand where the texts fit into the world. (10 hours each)

The best students will take Cornell Notes after each podcast or so – prompts to help you remember.

You should also read Grombrich’s A Little History of the World and Sutherland’s History of Literature It.  These, along with the relevant recommended books in those series, are great introductions and refreshers for anyone. 

Extension

As you move towards university, you will likely stop completing different tasks relating to texts and instead you will discuss the texts directly. In Our Time is aimed at lay educated people (that is, graduates) on a series of interesting cultural topics. Each conversation is between 28 and 60 minutes long.

You may not understand all of every podcast, but you can still respond. See these In Our Time podcasts like enjoying a dinner party with the future-you, someone who is both highly-educated and very interesting!

The Western Tradition is also an excellent series that will give you the history of philosophy, ideas that have shaped how people are right now.

You can listen to these with your fellow students, friends and family. Aim to continue the conversation afterwards!

I would also highly recommend Popawski’s Literature in Context. The narrative of this book is eruditely wonderful and balances readability with academic rigour. Quite simply the most important book I have read for my studies. Thank you Paul and co!

Further Extension

Ideally, you can listen to podcasts on an aspect of literature or culture that really interests you. Amazon sells a great series of courses that will give you tremendous insight into an aspect of literature, philosophy, history and/or culture. You can purchase one for the equivalent of 7GBP if you subscribe to Audible. We recommend a series of these at the end of this booklet.

Podcast Links

Massolit:

Text Specific

Streetcar Named Desire https://www.massolit.io/courses/williams-a-streetcar-named-desire
The Handmaid’s Tale https://www.massolit.io/courses/atwood-the-handmaid-s-tale
Othello, scene by scene https://www.massolit.io/courses/shakespeare-othello-e57cfa26-266d-4975-a1e1-fb51737616b3

Othello, general themes https://www.massolit.io/courses/shakespeare-othello

Great Gatsby chapter by Chapter https://www.massolit.io/courses/fitzgerald-the-great-gatsby

Great Gatsby General Ideas https://www.massolit.io/courses/fitzgerald-the-great-gatsby-00154073-2406-4c4a-9399-372f277ccf2d

 

Pre-1900 Poetry

 

John Donne: https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-john-donne

Christina Rossetti https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-christina-rossetti-c96d8fb3-6273-4c01-895a-6b7d8d8652b3

John Keats https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-john-keats

Emily Dickinson https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-emily-dickinson
Emily Dickinson 2 https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-emily-dickinson-6c558fe1-1de4-4716-9a97-555a448e3832

Percy Shelley https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-shelley

Keats The Odes https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-john-keats-the-odes

Blake Songs of Innocence and Experience https://www.massolit.io/courses/blake-songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience

William Wordsworth https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-william-wordsworth-c4165921-1da5-4fd7-8591-c26c851686d9

Lord Byron https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-lord-byron

Poetry of Thomas Hardy https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-thomas-hardy

 

 

General Podcasts

Love Through the Ages https://www.massolit.io/courses/love-through-the-ages

How to Read and Analyse Poetry https://www.massolit.io/courses/poetry-how-to-read-and-analyse-poetry

Introduction to Poetic Form https://www.massolit.io/courses/poetry-introduction-to-poetic-form

 

Shakespeare on Stage https://www.massolit.io/courses/shakespeare-on-stage

Romanticism Course 12 Lectures https://www.massolit.io/courses/romanticism

18th Century Literature https://www.massolit.io/courses/18th-century-literature-an-introduction

Course in Tragedy 20 Lectures https://www.massolit.io/courses/tragedy-a-complete-history

Poetry of the Victorian Period https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-poetry-of-the-victorian-period

Modernism 1 Context https://www.massolit.io/courses/modernism-context

Modernism 2 Literature https://www.massolit.io/courses/modernism-literature

Modernism 3 Critical Perspectives https://www.massolit.io/courses/modernism-critical-perspectives

Philosophy of Literature https://www.massolit.io/courses/the-philosophy-of-literature

Whole Courses

Drama Crash Course – 51 lectures in 10 hours and 16 minutes.

Literature Crash Course – 48 lectures in 8 hours 48 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOeEc9ME62zTfqc0h6Pe8vb

World History Crash Course

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9

European History

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhtuC9dp0Hk&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMsMTfmRomkVQG8AqrAmJFX

Mythology

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNCG9Vq7vdvJytS-F-xGi7_

Pop Culture

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28Xmpe3BO9mxitjjRCKTq5QwckH

History of Ideas

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28Xmpfv8ez3ItKS1Ti3T8o6f7Yy

The Western Tradition

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFOd4O0m6izgu3xkA8vbLXZNwCTO2KZzQ

Western Philosophy

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpeypJMHfNbJ4RAFkRtmAN3P

In Our Time

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl – Ideal link

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9Bo60pWqbbL9g8XhFagnHvXNnrv21ZkR

  1. Politics in the 20th Century (In Our Time)
  2. Utopia (In Our Time)
  3. Marriage (In Our Time)
  4. The Jacobite Rebellion (In Our Time)
  5. The French Revolution’s reign of terror (In Our Time)
  6. The Diet of Worms (In Our Time)
  7. The Silk Road (In Our Time)
  8. Mary Wollstonecraft (In Our Time)
  9. The Industrial Revolution (In Our Time)
  10. Consequences of the Industrial Revolution (In Our Time)
  11. Chivalry (In Our Time)
  12. Consciousness (In Our Time)
  13. Memory and Culture (In Our Time)
  14. Imagination and Consciousness (In Our Time)
  15. Imagination (In Our Time)
  16. Memory (In Our Time)
  17. Nature (In Our Time)
  18. Jung (In Our Time)
  19. Cultural Rights in the 20th Century (In Our Time)
  20. The Philosophy of Love (In Our Time)
  21. Good and Evil (In Our Time)
  22. Aristotle’s Politics (In Our Time)
  23. Camus (In Our Time)
  24. Rhetoric (In Our Time)
  25. Simone de Beauvoir (In Our Time)
  26. Socrates (In Our Time)
  27. Neoplatonism (In Our Time)
  28. The Consolations of Philosophy (In Our Time)
  29. Truth (In Our Time)
  30. Feminism (In Our Time)
  31. Shakespeare and Literary Criticism (In Our Time)
  32. Multiculturalism (In Our Time)
  33. Truth, Lies and Fiction (In Our Time)
  34. The Avant Garde’s Decline and Fall in the 20th Century (In Our Time)
  35. Reading (In Our Time)
  36. The Renaissance (In Our Time)
  37. Masculinity in Literature (In Our Time)
  38. Death (In Our Time)
  39. The American Ideal (In Our Time)
  40. The Novel (In Our Time)
  41. Shakespeare’s Life (In Our Time)
  42. The Romantics (In Our Time)
  43. Modern Culture (In Our Time)
  44. Englishness (In Our Time)
  45. Dickens (In Our Time)
  46. Existentialism (In Our Time)
  47. Literary Modernism (In Our Time)
  48. Milton (In Our Time)
  49. Youth (In Our Time)
  50. Victorian Realism (In Our Time)
  51. The Sonnet (In Our Time)
  52. Sensibility (In Our Time)
  53. Oscar Wilde (In Our Time)
  54. Chaucer (In Our Time)
  55. Epistolary Literature (In Our Time)
  56. Heart of Darkness (In Our Time)
  57. Madame Bovary (In Our Time)
  58. Siegfried Sassoon (In Our Time)
  59. Pastoral Literature (In Our Time)
  60. The Odyssey (In Our Time)
  61. The Later Romantics (In Our Time)
  62. The Greek Myths (In Our Time)
  63. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (In Our Time)
  64. Christina Rossetti (In Our Time)
  65. Chekhov (In Our Time)
  66. Elizabethan Revenge (In Our Time)
  67. History of Metaphor (In Our Time)
  68. James Joyce’s Ulysses (In Our Time)
  69. Roman Satire (In Our Time)
  70. The Brothers Grimm (In Our Time)
  71. The Metaphysical Poets (In Our Time)
  72. Tristram Shandy (In Our Time)
  73. Aesop (In Our Time)
  74. Animal Farm (In Our Time)
  75. Beowulf (In Our Time)
  76. Emily Dickinson (In Our Time)
  77. Wuthering Heights (In Our Time)
  78. Tess of the d’Urbervilles (In Our Time)
  79. Jane Eyre (In Our Time)

 

 

Great Courses: Each is between 12 and 30 hours

Courses – Purchase on Audible

A Brief History of the World

A Modern Look at Ancient Greek Civilization

Aeneid of Virgil

American Dream

American History

American Identity

American Mind

Ancient Greek Civilization

Ancient Greek Literature

Ancient Near Eastern Mythology

Apocalypse Now, Apocalypse Then Prophecy, The Creation Of The Modern World

Argumentation – The Study of Effective Reasoning

Bible and Western Culture

Big History – The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity

Birth of the Modern Mind

Books That Have Made History

Brave New Words – The Creation Of Language

Building Great Sentences – Exploring the Writer’s Craft

Chaos

Classic Novels – Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature

Classical Archaeology of Ancient Greece and Rome

Classical Mythology

Classics of American Literature

Classics of Russian Literature

Comedy Through the Ages

Dante’s Divine Comedy

Detective Fiction

English Novel

Enlightenment – Invention of the Modern Self

Europe and Western Civilization in the Modern Age

European History and European Lives

European Thought and Culture in the 19th Century

European Thought and Culture in the 20th Century

Foundations of Western Civilization I

Foundations of Western Civilization II

Freedom – The Philosophy of Liberation

From Monet to Van Gogh – A History of Impressionism

From Plato to Postmodernism –  Understanding the Essence of Literature and the Role of the Author

Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition

Great Ideas of Philosophy

Great Ideas of Psychology

Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 3rd Ed

Great Writers, Their Lives And Works

Greek Tragedy

Herodotus, The Father of History

Heroes Heroines, and The Wisdom of Myth

History of Ancient Egypt

History of Ancient Rome

History of Christianity in the Reformation Era

History of England from the Tudors to the Stewarts

History of Freedom

History of Russia – From Peter the Great to Gorbachev

History of Science from 1700 to 1900

History of Science from Antiquity to 1700

History of the Bible- The Making of the New Testament Canon

History of the Construction of St. Peter’s Basillica

History of the English Language

History of the Supreme Court

History of the United States, 2nd Ed

History of the US Economy in the 20th Century

History of World Literature

Holiday Music

How to Listen to and Understand Great Music

How to Listen to and Understand Opera

How to Read and Understand Poetry

Ideas in Politics

Ideas in Western Culture – The Medieval and Renaissance World

Iliad of Homer

Interpreting the 20th Century

Introduction to Greek Philosophy

Italian Renaissance

Joyce’s Ulysses

King Arthur and Chivalry

Liberty And It’s Price – Understanding The French Revolution

Life and Legacy of the Roman Empire

Life and Operas of Verdi

Life and Work of Mark Twain

Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis

Life and Writings of Geoffrey Chaucer

Life and Writings of John Milton

Literary Modernism- The Struggle for Modern History

Lives and Works of English Romantic Poets

Long 19th Century – European History from 1789 to 1917

Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind

Masterworks of Early 20th Century Literature

Mind of the Enlightenment

Modern British Drama

No Excuses Existentialism and the Meaning of Life

Odyssey of Homer

Origin of the Modern Mind

Origins and Ideologies of the American Revolution

Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations

Origins of Life

Passions – Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions

Peoples and Cultures of the World

Philosophy and Human Values

Philosophy and Religion in the West

Philosophy as a Guide to Living

Philosophy of Mind

Philosophy of Religion

Philosophy of Science

Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues

Plato’s Republic

Poetry – A Basic Course

Power Over People

Practical Philosophy

Psychology of Human Behavior

Quest for Meaning

Questions of Value

Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Rise of Nations

Representing Justice – Stories of Law and Literature

Rights of Man

Science and Religion

Science Fiction – The Literature Of Technological Imagination

Science Wars – What Scientists Know and How They Know It

Search for a Meaningful Past – Philosophies, Theories and Interpretations of Human History

Self Under Siege – Philosophy in the 20th Century

Shakespeare – Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies

Shakespeare – Word and Action

Story of Human Language

Swift – Gulliver’s Travels

Terror of History – Mystics, Heretics, and Witches in the Western Tradition

Theories Of Human Development

Theory of Evolution – A History of Controversy

Thinking about Capitalism

Tools of Thinking

Twentieth Century American Fiction

Understanding Linguistics – The Science of Language

Understanding Literature and Life- Drama, Poetry and Narrative

Using Literature to Understand the Human Side of Medicine

Utopia and Terror in the Twentieth Century

Victorian Britain

Voltaire and the Triumph of Enlightenment

Wisdom of History

World History

World Philosophy

World War I – The Great War

World War II – A Military and Social History