What is the purpose of literature, and what is the role of literary criticism? In this course, students will look at practical criticism, different reading techniques like close reading, what makes a literary work ‘popular’ or a ‘classic’, and how these value-laden terms shape learning. Students will look at editing text, looking at how different texts have been shaped throughout the ages, looking at modern editing techniques and how language and spelling have changed. Students will explore Milton and T. S. Eliot’s work, and how their poetry engages with biblical stories and themes, provoking debate about philosophical questions regarding heroism, government, and hope. Students will then move on to colonial and post-colonial literature, looking at texts from Australia, and how the politics of empire have shaped our current view of literature. Participants will also look at the literary adaptations as a mode of translation, and what factors are brought into consideration when a text is translated for a different set of viewers. The use of punctuation will be studied both in prose and poetic works, the functions of form looking at three different textual forms, a sonnet, an extract from a children’s book and a selection of works from William Blake. Students will then finish the course looking at prosody, the patterns of linguistic features, the rhythmic structure of prose and poetry. This is the perfect course for the aspiring novelist or journalist.