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Offered:

  • 2023 Term 3 (July-September)

Date & Time:

  • Our 2023 Term 3 LIT310 course meets on Thursday evenings from 6:30-8:30pm beginning on 27 July 2023 (New Zealand time). The course meets for 8 consecutive weeks. If you live outside of New Zealand, check for local Time Zone equivalents below.

Time Zone equivalents:

for live-streaming Zoom Sessions from New Zealand. If your Time Zone doesn't suit our live-streamed class, you can also access our courses by watching the live-recorded sessions that are posted to the course webpage each week, usually within 1-2 days.

  • Honolulu, Hawai’i: begins Wed 26 Jul 2023, 8:30-10:30pm

  • US Pacific: begins Wed 26 Jul 2023, 11:30pm-1:30am

  • US Eastern: begins Thu 27 Jul 2023, 2:30-4:30am

  • London, UK: begins Thu 27 Jul 2023, 7:30-9:30am

  • Paris, France: begins Thu 27 Jul 2023, 8:30-10:30am

  • New Delhi, India: begins Thu 27 Jul 2023, 12:00-2:00pm

  • Bangkok, Thailand: begins Thu 27 Jul 2023, 1:30-3:30pm

  • Singapore & Shanghai: begins Thu 27 Jul 2023, 2:30-4:30pm

  • Tokyo, Japan: begins Thu 27 Jul 2023, 3:30-5:30pm

  • Sydney Australia: begins Thu 27 Jul 2023, 4:30-6:30pm

Description:

  • How have spy thrillers as we know them developed? This survey of spy thriller fiction published between 1880 and 2000 sets the books in their historical context and shows how they reflect the politics of the time in which the books were published. Spy thrillers also document our own social history and reveal many important issues for us to think about. We will look at the role women characters play in spy fiction and think about why the villains in spy fiction are usually Russian.

  • Other topics we might like to think about are why there is still interest in 50-year-old spy scandals, or why there were so few thrillers with Russian settings or characters published during the world wars when Russia/the Soviet Union was our ally. How do we know what’s true in spy thrillers? We will answer these and other questions.

  • Links to online resources are provided, and brief excerpts from some of the examples are available before each class.

Course curriculum:

Week by week new material will be posted throughout the duration of the course. Video recordings of each weekly session will be posted here after 1-2 days after each class.

    1. EarthDiverse Course Information

    2. EarthDiverse Zoom instructions

    3. Course Introduction (updated): Please read before the course begins

    1. The Background: 1880-1900

    2. Online Resources for Week 1 PDF

    3. LIT310 Week 1 Short Readings (updated) PDF

    4. 20230727 T3.1 LIT310 Spies Villains class presentation PDF

    5. 20230727 T3.1 LIT 310 Villains in Spy Fiction class video

    1. Part One: 1900-1910: Spy mania in the United Kingdom and the establishment of the Secret Service Bureau

    2. Part Two: 1910-1920: World War One and the Russian Revolution

    3. Part Three: The Big Question: Why have there been so few spy thrillers set during World War One?

    4. Week 2 Readings PDF

    5. Week 2 Online Resources PDF

    6. 20230803 T3.2 LIT310 Spies Villians class presentation PDF

    7. 20230803 T3.2 LIT310 class video

    1. Part One: Soviet/Bolshevik villains, and amateur heroes

    2. Part Two: The effect of the First World War on spy thrillers of the 1920s, women in spy thrillers.

    3. Week 3 Resources PDF

    4. Week 3 Readings PDF

    5. 20230810 T3.3 LIT310 Spies Villians class presentation PDF

    6. 20230810 T3.3 LIT310 video

    1. Russian characters, warnings about communism, real spies, fictional spies, British disarmament, German rearmament, appeasement and The Spanish Civil War.

    2. Week 4 Readings PDF

    3. Week 4 Online Resources PDF

    4. Some explanations of terms PDF

    5. 20230817 T3.4 LIT310 Spies Villians class presentation PDF

    6. 20230817 T3.4 LIT310 video

    1. Part One: Part One: World War Two and the start of the Cold War, thrillers written during the 1940s

    2. Part Two: Looking Back: Later thrillers set in the 1940s

    3. Week 5 Resources PDF

    4. Brief history of the Secret Police of the Soviet Union PDF

    5. 20230824 T3.5 LIT310 Spies Villians class presentation PDF

    6. 20230824 T3.5 LIT 310 video

About this course

  • Videos and PDF content of class presentations or whiteboard notes are uploaded weekly after each live session
  • Begins on Thu 27 Jul 2023
  • NZ time: Thurs 6:30-8:30pm

Meet our Instructor:

Instructor Jillene Bydder

Jillene Bydder’s long-term interest is in spy thrillers and what they can tell us about ourselves. An academic research librarian, she has read many thrillers unavailable in New Zealand during study periods spent at the British Library in London. She has walked the line marking the path of the Berlin Wall, crossed the Bridge of Spies, and visited Russia multiple times. She has been to Siberia and seen the bullet holes in the building used as the headquarters of the White Army during the Russian Revolution and to Stalin’s birthplace in Georgia. She has visited the island in the Baltic Sea from which British agents were infiltrated into the Soviet Union. She has presented many papers to international conferences and spends much time in second-hand bookshops here and overseas adding to her own collection of thrillers.

Location:

All in-person classes are held at the EarthDiverse offices and classrooms located at 401 Anglesea Street, Hamilton Central, Hamilton (located just north of the Hamilton Central Bus Station) (entrance is located on the side of the building, see map below). Those looking for parking for our evening classes can park just in front of the building in any of the available car parks. Daytime parking can be found in our dedicated car parks, or free 2-hour on-street daytime parking can be found just in front of Anglesea Street.
Location

Distance Learning:

This course has distance-learning options for those unable to attend the live class sessions in Hamilton. Students have three options for attending our courses once they have registered:

  • Attend in-person classes in our Hamilton classrooms at the regularly scheduled day and time.

  • Attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regular scheduled day and time.

  • Watch the live-recorded class sessions at your leisure, at a time, day and place more suited to your schedule.

Distance-Learning options:

  • In addition to our in-person classes in Hamilton, our courses offer distance learning options for those unable to attend classes in-person. Live-streamed Hamilton classes are available via free Zoom software for those living outside the Waikato. Live-streaming allows you to participate fully in your own learning, ask questions of the instructor and participate fully in the same way as if you were in the physical classroom.

  • Those unable to attend the scheduled date and time of the actual class sessions, or those who need to miss a class or two due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, can watch any or all of the live-recorded video sessions on their computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices and study at their own pace and in their own time.

  • Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components will be sent after completing your registration. There are no additional fees for this service. However, distance learners will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with a good quality web-camera (tablet devices and mobile phones can also access our live-streamed classes), a built-in microphone (most modern laptops have built-in microphones) or a headset with a microphone. You will also need to download and install the free Zoom software on your computer or device. Those accessing the video recordings will be able to do so with a simple web browser on any device.

Pricing options:

All prices in New Zealand dollars and includes GST. Unwaged includes students, seniors and retirees.

Notes:

Those who cannot make the class meeting day and time via live Zoom sessions may consider accessing this course through the weekly recorded video sessions. Class videos are usually posted within 1-2 days of each live class session and are available for your own personal learning on a day and time of your choosing.

  • Detailed Syllabi are available at the start of each Term.

  • Any Term can be taken independently of the others, and there are no prerequisites for any of the Term courses.

  • This class has no assignments, quizzes, tests or exams.

  • Some preparation however is required for familiarising yourself with the short stories, myths and texts prior to each course session.

  • Sources for accessing and reading these are provided each week, either via PDF or web-based URL for on-line reading, downloading or printing at home.

  • You will not need to purchase any reading materials.

  • All classes encourage questions and group discussion.

  • PDFs of class presentations and video recordings of each session will be posted 1-2 days after each session for the duration of the course. You are most welcome to come, sit back, relax, take part in and enjoy the discussions!

  • Course fees include a short tea/coffee/snack break in the middle of each session.

  • There are no refunds for missed class. If, however, this course is cancelled due to insufficient enrolments please note that your registration fee will either be refunded in full or you may select to receive a course credit. Your choice!

Prerequisites:

  • There are no prerequisites for this course.