This programme examines major works of Western literature from their origins in Ancient Greece, tracing how foundational texts have shaped intellectual, moral, and imaginative life across the centuries. It is led by Professor Anthony O’Hear, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buckingham. Through sustained engagement with epic, tragedy, and philosophical writing, participants will explore how enduring questions concerning human nature, justice, suffering, reason, and meaning are articulated and reworked within the Western literary tradition.

The programme follows The Great Books: A Journey through 2,500 Years of the West’s Classic Literature and adopts its sequence and interpretive approach as the organising framework for the course. Texts are read in close relation to their historical and cultural contexts, with attention to the ways in which later works respond to, develop, and contest earlier ones. Emphasis is placed on careful reading of primary sources and on understanding literature as part of a continuous intellectual conversation rather than as isolated works.

This programme examines major works of Western literature from their origins in Ancient Greece, tracing how foundational texts have shaped intellectual, moral, and imaginative life across the centuries. It is led by Professor Anthony O’Hear, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buckingham. Through sustained engagement with epic, tragedy, and philosophical writing, participants will explore how enduring questions concerning human nature, justice, suffering, reason, and meaning are articulated and reworked within the Western literary tradition.

The programme follows The Great Books: A Journey through 2,500 Years of the West’s Classic Literature and adopts its sequence and interpretive approach as the organising framework for the course. Texts are read in close relation to their historical and cultural contexts, with attention to the ways in which later works respond to, develop, and contest earlier ones. Emphasis is placed on careful reading of primary sources and on understanding literature as part of a continuous intellectual conversation rather than as isolated works.