About BackLit
This website is designed to help students develop the research skills and contextual knowledge necessary to successfully undertake higher education in English.
By providing key information about the texts, stories and ideas that underpin major works of literature, this site will alert students to the classical and biblical allusions that underpin so many of the texts studied at university level.
Students are encouraged to engage with the material in the ‘Stop! Think!’ sections, encouraging them to treat this site as a spur for further analysis and research rather than as a simple data-source.
Users are invited to submit classical and biblical literary references that they have discovered, thereby contributing to a growing cluster of literary allusions that highlight the intertextual nature of English literature.
It is hoped that this site will extend students’ understanding of the literature that they study, thereby enhancing their pleasure and confidence in the learning process; it is also hoped that students will be encouraged to read more widely, thus acquiring a self-determined, broad-based literary education.
Funded by an Associate Teaching Fellowship at Oxford Brookes University (2004-2006), this site is in the early stages of its conception, design and construction. In the future, biblical characters and events will be added.