In “the city of dreaming spires,” as the poet Matthew Arnold called it, this seminar looks at a range of major writers inspired by Oxford, including Shakespeare, Sidney, Johnson, Shelley, Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll, and Iris Murdoch. From fantasy literature like “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter,” to modern murder mysteries and post-colonial writings, students explore the varieties of literature that resonate most powerfully in this magical place.