literature

Overview Twelve experienced faculty members from across the United States present their analyses of ground-breaking modern American poets in richly illustrated video lectures. The course highlights both major poets—from Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson through T.S. Eliot, H.D., Amy Lowell, Hart...

Overview ModPo is a fast-paced introduction to modern and contemporary U.S. poetry, with an emphasis on experimental verse, from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman to the present. Participants (who need no prior experience with poetry) will learn how to read poems that are supposedly "difficult."...

Overview A unique and exciting introduction to the genre and craft of historical fiction, for curious students, aspiring authors--anyone with a passion for the past. Read classics of the genre, encounter bestselling writers of historical fiction, and discover your own historical archive while...

Overview In the first act of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Ghost of the dead King of Denmark appears to his son, setting off a chain of events that culminates in the play’s notoriously bloody finale. But how would this mysterious figure have been understood in Shakespeare’s world? Harvard...

Overview In this course, we'll read William Shakespeare’s Othello and discuss the play from a variety of perspectives. The goal of the course is not to cover everything that has been written on Othello. Rather, it is to find a single point of entry to help us think about the play as a whole. Our...

Overview This literature course explores how great writers refract their world and how their works are transformed when they intervene in our global cultural landscape today. No national literature has ever grown up in isolation from the cultures around it; from the earliest periods, great...

Overview Based on the second half of the Masterpieces of World Literature edX MOOC, this short literature course examines how writers reach beyond national and linguistic boundaries as worldly readers and travelers, and how their modern fictions rise to the status of world literature. These...

Overview This short literature course, based on the first half of the Masterpieces of World Literature edX MOOC, examines how civilizations and cultures of the ancient world defined themselves through literature and how that literature has continued to contribute to our understanding of those...

Overview Have you always wanted to write a novel? Have you started a novel only to run out of steam halfway through? Led by international best-selling authors and professors from The University of British Columbia’s world-renowned Creative Writing MFA program, this is part of a series of courses...

Overview Experienced writers understand that novels improve incrementally with each draft. This course teaches the skills of revision and the attention to detail it takes to make a good story great. Do you have a complete rough draft of a novel? Do you know it needs more work, but are unsure...

Overview Students will question for themselves the meaning of human freedom, responsibility and identity by reading and responding to Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. The Comedy, which is richly steeped in the medieval culture of the 14th century, still speaks vividly to modern readers...

Overview Get more from your reading What makes a great novel? How is a novel woven together? How can we best appreciate works of fiction? Answer these questions and more with this course from The University of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. On the course you’ll...

Overview Celebrate Robert Burns with this free online course. This free course from the Centre for Robert Burns Studies, University of Glasgow, will introduce you to the life, works and global celebrity of Robert Burns. You’ll examine poems, songs, manuscripts, and objects used to commemorate...

Overview Explore, understand and critique poetry What are the different ways you can understand a poem? How do different elements of a poem work together? What difference does context make to literature? Get answers to these questions and more with this course introducing poetry analysis and...

Overview Appreciate the key themes and traditions portrayed by famous Argentine authors This course explores Argentine culture from the perspectives of three renowned writers: María Teresa Andruetto, Jorge Luis Borges, and Julio Cortázar. On this course, you will focus on a selection of their...

Overview Trace the history and context of country house literature Investigate and discuss the role and representation of the English country house in literature, and learn how to build your own authoritative interpretation of these texts. For over 450 years, country houses have attracted the...

Overview Each year thousands of students travel across Europe to study in a foreign language like Italian. This can be daunting, even for those who are fluent. This online course, developed within the MOVE-ME project by UniStraSi, NUI Galway and The Open University, will help, guiding you...