New courses in Literature from MIT OpenCourseWare, provider of free and open MIT course materials. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature 2022-02-11T17:22:02+05:00 MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu en-US Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This class uses a range of literary texts to trace the growth of the vampire trope from its first appearance in English-language fiction in the early years of the nineteenth century. Centering on classic works by Lord Byron, John Polidori, Sheridan le Fanu, Bram Stoker, and others, we learn about the formation of the modern literary canon, the folklore of the undead, and the creation of one of the most prolific popular culture genres—vampire fiction—which reached its first apotheosis in Stoker’s masterwork, Dracula. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-310-bestsellers-out-for-the-count-fall-2018 Fall 2018 Donaldson, William 2019-04-30T18:16:20+05:00 21L.310 en-US Lord Byron Bram Stoker Dracula John Polidori folklore vampire literary trope literary tradition genre fiction MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm How do you read a poem? Intuition is not the only answer. In this class, we will investigate some of the formal tools poets use—meter, sound, syntax, word-choice, and other properties of language—as well as exploring a range of approaches to reading poetry, from the old (memorization and reading out loud) to the new (digitally enabled visualization and annotation). We will use readings available online via the generosity of the Poetry Foundation and the Academy of American Poets. We will also think collectively about how to approach difficult poems. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-004-reading-poetry-spring-2018 Spring 2018 Fuller, Mary 2018-12-05T19:40:50+05:00 21L.004 en-US literary analysis poetic form 20th and 21st century American writers reading poetry text annotation close reading translations poetry literature language MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm In this class we will focus on the connections between urban exploration and reading, attending to such shared concerns as pacing, legibility, transgression, attention and distraction, tracing and retracing, and memory. This idea of re-reading cities will be both a theme centering our discussions and a guiding principle of the course design, as we continuously loop back, returning to haunt texts we left behind earlier in the semester. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-488-contemporary-literature-street-haunting-in-the-global-city-spring-2018 Spring 2018 Abramson, Anna Jones 2018-10-12T17:49:06+05:00 21L.488 en-US re-reading urban exploration contemporary literature literary analysis exploration contemporary city novels critical lenses creative project MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm Although this class starts by critically examining the term “ethnic” as it defines a wide range of cultural forms over time, we will focus mostly on contemporary writers. Questions to consider will include: How has ethnic writing changed American culture and renovated forms of literary expression? What are the varieties and nuances of what we might call an ethnic subjectivity? What could it mean to harbor fugitives within the self: transgressive thoughts or a “foreign” identity? And what is the future of “ethnic” literature in a global space? https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-709-ethnic-literature-in-america-spring-2017 Spring 2017 Kelley, Wyn 2017-12-12T19:17:53+05:00 21L.709 en-US ethnicity culture contemporary writers writing literature American culture literary expression identity foreign identity Sandra Cisneros Junot Diaz Jhumpa Lahiri Toni Morrison Art Spiegelman MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This subject serves as a broad introduction to the field of European and Latin American fiction. It is designed to help students acquire a general understanding of major fictional modes. We will pay attention not only to the literary movements these works represent, but also to the subtle interplay of history, geography, language and cultural norms that gave rise to specific literary forms. The books we read in this course are compelling, and film versions of five of the works we read give variety to the course and time to think about the interplay of film and print. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-019-introduction-to-european-and-latin-american-fiction-great-books-on-the-page-and-on-the-screen-spring-2017 Spring 2017 Resnick, Margery 2017-10-24T19:55:04+05:00 21L.019 en-US European fiction Latin American fiction film culture language history geography literature writing creative writing MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm In this course students will visit the past through cookbooks to learn about what foodstuffs and technologies were available and when, and how religious and nutritional concerns dictated what was eaten and how it was cooked. Students will also learn about the gender dynamics of culinary writing and performances and the roles people played in writing and cooking recipes. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-707-reading-cookbooks-from-the-forme-of-cury-to-the-smitten-kitchen-spring-2017 Spring 2017 Lipkowitz, Ina 2017-10-24T19:54:23+05:00 21L.707 en-US cookbooks recipes chefs cooking molecular gastronomy farms blogs history religion technology nutrition culture gender dynamics culinary writing MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This course is designed around analyzing intimate bonds and the permutations of heartbreak. Through the analysis of a set of relations in novels, short stories, poetry, music videos, and live theatre, we will consider the transformative states of the lover’s (un)becoming, for how consciousness is constituted by bonds yet how the lover transcends crisis in the moment of the epiphany that surfaces in love’s very failure; indeed, love itself becomes narcissistically yet optimistically illuminating, even in its oppressive hold. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-000j-writing-about-literature-writing-about-love-fall-2015 Fall 2015 Martínez, Rosa 2017-06-16T20:16:37+05:00 21L.000J en-US love writing romance fiction novels short stories poetry music videos theatre racial love gendered love queer love sarcasm humor MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This subject examines the paradoxes of contemporary globalization. Through lectures, discussions and student presentations, we will study the cultural, linguistic, social and political impact of globalization across broad international borders. We will pay attention to the subtle interplay of history, geography, language and cultural norms that gave rise to specific ways of life. The materials for the course include fiction, nonfiction, audio pieces, maps and visual materials. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-020j-globalization-the-good-the-bad-and-the-in-between-fall-2016 Fall 2016 Resnick, Margery Terrones, Joaquín 2017-04-24T16:42:14+05:00 21L.020J 21G.076 WGS.145 en-US global economy labor market colonization empire trade world music cuisine sports sex work human trafficking architecture cultural appropriation exotification authenticity immigration assimilation anime capitalism ISIS slavery ebola infectious diseases NAFTA MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This seminar is about the pleasures and power of reading. From the Sumerian clay tablets of more than four millenia ago through the spectacular emergence of the electronic text, the written word—in all its forms—has captivated the human mind, embodied our insights into the world around us, and made enduring our most profound artistic creations and scientific discoveries. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-715-media-in-cultural-context-fall-2015 Fall 2015 Frampton, Stephanie A. 2017-03-09T21:09:14+05:00 21L.715 CMS.871 en-US reading text historical books Marshall McLuhan Italo Calvino David Mitchell Emily Dickinson Jacques Derrida media printing Don Quixote bibles modernity Cloud Atlas electronic text written word history of books MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This course is designed around analyzing what’s so funny and why is it that we laugh when we do. How is comedy characterized on the fictional page, the screen, and the stage? And what might the comic teach us about the self and culture(s), especially when we come to understand its patterns of transgression as confounding social norms through jokes and laughter? Tracking a history of comedy, beginning with the first Greek humorists, Aristophanes and Plautus, we will traverse genres, periods and cultures to reflect on various types of humor: satire, farce, slapstick, love, tragedy, parody, and screwball. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-021-comedy-spring-2016 Spring 2016 Martínez, Rosa 2017-02-28T20:54:07+05:00 21L.021 en-US comedy humor funny laughter comic culture jokes Greek humorists Aristophanes Plautus satire farce slapstick love tragedy parody screwball physical comedy cultural ideologies social identities gender body politics philosophy Mark Twain Freud Shakespeare MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This course is a study of the history of theater art and practice from its origins to the modern period, including its roles in non-western cultures. Special attention is given to the relationship between the literary and performative dimensions of drama, and the relationship between drama and its cultural context. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-005-introduction-to-drama-fall-2016 Fall 2016 Fleche, Anne 2016-11-23T16:53:42+05:00 21L.005 en-US drama Brecht modern theatre Octoroon Elam Cixous Hroswitha Boucicault Trifles Aristotle Poetics Sophocles Oedipus Euripides Medea Dulcitius York Crucifixion Kan'ami Matsukaze Japan Zeami Calderon Life is a Dream A Doll's House Modern Europe Churchill Cloud Nine Street Scene Treadwell Machinal Fires in the Mirror Anna Deavere Smith Gao The Other Shore realism semiotics Western Origins England America performance art China MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm In this class we will come to understand the vast changes in Spanish life that have taken place since Franco's death in 1975. We will focus on the new freedom from censorship, the re-emergence of movements for regional autonomy, the new cinema, reforms in education and changes in daily life: Sex roles, work, and family that have occurred in the last decade. In so doing, we will examine myths that are often considered commonplaces when describing Spain and its people. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-640j-the-new-spain-1977-present-fall-2015 Fall 2015 Resnick, Margery 2016-07-06T16:49:22+05:00 21L.640J 21G.740J en-US modern Spain Spanish Civil War Franco censorship regional autonomy Basque Catalonia Pedro Almodóvar educational reform feminism magazines newspapers films television fiction Roman Catholic Church Juan Carlos constitution reform revolution democratic transition José Ibáñez Martín MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm Tradition and innovation in representative fiction of the early modern period. Recurring themes include the role of the artist in the modern period; the representation of psychological and sexual experience; and the virtues (and defects) of the aggressively experimental character. Works by Conrad, Kipling, Babel, Kafka, James, Lawrence, Mann, Ford Madox Ford, Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner, and Nabokov. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-485-modern-fiction-fall-2015 Fall 2015 Buzard, James 2016-06-24T07:57:38+05:00 21L.485 en-US Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure Joseph Conrad Lord Jim Rudyard Kipling Kim Ford Madox Ford The Good Soldier James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man E.M. Forster A Passage to India Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm Great works of fiction often take us to far-off places; they sometimes conduct us on journeys toward a deeper understanding of what's right next door. We'll read, discuss, and interpret a range of short and short-ish works: The reading list will be chosen from among such texts as "Gilgamesh," Homer's Odyssey (excerpts), Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (excerpts), Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Saleh's Season of Migration to the North, Woolf's To the Lighthouse, John Cheever's "The Swimmer," Coetzee's The Life and Times of Michael K, Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," Toni Morrison's Jazz, H. G. Wells' The Time Machine, Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Beckett's How It Is, Calvino's Invisible Cities, Forster's A Passage to India. As a CI-H class, this subject will involve substantial practice in argumentative writing and oral communication. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-003-reading-fiction-imaginary-journeys-fall-2015 Fall 2015 Buzard, James 2016-06-24T07:57:31+05:00 21L.003 en-US Fiction Writing literature novel reading imaginary journeys Homer Odyssey Chretien de Troyes Arthur Knight of the Cart Cervantes Don Quixote Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels Mary Shelley Virginia Woolf Jospeh Conrad heart of darkness to the lighthouse frankenstein analytical writing revision oral presentation MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This course concentrates on close analysis and criticism of a wide range of films, from the early silent period, classic Hollywood genres including musicals, thrillers and westerns, and European and Japanese art cinema. It explores the work of Griffith, Chaplin, Keaton, Capra, Hawks, Hitchcock, Altman, Renoir, DeSica, and Kurosawa. Through comparative reading of films from different eras and countries, students develop the skills to turn their in-depth analyses into interpretations and explore theoretical issues related to spectatorship. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-011-the-film-experience-fall-2013 Fall 2013 Thorburn, David 2016-03-16T19:38:27+05:00 21L.011 en-US film history American culture Fred Ott early film D.W. Griffith Buster Keaton Charlie Chaplin Renoir Ford Hitchcock Altman DeSica narrative television visual communication storytelling media hollywood cinema movie MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This course takes a deep look at a big subject. We ask where Fairy Tales come from and we examine the structure of Fairy Tales. We'll also look at how Fairy Tales are conditioned by oral transmission and inherited story-telling techniques. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-430-popular-culture-and-narrative-use-and-abuse-of-the-fairy-tale-fall-2015 Fall 2015 Donaldson, William 2016-03-08T16:23:21+05:00 21L.430 CMS.920 en-US fairy tale brothers Grimm folktale children's literature disney mass culture Celtic Freud Jung Jungian theory Hans Christian Andersen Charles Dickens Philip K. Dick modern fairy tales classic fairy tales MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm It is easy to think of love as a "universal language" - but do ideas about love translate easily across history, culture, and identity? In this course, we will encounter some surprising, even disturbing ideas about love and sex from medieval writers and characters: For instance, that married people can never be in love, that the most satisfying romantic love incorporates pain and violence, and that intense erotic pleasure can be found in celibate service to God. Through Arthurian romances, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, love letters, mystical visions, and more, we will explore medieval attitudes toward marriage, sexuality, and gender roles. What can these perspectives teach us about the uniqueness of the Middle Ages—and how do medieval ideas about love continue to influence the beliefs and fantasies of our own culture? https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-460-medieval-literature-love-sex-and-marriage-spring-2015 Spring 2015 Jones, Emily Griffiths 2016-01-04T21:11:18+05:00 21L.460 en-US Medieval Europe literature late antiquity society history love sex marriage romance religion Arthur Chaucer Canterbury Tales gender sexuality Middle Ages culture MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This half-semester Samplings course, worth six instead of the typical twelve credits, drew attention to the thirteen female Nobel laureates. As the MIT Literature website explains, Samplings serve students looking for "a less intensive, more discussion and reading oriented way of continuing literary study." Secondly, "they allow the Literature Faculty to offer occasional subjects that cannot be permanently and regularly offered. Finally, they are a site of experimentation—a way of trying out new authors and new themes." https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-315-prizewinners-nobelistas-spring-2014 Spring 2014 Kelley, Wyn 2015-06-18T16:41:18+05:00 21L.315 en-US Toni Morrison Herta Mueller Alice Munro Nobel Prize literature Doris Lessing Nadine Gordimer Women Nobel Prize winner Opened Ground Collected Poems former British colonies MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm This subject examines the ways in which we read. It introduces some important strategies for engaging with literary texts developed in the twentieth century, paying special attention to poststructuralist theories and their legacy. The course is organized around specific theoretical paradigms. In general, we will: (1) work through the selected readings in order to see how they construe what literary interpretation is; (2) locate the limits of each particular approach; and (3) trace the emergence of subsequent theoretical paradigms as responses to what came before. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-451-introduction-to-literary-theory-fall-2014 Fall 2014 Raman, Shankar 2015-05-28T19:31:32+05:00 21L.451 en-US literary theory strategies of reading literary texts developed in the twentieth century theoretical paradigms literary interpretation interpretative approach film literature freud philosophy sophocles bronte foucault structuralism deconstruction psychoanalysis MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm Taking as its starting point the works of one of Britain's most respected, prolific—and funny—living dramatists, this seminar will explore a wide range of knowledge in fields such as math, philosophy, politics, history and art. The careful reading and discussion of plays by (Sir) Tom Stoppard and some of his most compelling contemporaries (including Caryl Churchill, Anna Deveare Smith and Howard Barker) will allow us to time-travel and explore other cultures, and to think about the medium of drama as well as one writer's work in depth. Some seminar participants will report on earlier plays that influenced these writers, others will research everything from Lord Byron's poetry to the bridges of Konigsberg, from Dadaism to Charter 77. Employing a variety of critical approaches (both theoretical and theatrical), we will consider what postmodernity means, as applied to these plays. In the process, we will analyze how drama connects with both the culture it represents and that which it addresses in performance. We will also explore the wit and verbal energy of these contemporary dramatists…not to mention, how Fermat's theorem, classical translation, and chaos theory become the stuff of stage comedy. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/21l-703-studies-in-drama-stoppard-and-company-spring-2014 Spring 2014 Henderson, Diana 2015-04-15T22:18:21+05:00 21L.703 en-US contemporary literature drama stoppard churchill play british text analysis stagecraft writer history politics culture performance comedy Tom Stoppard Caryl Churchill Anna Deveare Smith Howard Barker dramatist MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu Content within individual OCW courses is (c) by the individual authors unless otherwise noted. MIT OpenCourseWare materials are licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further information see https://ocw.mit.edu/terms/index.htm