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Major Authors: America's Literary Scientists
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Global exploration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries radically changed Western science, orienting philosophies of natural history to more focused fields like comparative anatomy, botany, and geology. In the United States, European scientific advances and home-grown ventures like the Wilkes Exploring Expedition to Antarctica and the Pacific inspired new endeavors in cartography, ethnography, zoology, and evolutionary theory, replacing rigid models of thought and classification with more fluid and active systems. They inspired literary authors as well. This class will examine some of the most remarkable of these authors—Herman Melville (Moby-Dick and “The Encantadas”), Henry David Thoreau (Walden), Sarah Orne Jewett (Country of the Pointed Firs), Edith Wharton (House of Mirth), Toni Morrison (A Mercy), among others—in terms of the subjects and methods they adopted, imaginatively and often critically, from the natural sciences.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
History
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Kelley, Wyn
Date Added:
09/01/2010
Major Authors: John Milton
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In 1667, John Milton published what he intended both as the crowning achievement of a poetic career and a justification of God’s ways to man: an epic poem which retold and reimagined the Biblical story of creation, temptation, and original sin. Even in a hostile political climate, Paradise Lost was almost immediately recognized as a classic, and one fate of a classic is to be rewritten, both by admirers and by antagonists. In this seminar, we will read Paradise Lost alongside works of 20th century fantasy and science fiction which rethink both Milton’s text and its source.
Students should come to the seminar having read Paradise Lost straight through at least once; this can be accomplished by taking the IAP subject, Reading Paradise Lost (21L.995), or independently. Twentieth century authors will include C. S. Lewis (Perelandra, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials), as well as assorted criticism. Each week, one class meeting will focus on Milton, and the other on one of the modern novels.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Fuller, Mary
Date Added:
02/01/2008
Major Authors: Melville and Morrison
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This seminar provides intensive study of texts by two American authors (Herman Melville, 1819-1891, and Toni Morrison, 1931-) who, using lyrical, radically innovative prose, explore in different ways epic notions of American identity. Focusing on Melville’s Typee (1846), Moby-Dick (1851), and The Confidence-Man (1857) and Morrison’s Sula (1973), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), and Paradise (1998), the class will address their common concerns with issues of gender, race, language, and nationhood. Be prepared to read deeply (i.e. a small number of texts with considerable care), to draw on a variety of sources in different media, and to employ them in creative research, writing, and multimedia projects.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Graphic Arts
Literature
Reading Literature
Social Science
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Kelley, Wyn
Date Added:
09/01/2003
Major Authors: Oscar Wilde and the '90's
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At this distance Oscar Wilde seems not only to be on the threshold between centuries and between cultural-systems: in many ways he seems to be the threshold. His aesthetics look backwards to the aestheticism of Pater and the moral sensibility of Ruskin, and they look forward to Modernism. His antecedents are 18th century playwrights, and he opened a path of irony and structural self-reflexivity that leads to Beckett and Tom Stoppard. He was Irish but achieved his great successes in England. Arguably, his greatest success was his greatest public failure: in his scandalous trials he shaped 20th century attitudes toward homosexuality and toward theatricality and toward performativity. His greatest performance was the role of “Oscar Wilde”: in that sense he taught the 20th century how to be itself.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Tapscott, Stephen
Date Added:
02/01/2003
Major Authors: Rewriting Genesis: "Paradise Lost" and Twentieth-Century Fantasy
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What does the Genesis story of creation and temptation tell us about gender, about heterosexuality, and about the origins of evil? What is the nature of God, and how can we account for that nature in a cosmos where evil exists? When is rebellion justified, and when is authority legitimate? These are some of the key questions that engaged the poet John Milton, and that continue to engage readers of his work.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Fuller, Mary
Date Added:
02/01/2009
Major English Novels
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This course studies several important examples of the genre that between the early 18th century and the end of the 20th has come to seem the definitive literary form for representing and coming to terms with modernity. Syllabi vary, but the class usually attempts to convey a sense of the form’s development over the past few centuries. Among topics likely to be considered are: developments in narrative technique, the novel’s relation to history, national versus linguistic definitions of an “English” novel, social criticism in the novel, realism versus “romance,” the novel’s construction of subjectivities. Writers studied have included Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Lawrence Sterne, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Joseph Conrad, H. G. Wells, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Salman Rushdie.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Buzard, James
Date Added:
02/01/2004
Major English Novels
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In this class, you will read, think about, and (I hope) enjoy important examples of what has become one of the most popular literary genres today, if not the most popular: the novel. Some of the questions we will consider are: Why did so many novels appear in the eighteenth century? Why were they—and are they—called novels? Who wrote them? Who read them? Who narrates them? What are they likely to be about? Do they have distinctive characteristics? What is their relationship to the time and place in which they appeared? How have they changed over the years? And, most of all, why do we like to read them so much?

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Lipkowitz, Ina
Date Added:
02/01/2009
Major English Novels: Reading Romantic Fiction
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Though the era of British Romanticism (ca. 1790-1830) is sometimes exclusively associated with the poetry of these years, this period was just as importantly a time of great innovation in British prose fiction. Romantic novelists pioneered or revolutionized several genres, including social/philosophical problem novels, tales of sentiment and sensibility, and the historical novel. Writing in the years of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars, and the early industrial revolution, these writers conveyed a spirit of chaos and upheaval even in stories whose settings are seemingly farthest removed from those cataclysmic historical events. In this year’s offering of “Major English Novels,” we will read of plagues, wars, hysterics, monsters and more in novels by authors including William Godwin, Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Walter Scott. In the final weeks of the semester, we will read one major novel of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, in light of these earlier texts. There will be two essay assignments, one 5-7 pages and one 8-10 pages in length, and required presentations.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Jackson, Noel
Date Added:
02/01/2002
Major European Novels
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This subject traces the history of the European novel by studying texts that have been influential in connection with two interrelated ideas. (1) When serious fiction deals with matters of great consequence, it should not deal with the actions of persons of consequence—kings, princes, high elected officials and the like—but rather with the lives of apparently ordinary people and the everyday details of their social ambitions and desires. To use a phrase of Balzac’s, serious fiction deals with “what happens everywhere”. (2) This idea sometimes goes with another: that the most significant representations of the human condition are those dealing with persons who try to compel society to accept them as its destined agent, despite their absence of high birth or inheritance.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Kibel, Alvin
Date Added:
09/01/2008
Major Media Texts
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This class does intensive close study and analysis of historically significant media “texts” that have been considered landmarks or have sustained extensive critical and scholarly discussion. Such texts may include oral epic, story cycles, plays, novels, films, opera, television drama and digital works. The course emphasizes close reading from a variety of contextual and aesthetic perspectives. The syllabus varies each year, and may be organized around works that have launched new modes and genres, works that reflect upon their own media practices, or on stories that migrate from one medium to another. At least one of the assigned texts is collaboratively taught, and visiting lectures and discussions are a regular feature of the subject.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
Graphic Arts
Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Henderson, Diana
Date Added:
09/01/2006
Major Poets
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This subject is an introduction to poetry as a genre; most of our texts are originally written in English. We read poems from the Renaissance through the 17th and 18th centuries, Romanticism, and Modernism. Focus will be on analytic reading, on literary history, and on the development of the genre and its forms; in writing we attend to techniques of persuasion and of honest evidenced sequential argumentation. Poets to be read will include William Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth, William Wordsworth, John Keats, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, and some contemporary writers.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Tapscott, Stephen
Date Added:
09/01/2005
Major Poets
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This subject follows a course of readings in lyric poetry in the English language, tracing the main lines of descent through literary periods from the Renaissance to the modern period and concentrating mostly on English rather than American examples.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Kibel, Alvin
Date Added:
09/01/2001
Making Books: The Renaissance and Today
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This course explores the impact of new technology on the recording and distribution of words and images at three different times: The invention of the printing press ca. 1450; the adaptation of electricity to communication technology in the 19th century (telegraph, telephone, phonograph); and the emergence of digital media today. Assignments include essays and online projects. Students also participate in the design and construction of a hand-set printing press.
This course is also part of the Concourse program at MIT.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
History
Literature
Reading Literature
World History
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
McCants, Anne
Ravel, Jeffrey
Stone, Kenneth
Date Added:
02/01/2016
Making Meaningful Comprehension Connections: Learning Through the Eyes of Ruby Bridges
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Goal/Objective:The students will construct meaning of an informational text while developing a multicultural perspective. Overview:This comprehension lesson focuses on a variety of reading skills, including making predictions and inferences, comparing/contrasting, answering inferential/critical questions, applying context clues and word structure to determine the meaning of words, and making text-to-self/text-to-world connections. All of these skills are taught alongside students learning about the Civil Rights Movement, the impact it has had on our nation, and the importance behind the story of Ruby Bridges.Grade Level:This lesson focuses on 4th grade standards, but can be adapted for any upper elementary classroom. Modifications/Accommodations:This lesson can be modified/accommodated for students with special needs. The lesson is derived from the ReadWorks.org website. If teachers create a free account to the website, students can have the passage, as well as the comprehension questions, read aloud to them. 

Subject:
Education
Elementary Education
English Language Arts
Language, Grammar and Vocabulary
Literature
Reading Informational Text
U.S. History
Material Type:
Homework/Assignment
Author:
Jennifer Bauer
Date Added:
07/28/2020
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett - Reader's Guide
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Educational Use
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Detective Sam Spade becomes embroiled with a mysterious client, avenges the death of his partner, and chases a priceless treasure in this classic American private-eye novel. The Big Read Reader's Guide deepens your exploration with interviews, booklists, timelines, and historical information. We hope this guide and syllabus allow you to have fun with your students while introducing them to the work of a great American author.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
Literature
Material Type:
Reading
Provider:
National Endowment for the Arts
Provider Set:
The Big Read
Date Added:
08/05/2013
Marguerite de Navarre Society Website
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Recent decades have seen a sharp increase in critical interest in Marguerite de Navarre and her work. This society website is dedicated to the study of Marguerite, her network, and her historical and cultural influence. The main goals are to facilitate scholarly exchange, to encourage collaboration, and to make digital resources available to the wider community. The society seeks to bring together the multiple lines of inquiry which inspire our understanding and appreciation of Marguerite, and to inspire new ones.
The Marguerite de Navarre Society website is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA) International license.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Languages
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Rezvani, Leanna
Date Added:
09/01/2023
Marguerite de Roberval: A Web-Based Approach to Teaching a Renaissance Heroine
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This website is designed to introduce students to Marguerite de Roberval and the sixteenth-century texts she inspired. The site includes extensive bibliographies, teaching ideas, lists of modern and Renaissance versions of her story, information about Captain Roberval and his company, early exploration of Canada, images, and other media.
The Marguerite de Roberval website is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA) International license.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
English Language Arts
Languages
Literature
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
MIT
Provider Set:
MIT OpenCourseWare
Author:
Rezvani, Leanna
Date Added:
09/01/2023
Mark Twain Project Online
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Mark Twain Project Online applies innovative technology to more than four decades' worth of archival research by expert editors at the Mark Twain Project. It offers unfettered, intuitive access to reliable texts, accurate and exhaustive notes, and the most recently discovered letters and documents.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
History
Literature
U.S. History
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Diagram/Illustration
Interactive
Lesson Plan
Simulation
Provider:
University of California
Provider Set:
California Digital Library
Date Added:
04/25/2013