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Literature

  • Analyzes, Interprets, and Critiques Literature
  • Provides Lively Discussion and Debate
  • Develops Cultural Aptitude

These courses provide the opportunity to read and discuss novels, short stories, memoirs, plays, and poetry. You will explore classic and contemporary literature from ancient texts to current bestsellers as you gain skills to analyze, interpret, and critique writing; develop cultural aptitude; and participate in nuanced discussions and lively debates.

This semester, study in-person or from anywhere in the world from the safety and comfort of your home through online or remote instruction.

James Joyce's Ulysses

Rediscover James Joyce’s canonical work, Ulysses .

2024 Spring
1 section

The Novel Today

We will investigate a dark secret in a small Irish Town; a reclusive artist in Baltimore; a sensitive secretive and brave teenager in Glasgow;...

2023 Fall
+ 1 more semester
6 sections

The Short Fiction of Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges

Explore the two most ambitious and experimental short story writers of the modern...

2024 Spring
1 section

Ancient Greek Tragedy: The First Family

Follow the legend of the First Family of Greek literature: the House of...

2024 Spring
1 section

Brilliant Minds

Read examples of works in which brilliant minds use their gifts to entertain, inspire, engage, and enlighten us. Spring 2024...

2023 Fall
+ 1 more semester
2 sections

Masterpieces of 20th-Century Fiction

Study major modern 20th century novels that now enjoy classic status.

2024 Spring
1 section

Religion and Literature: From the Bible to James Baldwin

Register for this Spring 2024 course on the new NYU SPS Academy of Lifelong Learning website. The Hungarian critic Georg Lukács said...

2024 Spring
1 section

Ancient Greek Tragedy: The Sense of an Ending

Read and discuss masterpieces of ancient Greek literature.

2023 Fall
1 section

Masterpieces of 19th-Century Fiction

Read 19th-century classics that have passed the test of time and are still of interest to contemporary readers.

2023 Fall
1 section

Two Novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment and the Brothers Karamazov

Read and analyze two recent, acclaimed translations of Fyodor Dostevsky’s most famous novels.

2023 Fall
1 section

Discovering the Modern: The Novels of E.M. Forster

Read the novels of E.M. Forster and learn about his contribution to modern literature.

2023 Fall
1 section

Lover or Fighter? Reading Virgil's Aeneid

Read and analyze Virgil’s Aeneid, a thrilling epic and an exploration of the devastation of war.

Five African Nobel Laureates

Register for this Spring 2023 course on the new NYU SPS Academy of Lifelong Learning website. With the award of the 2021 Nobel Prize for...

Leo Tolstoy: The Hero is Truth

Read 19th-century classics that have passed the test of time and are still of interest to contemporary readers.

The Modern Comic Novel

Register for this Spring 2023 course on the new NYU SPS Academy of Lifelong Learning website. Though serious literature is often associated...

Herman Melville's Moby-Dick

Register for this Summer 2023 course on the new NYU SPS Academy of Lifelong Learning website. Seen as an artistic failure or an...

Literature for the 21st Century

Discover a generation of authors likely to set literary trends well into the 21st century.

Reading Dante's Inferno

Examine the key themes, overall message, and place in cultural and literary history of Dante’s Inferno.

Three Recent Nobel Laureates from France; Le Clezio, Modiano, Ernaux

Read and analyze the works of three French Nobel laureates.