Embrace an ExpansIve Vision of Literary Study
With a faculty composed of renowned scholars and dedicated teachers, the MIT Literature section offers a wide range of courses across time periods, international cultures, and languages. Literature courses at MIT examine how multiple expressive forms, such as novels, poems, plays, films, and visual art, not only make imaginative and critical sense of history and the present but also project us into a range of possible futures.
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Global France Seminar: The Ambivalences of Return: Diasporic Utopias and Anti-Migrants
Global France Seminar: The Ambivalences of Return: Diasporic Utopias and Anti-Migrants
"Return" is a central notion for thinking about the diasporic condition (W. Safran). Yala Kisukidi will examine the ambivalences of this notion, drawing specifically on twentieth-century African and Black diasporic imaginaries and on contemporary European migration policies.
“The Omen”: Jessica Ruffin at the Coolidge Corner Theater
"The Omen": Jessica Ruffin at the Coolidge Corner Theater
Jessica Ruffin will unpack the broad function of religious horror, the film’s engagement with filicide taboos and class inheritance, as well as its unique metaphysics of evil, from women and dogs to the photographic image.
MIT/French Library Author Series: Camille de Peretti presents Portrait of an Unknown Woman
MIT/French Library Author Series: Camille de Peretti presents Portrait of an Unknown Woman
In 1910, Gustav Klimt painted a young woman, then painted over her portrait. The painting was stolen in 1997 and unexpectedly resurfaced two decades later. Camille de Peretti uses this intriguing chapter in art history to imagine the woman behind the painting and the generations that follow her.
FUN FACTS
The Literature concentration takes about three approved subjects to complete. Lit concentrators often go on to minoring or majoring in Literature!
During a 1998 talk at MIT titled, “Devil Girl From Mars’: Why I Write Science Fiction” Octavia Butler explained how media inspired her to start writing.
Literature minors can choose to focus their studies on specific literary complexes as well as film, ancient & medieval studies, and more!
William Carlos Williams was an American poet, writer, and physician of pediatrics and general medicine.
