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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 novels, poems, plays, films, visual art, and other media make imaginative and critical sense of history and the present.

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RECENT NEWS

Lit@MIT: The Poetechnics Podcast, Ep 5 – Mary Fuller

Hello! Things have been busy here in Lit, but Poetechnics is back for a brief run before the end of the year. In this episode, Michael speaks with Literature Professor and Chair of Faculty Mary Fuller about her new book, Lines Drawn Across the Globe: Reading Richard Hakluyt’s “Principal Navigations”.

Poetechnics is a podcast from the Literature Section at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about the intersections of poetic and technical knowledge. The theme song is Anachronist by Kevin MacLeod, used under a Creative Commons License. Episodes are produced by Dr. Michael Lutz. This project is generously supported in part by MIT’s d’Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in Education.

Mon, Dec 4th @ 7-9P | Film screening “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”

You are warmly invited to relax and watch a light-hearted movie with us! We will be screening Hunt for the Wilderpeople a 2016 New Zealand adventure comedy-drama film on Monday December 4th from 7 - 9 pm in 26-100. After the screening there will be a debrief and...

Native American Heritage Month: Thanksgiving Myth-Busting Dinner w/ Prof Caitlyn Doyle

Join us on Monday 11/20 at 6pm in Lobdell for the 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Myth-Busting Dinner with speakers, including Professor Caitlyn Doyle.  Learn about how events of the 1600s were spun into the American Thanksgiving Holiday, and about the stories told in the...

Film Criticism features, Eugenie Brinkema “Not Done Being Over: Death and the Trouble with Understatement”

Film Criticism is a peer-reviewed, online publication bringing together scholarship in the field of cinema and media studies since 1975. Volume 47 • Issue 1, October 2023 features an article by Professor Eugenie Brinkema. Not Done Being Over: Death and the Trouble...

MIT News | Comparative Global Humanities Initiative: Forging climate connections across the Institute

Let's celebrate Professor Tristan Brown (History) and Professor Serguei Saavedra (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) and their project as a members of our Comparative Global Humanities Initiative and the "Environment, Diversity, and the Sacred" Pillar...

If/Then features Literature Double Major, Anjali Chadha MIT’23

Literature Double Major, Anjali Chadha was featured in the If/Then Initiative #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit 2023! “As a girl, as a minority, and as someone from a state [Kentucky] that isn’t necessarily highly focused on education, let alone STEM education, I always...

Oct 11th | Sandy Alexandre on, “Curating A Black Freedom Starter Pack” at the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard

The American Literature And Culture series at the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard showcases new work by scholars engaging with well-established and emergent methodologies in the history of American culture, politics, and aesthetics. The seminar focuses on...

Prof Mary Fuller on Phi Betta Kappa Society’s list of “What First-Years Read in 2023”

As America's most prestigious honor society, Phi Beta Kappa has celebrated excellence in the liberal arts & sciences and championed free thought since 1776. What First-Years Read in 2023 Many colleges choose a common reading list to build community around the free...

MIT News | Podcast: Curiosity Unbounded, Episode 5 — Beyond words with Prof Joshua Bennett & President Sally Kornbluth

Joshua Bennett is a professor of literature and Distinguished Chair of the Humanities at MIT. Additionally, he is an accomplished spoken word artist and the author of several books. In this episode, he speaks with MIT President Sally Kornbluth about the power of...

POSTPONED to Spring 2024 | Black Women Under Fire: Abolition, Black Liberation, And Feminism In Brazil

BLACK WOMEN UNDER FIRE: ABOLITION, BLACK LIBERATION, AND FEMINISM IN BRAZIL Speaker: Juliana Borges Postponed to Spring 2024 This talk will analyze the way in which Black women have been criminally punished in Brazil, from colonialism to coloniality, and the varied...

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FUN FACTS

The Literature concentration takes about three approved subjects to complete! Lit concentrators often go on to minoring or majoring in Literature!

Toni Morrison was the first African American woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She won the Pulitzer in 1988 and Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

Literature minors can choose to focus their studies on specific literary complexes as well as film, ancient & medieval studies, and more!

Frank Stella’s “Loohooloo” (1995) conference room located at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning references Herman Melville’s novel, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Sea.