Literature Classes in NYC, New York

In this workshop we will listen to, and attempt to think through, archival recordings from the Poetry Project’s extensive collection housed at the Library of Congress.  We will aim to bring to craft a collective language for talking about readings: what is happening at a reading? How might we develop an historiography of listening? How are...

Gather in a diverse group setting and participate in an informal but challenging discussion of contemporary and classical literature and the reading experience.  Learn what authors do to capture a reader's interest and The Mare by Mary Gaitskill will be the first selection. Please read this book PRIOR to the 1st class mee...

Join charismatic actor and teacher Leo Schaff as he breathes life into Shakespeare's words, acting out portions of the play, and offering illuminating insights into the Bard's language, plot lines, historical context and eternal relevance, all with a generous sense of humor. This year, he tackles the history plays. Sep 26 — Henry VI, Part I Part...

The arts become a powerful tool by generating dialogue, strengthening a sense of community, and envisioning community based interventions. In this course, we examine how artists, cultural workers, and community activists have devised creative strategies for responding to institutional and interpersonal violence and trauma. How does creativity work...

Gather in a diverse group setting and participate in an informal but challenging discussion of contemporary and classical literature and the reading experience.  Learn what authors do to capture a reader's interest and to keep a reader reading. Join in and talk about how authors create characters, develop plot and theme. ...

Aristotle’s Poetics offers an account of imitative art and its pleasures that stands at the origins of Western aesthetic theory. In response to Plato’s critique of poetry as twice-removed from reality, Aristotle defends—and theorizes—imitation as an essential component of human education and of the “discovery of form in things.” Fiction...

What is literature? And what kinds of meanings, uses, values, histories, and philosophical positions do we attach to literature in the act of reading it?  Literary theory, the diverse body of thought that addresses these fundamental questions, has pursued a stunning array of methods in its attempts to understand how literature works. This course,...

This course considers James Baldwin’s decades-long preoccupation with the role of the artist in American culture. Reading across his fiction, non-fiction, and selected speeches, we will examine the author’s provocative assertions about the singular responsibility of the artist as moral arbiter and unflinching witness in our ongoing quest to make...

This seminar works through selected chapters of Ulysses (Gabler edition), addressing it’s difficulties and discovering what makes the novel resonate today.

Hold on to your number 2 pencils, we’re taking on the SATs. We've taken high school’s most stressful test, sprinkled some comedy on it, and turned it into a drinking game! Your favorite test proctor and comedian Michael Wolf (Comedy Central, MTV) has combined bar-room trivia with real SAT quizzes to create NYC's booziest classroom. Whether you've...

NOTE: The price for this class is for the entire 10-week semester, and applies to all the classes. In other words, once you sign up for any one of the courses, you can attend all the other classes, all day, if you wish. This course analyzes short stories or book excerpts with Jewish characters and themes. Readings for each week, including works by...

Each session, students will address three of the twelve unnumbered chapters in the book and focus on issues that are raised by those chapters.   Topics covered will include: literary form, personal psychology, social status, rewritings of The Odyssey and Ulysses, local and imperial politics, archetypes and myths, distant and intimate marriages,...

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. We’ve outgrown believing in the monsters under our beds, but we’re still haunted by grown-up ghost stories. Gather around the Caveat campfire for stories of monsters, ghouls, and ghosts, and the real life reasons they keep us captivated, told by some of some of the City’s best storytellers - submitted for the...

A novel of cruelty, poisoned love, ruthless necessity, intergenerational vendettas, memory and revenge, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights remains an opulent enigma. First published under the male pseudonym, Ellis Bell, the book puzzled and repulsed its initial readers, who castigated it for immorality but reluctantly acknowledged its inscrutable...

James Shapiro leads participants through the pair of plays that the Public Theater will stage this summer at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, offering insights into the language, style and performance histories of the plays, with the goal of preparing theatergoers to get the most out of seeing these productions.