Individual Course
Ancient Masterpieces of World Literature
Course Length
6 weeks
3-6 hours per week
Featuring faculty from:
Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Enroll as Individual
Certificate Price:
$ 209
Enroll as Individual
Certificate Price:
$ 209
Join Harvard faculty in this online course to examine how ancient cultures defined themselves through literature and how their vision contributes to our understanding of civilization today.
This short literature course, based on the first half of the Masterpieces of World Literature edX MOOC, examines how civilizations and cultures of the ancient world defined themselves through literature and how that literature has continued to contribute to our understanding of those civilizations and cultures today.
Cities, nations, and empires from antiquity through the middle ages drew on foundational histories and myths for their identities, relating these narratives through generations by means of oral-storytelling and new writing technologies. These epics, story collections, and novels, which take a keen interest in heroic travelers, would eventually travel themselves, finding new global audiences as the first works of world literature.
Tracing developments in language, writing, and literary genre, this course also travels in time, from legendary accounts of ancient kings to histories of medieval courts and early-modern exploration. We will stop to consider how all of these texts affected the history of their own eras, but also how they have continued to find new prominence and significance in ours.
Self-Guided
edX
- Learning Outcome
How literary works are transformed by cultural transmission and modern recovery
- Learning Outcome
How to critically analyze literary works
- Learning Outcome
The significance of major technological advances in writing
- Learn from Harvard faculty
- Do it on your own time
- Get a certificate, add it to your resume
- Be part of the Harvard Community
Ways to take this course
Audit or Pursue a Verified Certificate
A Verified Certificate costs $209 and provides unlimited access to full course materials, activities, tests, and forums. At the end of the course, learners who earn a passing grade can receive a certificate.
Alternatively, learners can Audit the course for free and have access to select course material, activities, tests, and forums. Please note that this track does not offer a certificate for learners who earn a passing grade.
Your Instructor
Martin Puchner
Byron and Anita Wien Professor of Drama and of English and Comparative Literature, Harvard University
Martin Puchner is a prize-winning author, educator, and public speaker. His writings range from philosophy and theater to world literature and emerging technologies.
Your Instructor
David Damrosch
Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University
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