Discover Classes. Earn Rewards.

Literature Classes Chicago, IL

Apply Filters

Common Time Filters

Weeknights
Weekends

Days of the Week
What days are you free to take a class?

Class Times
What time are you able to take a class?

Class Schedule
When are you looking for a class?

Skill Level

Duration

Age

Searching

Literature Classes Coming up in Chicago and Online

1 class in-person in Chicago has spots left, and 9 classes live online are available.

Literary Capital of the West

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

Literary Capital of the West: Chicago Writing before 1890 This course explores the evolving relationship between Western and urban identities in Chicago writing from the 1840s through the 1880s. Histories of Chicago literature often start around 1890, with the urban sketches of writers like Finley Peter Dunne. Chicago’s antebellum literature, however, was very different, aimed at rural readers in the city’s railroad empire. After the Civil...

Wednesday Jun 14th, 2–3:30pm Central Time

 (6 sessions)

$247

6 sessions

Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom

Ovid begins his Metamorphoses, “My soul would speak of bodies changed into new forms,” and it is the great theme of physical transformation that unites the poem’s many myths: humans becomes animals and plants, and vice versa; humans becomes stones and constellations; and humans change their sex. No poem from antiquity has so influenced Western European literature and art. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Dante creatively raided Ovid’s tales...

Thursday Jul 6th, 6:30–9:30pm Eastern Time

 (4 sessions)

$335

4 sessions

Ethnopornography: Race, Erotics, and Domination

Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom

Early anthropology had a sex problem. By day it studied kinship—how legitimately procreative sex produces a society—collected intimate items, and photographed naked subjects; by night, it hung around corners, pestered and menaced its way into intimate spaces. These early anthropologists were not alone. Their settler peers developed obsessions in schoolgirls and purchased wives, in erotic genres of parlor photography, in romantic rape literature,...

Sunday Jun 11th, 2–5pm Eastern Time

 (4 sessions)

$335

4 sessions

Gershom Scholem: Mysticism & the Philosophy of History

Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom

Friend to Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Theodor Adorno, and Leo Strauss, Gershom Scholem may be the best known scholar of Jewish Studies in the 20th century. Above all he is associated with launching the modern academic study of Jewish mysticism. However, Scholem’s study of mysticism was only part of his much broader, and far more engaged and systematic thinking, about questions of contemporary politics and the Jewish historical condition. An...

Thursday Jun 8th, 6:30–9:30pm Eastern Time

 (4 sessions)

$335

4 sessions

Gayl Jones: Mosquito

Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom

Though Gayl Jones is one of the most important writers of the 20th Century, with work that spans prose and poetic examinations of Black women’s lives all across the world, the publication of her 1999 novel Mosquito was met with significant ambivalence. Henry Louis Gates refers to Mosquito as Gayl Jones’ “dissertation”—an imitation of actual oral storytelling, rather than “a linear narrative with a beginning, a middle, and an end.”...

Monday Jun 5th, 6:30–9:30pm Eastern Time

 (4 sessions)

$335

4 sessions

Discover Classes. Earn Rewards.

Literature Classes Gift Card

Thousands of classes. No expiration. You choose the $ amount. Select a category or let the recipient pick.

Buy a Gift Card

Don Quixote: Into the World of the Book

Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom

Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote is, perhaps above all else, a book about books. The title character’s voracious consumption of books of chivalry drives him mad, leading him to interpret windmills as giants, common inns as majestic castles, and prostitutes as highborn damsels. In addition to the medieval romances that Don Quixote reads, a variety of texts in different forms populate the narrative: Arabic manuscripts, short stories...

Wednesday Jun 14th, 6:30–9:30pm Eastern Time

 (4 sessions)

$335

4 sessions

Reclaiming our Sacred Texts

92nd Street Y

Reclaiming our Sacred Texts: Reading the Bible in Pride Month In this queer-affirming class, we will explore the love stories of David and Jonathan and Ruth and Naomi. No text study (or even belief in God!) required — just bring your pride and an open mind.

Monday Jun 5th, 6:30–7:45pm Eastern Time

 (4 sessions)

$72

4 sessions

Becoming Cyborg: Science and Science-Fiction

Brooklyn Institute for Social Research @ Online Classroom

Feminist science studies scholar Donna Haraway writes: “By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are all cyborgs.” Haraway goes on to argue in her canonical essay, “A Manifesto For Cyborgs,” that to be a cyborg means to live in a world without tidy origin stories or innocent wholeness. Instead, it is about partial connections, complex...

Sunday Jun 11th, 2–5pm Eastern Time

 (4 sessions)

$335

4 sessions

From Capitalist Realism to Acid Communism

Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

From Capitalist Realism to Acid Communism: an Introduction to Mark Fisher Most of the writings of the late cultural theorist Mark Fisher began their life not as academic papers or monographs or fully wrought essays but as blog posts, online responses, and even internet comments. These writings—including those that would be later collected into his some of his most famous texts—reflect one of the most unique theoretical voices of the early 21st...

Tuesday Jun 13th, 6:30–9:30pm Eastern Time

 (4 sessions)

$335

4 sessions

Creative Writing Weekly via Zoom

The Writing Studio @ Live Online via Zoom

In this class, you will learn first and foremost that you can write—and write well! In fact you will surprise yourself by the work you’ll be producing. The class is designed to enhance your creativity, imagination and personal voice while also teaching the skills of creative writing—memoir and fiction. This is an ongoing class geared toward those who are committed to writing and will continue this practice overtime....

Monday Jun 5th, 6:30–9:30pm Pacific Time

 (4 sessions)

$200

4 sessions

28 literature classes that have ended
Add to your wish list to find out about new dates

Chasing Wilder in Chicago

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

This is a one time FREE course. Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary and new edition of Wilder’s National Book Award-winning novel with a reception, actors, commentators, and cake! Participants: Tappan Wilder, Thornton Wilder’s nephew and literary executor, is Honorary Chairman of the Thornton Wilder Society. Jeremy McCarter, author of Young Radicals: In the War for American Ideals and co-author with Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton:...

No upcoming schedules

Summer Literary Series: Chasing Dragonflies

The Morton Arboretum @ 4100 Illinois Rte 53, Lisle, IL 60532

Summer Literary Series: Chasing Dragonflies in Literature, Life, and Art Celebrate the release of author Cindy Crosby’s newest book, Chasing Dragonflies: A Natural, Cultural, and Personal History. Cindy will be joined by the book’s award-winning illustrator, Peggy MacNamara,  artist in residence at the Field Museum. Enjoy a talk from the author and illustrator about the book, interspersed with short readings and insights on what it means...

No upcoming schedules

Meet the Author: Mary Wisniewski, Algren, A Life

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

Algren, A Life is the definitive biography of Nelson Algren, one of the best-known writers of mid-twentieth-century America. Chicago journalist Mary Wisniewski interviewed dozens of Algren’s inner circle, including photographer Art Shay and the late Studs Terkel, and examined Algren’s unpublished writing and correspondence, including hundreds of letters he received from lover Simone de Beauvoir, to craft an account as entertaining as it is meticulously...

No upcoming schedules

A Cricket on the Hearth

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home was written by Charles Dickens in 1845. It is the third of Dickens’ five short Christmas books (the best-known of which is A Christmas Carol). Featuring a cast of eight professional actors, Jeff Christian’s adaptation brings this heart-warming and touching tale of love, loss, empathy, and reunion to life. Join us for a cup of hot chocolate and a cookie to celebrate the holiday season....

No upcoming schedules

Conversations at the Newberry

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

Hold the Mirror up to Nature: The Past, Present, and Future of Shakespeare Performance.  Shakespeare’s plays are filled with fourth-wall-breaking moments in which characters share their methods for successfully performing emotions, political alliances, and gender roles.  His work challenges directors and actors to reflect on the very nature of acting, and to adapt as social, technological, and scientific developments change the horizons...

No upcoming schedules

What to Wear...to the Royal Wedding!

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

This is a one time FREE course The upcoming wedding of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales to American actress and Northwestern University alumna Meghan Markle has ignited anticipation in fashion circles around the world. Threaded through the speculation of who will design the bridal gown, there is a lot of curiosity about the dress code for guests. Will men be instructed to wear Uniform, Morning Coat, or Lounge Suit? Will women conform to...

No upcoming schedules

Nationalism: Myth and Reality

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

What are the historical roots of nationalism? How does it impact nations across the globe today? What is the future for this political ideology? Nationalism is at the root of most of the violence in the world today, both internationally and domestically. Dictators and would-be dictators appeal to nationalism to solidify their support. Their ideology poses a threat to democracy, whether in the U.S., Hungary, or non-Western states. In this class,...

No upcoming schedules
$205

3 sessions

Redlined: A Memoir of Race

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

This is a one time FREE course Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago Set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, Linda Gartz’s Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago, exposes the racist lending rules that refuse mortgages to anyone in areas with even one black resident. As blacks move deeper into Chicago’s West Side during the 1960s, whites...

No upcoming schedules

Meet the Author: Tom Shachtman

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

This is a one time FREE course. Meet the Author: Tom Shachtman, How the French Saved America Americans today have a love/hate relationship with France, but in this illuminating new history, Tom Shachtman shows that without France, there might not be a United States of America. How the French Saved America: Soldiers, Sailors, Diplomats, Louis XVI, and the Success of a Revolution is about French aid to Americans during the American...

No upcoming schedules

Infinity Family Fest: Story Time

Infinity Foundation @ 1280 Old Skokie Valley Rd, Highland Park, IL 60035

I Breathe My Own Breath! Connect to breath to breathe it and exchange during the story.

No upcoming schedules

Wing Foundation Lecture Series on History of the Book

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

Wing Foundation Lecture Series on the History of the Book The year 2017 marks the centenary of the death of John M. Wing, the remarkable and eccentric collector whose bequest founded the Newberry’s John M. Wing Collection on the History of Printing. Over the last one hundred years the collection’s curators have amassed an extraordinary group of materials ranging from incunables to modern artist’s books to everything in between. Together...

No upcoming schedules

The 33rd Annual Newberry Book Fair

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

Don’t miss our annual Newberry Book Fair, one of the largest used book sales in the country. Browse through more than 120,000 used books, movies, records and more in 70 categories, many of which are priced at $3 or less. Admission is FREE! Everything for sale at the Book Fair is generously donated, and all proceeds help further the Newberry’s mission to build and care for an extraordinary collection and share it—free of charge—with...

No upcoming schedules
Free

4 sessions

Re-Imagining Shakespearean Works in Opera

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

Join experts from Chicago Opera Theater (COT), as well as musicologist Linda Austern, in a discussion, and sneak peek performance, of their 2016 production of The Fairy Queen, by Henry Purcell.  This adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dreampremiered in 1692, creating an opera based on the masques from the original play. COT, in partnership with Culture Clash, has taken the adaptation one step further...

No upcoming schedules

Chicago Opera Theater Presents: Deciphering Donizetti

The Newberry @ 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610

This is a one time FREE course. Join us for a conversation between Chicago Opera Theater’s Music Advisor Francesco Milioto and Amy Hutchison, director of our upcoming Donizetti Double Bill: Il Pigmalione and Rita. Featuring performances that span Donizetti’s body of works, following his compositional journey from first opera, Il Pigmalione, to one of his last, Rita. Joined by a panel of Chicago...

No upcoming schedules
Reset all filters.

No results found

Try removing some filters.

Loading...