Introduction to Fiction
A literature survey from MIT OpenCourseWare examining how fiction works across traditional and innovative narrative styles, spanning western and nonwestern novels. Students read a diverse selection of texts and consider questions about the pleasures and meanings of verbal narrative in different cultures, times, and forms. Toward the end of the term, the course turns to the relationship between art and war, using assigned novels to test how fiction represents violence and conflict. Materials include the syllabus, reading list, and assignments as posted on MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access under MIT's open license. There is no institutional certificate, but the full set of course materials, including discussion questions and paper prompts, is available for self-study at your own pace.