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Literature

Mary McCarthy and Ralph Ellison
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The Literature Program at Bard is free from the barriers that are often set up between critical and creative engagement, between different national literatures, or between the study of language and the study of the range of intellectual, historical, and imaginative dimensions to which literature's changing forms persistently refer. Literary studies are vitally engaged with interdisciplinary programs and concentrations such as Experimental Humanities; Human Rights; Mind, Brain and Behavior; Middle Eastern Studies; and the Africana, Asian, Classical, Environmental and Urban, Gender and Sexuality, Latin American and Iberian, Medieval, and Victorian Studies Programs. 
More about the Program

Toni Morrison, “Literature and Public Life"

“Literature allows us—no, demands of us—the experience of ourselves as multidimensional persons. And in doing so, is far more necessary than it has ever been. As art it deals with the human consequences of the other disciplines: history, law, science, economics, labor studies, medicine. As narrative its form is the principal method by which knowledge is appropriated and translated.”

About the Program

  • Curriculum and Course of Study
    The Literature Program at Bard challenges the national, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries that have too often dictated the terms by which we understand the meaning and value of the written word. Our curriculum emphasizes cultural, linguistic, and geographic diversity and is vitally engaged with interdisciplinary programs such as Africana Studies, Asian Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies, Experimental Humanities, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Human Rights, Latin American & Iberian Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies.
    Curriculum and Course of Study
  • Community and Resources
    The Bard Literature Program has a long-standing commitment to fostering the work of writers and thinkers who challenge political authority, diversify literary canons, and expand the parameters of public discourse. As poets, critics, novelists, scholars, translators, teachers, editors, journalists, and political activists, our faculty, students, and alumni/ae are uniquely positioned to interrogate inherited forms of knowledge and to chart out innovative models of imaginatively and socially engaged responsibility.

    Community and Resources
  • Our Mission and Aims
    Literary study wakes us up to the historical weight of our individual and collective voices and expands the analytic and expressive tools we use to engage other beings. Thinking critically, both individually and collectively, speaking up with compassion and conviction, and writing with clarity and purpose are the cornerstones of what we teach and practice as a faculty. These skills are essential to the study of literature, to active citizenship, and ultimately, to having a voice in the world. 
    Mission and Aims
  • Equity and Justice Initiatives
    To study literature is to insist on the value of our differences, and to learn to encounter difference in expansive ways. Yet when it comes to social inequalities and educational access in this country, the humanities have a long and complicated history. In order to address these systemic injustices, the Bard Literature Program is committed to frank self-scrutiny, to transparency, and to  ensuring genuine equity for all members of our community.
    Equity and Justice Initiatives

Additional Contact

To find out more about the Bard Literature Program, our upcoming events, and current initiatives, please contact us at literature@bard.edu.

Literature Events

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  • 2/04
    Friday

    9:00 am – 3:30 pm EST/GMT-5 Online Event
  • 3/04
    Friday

    9:00 am – 3:30 pm EST/GMT-5 Online Event