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Literature, Myth & Science Fiction

Literature and imaginative traditions examined through Western civilization and liberty.

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6 courses

Literature, Myth & Science Fiction

16 lessons

9h 33m

Science Fiction, Liberty, and Dystopia, Part I

Explore how science fiction and dystopian literature test liberty, individuality, faith, technology, ideology, and political perfection through imagined societies and the choices of irreducible human persons.

BB

Bradley Birzer

Professor of History · Hillsdale College

Literature, Myth & Science Fiction

16 lessons

8h 26m

Science Fiction, Liberty, and Dystopia, Part II

Explore Golden Age science fiction’s competing visions of liberty, technology, conformity, identity, cultural memory, and human destiny across literature, comics, horror, film, and television.

BB

Bradley Birzer

Professor of History · Hillsdale College

Literature, Myth & Science Fiction

17 lessons

9h 12m

Mythology and Western Civilization: From Plato to Tolkien

Explore how classical, Christian, and Tolkienian myth connects Logos, natural law, freedom, community, heroism, and resistance to power across the developing inheritance of Western civilization.

BB

Bradley Birzer

Professor of History · Hillsdale College

Literature, Myth & Science Fiction

14 lessons

9h 3m

Little Houses of Liberty: Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Literary Genius

Explore how Laura Ingalls Wilder transformed pioneer memory into enduring literature, tracing the Little House series’ artistry, historical tensions, family economies, moral development, and vision of responsible liberty.

DM

Dedra McDonald Birzer

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief · South Dakota Historical Society Press

Literature, Myth & Science Fiction

15 lessons

8h 3m

Libertarianism and Science Fiction: The Golden Age from Bradbury to Roddenberry

Explore how Golden Age science fiction, comics, horror, and television used imagined worlds to examine individual liberty, conformity, technology, political power, cultural loss, and humanity’s uncertain future.

BB

Bradley Birzer

Professor of History · Hillsdale College

Literature, Myth & Science Fiction

20 lessons

18h 35m

Introduction to American Literature: Our Best Short Stories

Explore the development of the American short story from Irving and Poe to O’Connor, examining how narrative craft, regional voices, social conflict, moral choice, and changing literary movements shape American experience.

EK

Elizabeth Kantor

Author and Editor · Independent Author