Literature Courses

Improve your literary understanding and analysis for free, or get to know the literary greats with our literature online courses on Austen, Shakespeare, Burns, Wordsworth, Wilde and more.

Improve your writing skills or learn more about the literary greats, with our writing and literature online courses.

Degrees
1 Degree

Discover online degrees from leading universities. Develop your knowledge with an undergraduate or postgraduate degree.

The University of Newcastle Australia

Bachelor of Arts

Enrich your mind, diversify your skills and safeguard your future with our new work-ready arts degree at the University of Newcastle (UON).

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Courses
24 Courses

Learn new skills, pursue your interests or advance your career with our short online courses.

University of Reading

A-level Study Boost: Unseen Poetry and the Creative Process

4.8 (132 reviews)

Discover effective techniques to analyse unseen poetry and learn about the creative writing process.

2 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Lancaster University

Penshurst Place and the Sidney Family of Writers

4.5 (33 reviews)

Uncover the literary history of Penshurst Place, the 16th-century home of the Sidney family of writers and poets.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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King's College London
New

Shakespeare: Context and Stagecraft

Explore Shakespeare’s stagecraft through three of his most well-known plays: Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth.

2 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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The Open University

Start Writing Fiction

4.7 (262 reviews)

Get started with your own fiction writing, focusing on the central skill of creating characters, with this hands-on course.

8 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Yad Vashem
New

Poetry and the Holocaust

Explore personal accounts of the Holocaust through poetry and discover how poems can help you understand events of the past.

3 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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UEA (University of East Anglia)

An Introduction to Screenwriting

4.8 (312 reviews)

This online course explores the key concepts and fundamental principles involved in the process of screenwriting.

2 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Lancaster University

Corpus Linguistics: Method, Analysis, Interpretation

Get a practical introduction to the methodology of corpus linguistics for researchers in the social sciences and humanities.

8 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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University of Malaya

Islamic Calligraphy: an Introduction to the Art of Handwriting

4.8 (6 reviews)

Understand the basics of Islamic and Arabic calligraphy and develop your calligraphy skills.

3 weeks

2 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Show more Literature courses 

Learn flexibly online, for free

Explore the works of some of the world’s greatest writers and improve your own writing skills with short online literature courses, in-depth programs, or full postgraduate degrees. Start learning for free on desktop, tablet, or mobile.

Upgrade or buy Unlimited for extra benefits

Upgrade your course for ongoing access to the course content, tests, and the chance to gain a Certificate of Achievement. Buy Unlimited for access to hundreds of short courses in a year and the ability to keep access to courses you gain a certificate on.

Boost your career

Get ahead in your literary career with educators and experts from leading universities and organisations. Network with and learn from others all over the world.

Meet the people who love FutureLearn

"It was a fantastic course to do. I learnt new things that I wanted to know. It also helped me in understanding Shakespeare a lot and also in my studies."

Monika

"A clear, concise and beautifully structured course. The video content is informative and lively, and the screenwriters are refreshingly down to earth in the way they talk about their processes. I am going to write a beat sheet, plough through a first draft without spending hours polishing each scene and I'm going to use some of the resources the course suggests. Thanks very much."

Mychaela