For tens of thousands of years, human beings have been using fictional devices to shape their worlds and communicate with one another. Four thousand years ago they began writing down these stories, and a great flourishing of human achievement began. We know it today as literature, a term broad enough to encompass everything from ancient epic poetry to contemporary novels. How did literature develop? What forms has it taken? And what can we learn from engaging with these works today?

Hosted by Jacke Wilson, an amateur scholar with a lifelong passion for literature, The History of Literature takes a fresh look at some of the most compelling examples of creative genius the world has ever known.

Jacke talks to bestselling author Katherine Howe (editor of The Penguin Book of Pirates) about her new novel, A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself. PLUS an analysis of Emily Dickinson’s Poem #256 (“The Robin’s my Criterion for Tune-“)

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