The Bible as Literature: From Genesis to Steinbeck with Joseph Luzzi

Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 10:00AM
Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 10:00AM
Tuesday, February 24, 2026, 10:00AM

VIRTUAL PROGRAM
Tuesdays from 10 – 11:30 a.m.
$325 for the series

How can we read the best-known book of all-time, the Bible, as “literature”? How does the Bible employ literary techniques like narrative, metaphor, and character development to make its claims and construct its stories? In this new class, we will explore the literary elements of one of the Bible’s most celebrated books, Genesis, and then consider its “afterlife” in a modern-day classic, John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Students will gain a deep understanding of the rhetorical structures of the Bible and a sense of how its brilliant storytelling techniques would go on to shape the development of modern literature. Joseph Luzzi is the Asher B. Edelman Professor of Literature at Bard, where he has taught since 2002. He is the author of eight books, including most recently Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Biography.