What is a class literal in Java?

Class<String> c = String.class;

Check out the Javadoc for java.lang.Class to see what you can do with one of these little guys - mostly related to reflection

To understand that, you have to understand that String is an instance (object) of the class Class. A string literal (e.g. "I am a string.") is a notation which represents an instance (object) of the class String, whereas a class literal (e.g. Hashtable.class) is a notation which represents an instance of the class Class.