Literature & Theology RLS320
Mead Fall
2013
August
26 M Introduction: John, 1:1-4.
28 W Consolation
of Philosophy, Book 1
30 F Consolation
of Philosophy, Book 2
September
2 M NO
CLASSES
4 W Consolation of Philosophy, Books 3 &
4
6 F Consolation of Philosophy, Book 5
9 M Inferno, Cantos 1-3
11 W Inferno,
Cantos 4-6
13 F Inferno,
Cantos 7-9
16 M Inferno,
Cantos 10-12
18 W Inferno,
Cantos 13-15
20 F Inferno,
Cantos 16-19
23 M Inferno,
Cantos 20-23
25 W Inferno,
Cantos 24-27
27 F Inferno,
Cantos 28-31
30 M Inferno,
Cantos 32-34
October
2 W Purgatorio, Cantos 1-3
4 F Purgatorio, Cantos 4-7
7 M Purgatorio,
Cantos 8-11
9 W Purgatorio, Cantos 12-15
11 F Purgatorio,
Cantos 16-18
14 M NO CLASSES
16 W Purgatorio,
Cantos 19-22
18 F NO CLASS
21 M Purgatorio,
Cantos 23-26
23 W Purgatorio,
Cantos 27-29
25 F Purgatorio,
Cantos 30-31
28 M Purgatorio,
Cantos 32-33
30 W Catch-up Day.
November
2 F The Faerie Queene, Book 1, Cantos 1-2
4 M The Faerie Queene, Book 1, Cantos3-4
6 W The Faerie Queene, Book 1, Cantos 5-6
9 F The Faerie Queene, Book 1, Cantos 7-8
11 M NO CLASSES
13 W The
Faerie Queene, Book 1, Cantos 9-10
15 F The
Faerie Queene, Book 1, Cantos 11-12
18 M Paradise
Lost, Books 1-2
20 W Paradise
Lost, Books 3-4
22 F Paradise
Lost, Books 5-6
25 M Paradise
Lost, Books 7-8
27 W Paradise
Lost, Books 9-10
29 F NO CLASSES
December
2 M Paradise Lost, Books 11-12
4 W Evaluations.
Speeches.
Literature &
Theology? What’s the connection? No, this isn’t a Bible-as-literature class
(but do take one if you ever get the chance).
Here’s the premise: all
literature is a footnote to the Bible. If that sounds radical or indefensible,
try this: insofar as the Bible promotes moral living, literature is the Bible’s
natural successor, as literature is inherently a moral engagement between ideas
and the reader. If neither of those
premises excites you, you can still study in this class under the premise of
studying how issues of religion are expressed and explored in literature. There. That’s as mundane as I can make it.
Our readerly journey will
take us from sixth-century northern Italy to thirteenth-century central Italy
to sixteenth-century Ireland and sevententh-century England. But imaginatively, we will on the battlefield
of dragon and saint in Eden, in a dank prison cell, across the fields of heaven
before Creation, in the deepest pits of hell (a couple of times), Faerie Lond,
a solitary mountain in the Southern Hemisphere, and beyond time and space in
the presence of the Ultimate Signified. Our journey also takes us through
Classical philosophy, high medieval allegory, Reformation Arthurian, and
seventeenth-century radical Protestantism.
Grab your towel and don’t panic.
Required Texts
The Consolation of Philosophy (524), Boethius
Victor
Watts, trans. Penguin, 1999
Inferno (~1310),
Dante
Mark Musa, trans. Penguin, 2003
Purgatorio (~1315),
Dante
Mark Musa trans. Penguin, 1985
The Faerie Queene, Book 1(1590), Edmund Spenser
Carol V. Kaske, ed. Hackett, 2006
Paradise Lost (1674), John Milton
David Scott Kastan, ed. Hackett, 2005.
In addition to these literary texts, I will give you
five scholarly articles to use as models to consider when composing your own
scholarly papers.
What We Do in Class: After we have
all read, digested, and critically considered the reading material for the day,
we meet in the assigned classroom to pool our thoughts, to ask probing
questions, and to advance the group’s understanding and appreciation of the
texts and their contexts. As the instructor,
my role is to keep the discussion moving forward, to be prepared to respond to
all question, but to wait first for several of the students to respond. It is of capital importance that each student
engages not only with the material and with the instructor, but with each
other student in the class. Even
though this is not a lecture class, I urge all students to take full notes
during class discussion. Please feel
free to ask other students or the professor to repeat themselves so you can get
things down in your notebook. When the class period is over, take a few minutes
to finish up your notes, talk to students or the instructor if you have some
questions or suggestions, and give yourself a sense of what the preceding class
was composed of.
What We Do Outside of
Class: First of all, read and
re-read. Take notes of the
material. Underline passages that seem
important, that confuse you, or that infuriate you. Second, talk to people, specifically, the
instructor, other students in the class, the library professionals, as well as
other students, faculty, and monks. If you only talk about the works in the
classroom, your experience with the material will be unnecessarily delimited,
and your success in the class will be minimized. Third, do extra reading. You may want to look at Augustine of Hippo, Boccaccio,
William Shakespeare, Andrew Marvel (contemporaries of our authors); or you may
want to start early reading critical studies of these works. Perhaps you will find enlightenment in
reading about the historical periods, the lives of the authors, the history of
religion in Europe.
Papers: This class is your chace to sharpen your skills in
sound prose, critical thinking, and logical argumentation. All papers MUST have a clear, interpretive
thesis in the first paragraph; topic sentences at the beginning of each body
paragraph that signal the topic of the paragraph AND explain how that topic
advances the thesis; brief, selected passages from the texts that are
interpreted by close reading; three-five secondary sources from peer-reviewed
sources integrated into the paper;
proper MLA format. Papers should be 5-8
pages long, exclusive of Notes and Works Cited, both of which are required.
Each paper is worth 20% of your final grade.
Speeches:
Students who memorize and recite in class 20+ full lines of Dante, Spenser, or
Milton with fewer than five errors (and there are do-overs) will imporve their
final grade by one increment.
Attendance: Students are expected to attend every class meeting,
to be on time and prepared. Students who
miss more than three classes over the course of the smester will have their
final grade lowered by one decrement per additional absence (so don’t
miss!). Participation (determined
by attendance, preparedness, thoughtful engagement in class discussions, office
visits, promptness, and how helpful one is to other students) will constitute
20% of your final grade.
Students with special needs must inform the instructor at the beginning
of the semester, and he will make all reasonable accommodations.
Please visit my Blog at http://stephenxmead.blogspot.com/
my blog has required reading for policies such as plagiarism and useful
handouts such as edit sheets—but seriously, there’s lots of good stuff for you
to look through. There will also be
copies of the syllabus and class policies, in case you lose this.
Office Hours: OM312b. Students who meet with their professors (or
other students) to talk about the texts and the writing process do better than
those who do not. Please see me as a
resource for your success and excellence in the class. If you are not free during office hours, we
can make a special appointment. tel. 438-4336 smead@stmartin.edu. You may, of course,
email me, but I cannot promise to respond before the next class meeting.
MWF 10-12AM. TR 8:30-9:30. And by appointment.
You can follow me on Twitter at
sxmead.
Please check
your university email in box regularly, as this is the only way I can contact
all of you in case of timely messages, changes in syllabus, or helpful prompts.
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