Type of Credit: Elective
Credit(s)
Number of Students
Course Outline
We will examine the main themes, characters, types and symbols of the Bible. We will also examine the development of the Bible as literature, literary allusions to the Bible, and current trends in literature as they are developing. We will pay particular attention to Biblical passages that have had profound impact upon literature as well as contemporary literary use of Biblical material. Biblical passages that will be covered by this course include selections from Genesis, Samuel, Gospels, Acts, and Revelation. Selective authors and works include John Milton, Goethe, St Augustine, John Donne, Christina, John Dryden, Geoffrey Chaucer, Elizabeth Bishop, Christina Rossetti, William Wordsworth, Charlotte Bronte, John Bunyan, Oscar Wilde, T. S. Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Dylan Thomas, W. B. Yeats, Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, D. H. Lawrence, Merman Melville, James Joyce, Roland Barthes, Soren Kierkegaard, Jacques Derrida, Erick Auerbach, etc. Some films relative to the class materials, such as The Scarlet Letter, Da Vinci Code, The Passion, and 2012, will be also be included.
能力項目說明
Course Objective
This course examines various ways in which the Bible has impacted Western Literature, particularly in terms of cultural artifact.
| 教學週次Course Week | 彈性補充教學週次Flexible Supplemental Instruction Week | 彈性補充教學類別Flexible Supplemental Instruction Type |
|---|---|---|
Bible and Literature weekly schedule
Week Date Class
1. 2.20 Introduction to the course; Library (Video: The Insult)
2. 2.27 1. The Creation (Genesis 1-2)
T. S. Eliot, choruses from ‘The Rock’
C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew
1. In the Beginning Was the Word (John 1: 1-18)
Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology
3. 3.5 2. The Fall (Genesis 3: 1-13)
John Milton, Paradise Lost
William Golding, Free Fall
Supplement: Paradise Lost; “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
3. The Sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22: 1-19)
Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
4. 3.12 4. Jacob and Esau (Genesis 27: 15-35)
John Donne, Holy Sonnet
4. Wrestling Jacob (Genesis 32; 22-31)
Emily Dickinson, ‘A Little East of Jordan’
Christina Rossetti, ‘Weeping We Hold Him Fast Tonight’
Roland Barthes, ‘The Struggle with the Angel’
5. 3.19 5. David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11: 1-27)
John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
6. 3.26 Supplement: The Book of Job,
Daniel, Esther, Messiah
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
7. 4.2 Mid-term exam
8. 4.9 6. The Nativity (Matthew 2: 1-12; Luke 2: 1-19)
T. S. Eliot, ‘The Journey of the Magi’
9. 4.16 7. The Problems of the Parables (Mark 4:1-20)
Frank Kermode, The Genesis of Secrecy
Søren Kierkegaard, ‘Either/Or’
Franz Kafka, The Trial
Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other
Writings
10. 4.23 8. Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (John 4: 1-30)
Emily Dickinson, ‘I Know Where Wells Grow – Daughterless
Wells’
8. Jesus and Mary in the Garden (John 20: 10-18)
Michele Roberts, The Wild Girl
11. 4.30 9. The Crucifixion (Mark 15: 33-39)
The Dream of the Rood
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Film Discussion: The Passion, Narnia
12. 5.7 10. The Conversion of St Paul (Acts 9: 1-19)
Francis Thompson, ‘The Hound of Heaven’
Jacques Derrida, Memoirs of the Blind
13. 5.14 NO CLASS; THE SCHOOL’S FOUNDATION DAY
14. 5.21 11. Alpha and Omega (Revelation 21; 1-18)
Flannery O’Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge
Film Discussion: The Insult
15. 5.28 Bible Related Literature/Film Term Project Presentation
16. 6.4 Final-exam
17. 6.11 Flexible Week I: Bible Related Literature/Film Study
18. 6.18 Flexible Week II: Online speech (Topic and Date TBA)
Teaching Methods
The class will be conducted in the form of teacher’s lecture, students’ presentation, and small group discussion, all in English. A quiz will be given to students before the weekly assigned reading is taught in class. Students will be divided into small groups to do a 20-minute oral presentation related to the reading topics and lead the discussion. A mid-term examination and final examination will be given in class according to the class schedule. All students are encouraged to participate in class discussion.
Course Requirements and Grading
Course Requirements and Grading
Quizzes 20%
Oral Presentation & Discussion 20%
Mid-term Exams 25%
Final Exams 25%
3-page Term Paper on Narnia or A Christmas Carol 10%
Textbook:
Jasper, David and Stephen Prickett. eds. The Bible and Literature: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
Reference:
Bevan, David. Literature and the Bible. Amsterdam; Atlanta, GA : Rodopi, 1993.
Detweiler, Robert, David Jasper, Heidi Nordberg, and S. Brent Plate. Religion and Literature: A Reader. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000.
Dyas, Dee and Esther Hughes. The Bible in Western Culture: The Student’s Guide. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Gabel, John B., Charles B. Wheeler and Anthony D. York. The Bible as Literature: An Introduction. 4th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2000.
* Hass, Andrew, David Jasper, and Elisabeth Jay, eds. The Oxford Handbook of English Literature and Theology. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Henn, Thomas Rice. The Bible as Literature. Cambridge: the Lutterworth Press, 2008.
Hunns, Derek J. Bulgakov’s Apocalyptic Critique of Literature: The Use of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, Goethe’s Faust, and The Bible in The Master and Margarita. New York: Edwin Mellen, 1996.
Prickett, Stephen, and Robert Barnes. The Bible. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
*Sawyer, John F.A., ed. The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Pub., 2006.