311 syllabus f/91



Religion 311

Spring Semester, 2011

The Bible in Western Literature

Location: VHE 206

Time: Monday, Wednesday, 2 PM to 3:20 PM

Instructor: Bruce Zuckerman

Office: 339 ACB (Ahmanson Center, West)

Office Phone: 213-740-0271

Email address: bzuckerm@usc.edu

Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 11 AM to noon and by appt.

Course Prospectus:

This course will explore the impact of the Bible on the thinking and writing of a number of western creative writers whose work reveals them to be serious and sophisticated biblical critics. The course will have several central concerns: first, an exposition of biblical writings in their own terms and seen from the broader perspective of the ancient Near Eastern culture of which they are a part; second, a close consideration of the individual western writers as biblical interpreters—how each understands the part of the Bible that informs his writing and how he uses biblical themes to shape his creative output; third, a refocusing on the biblical text to show how these writers can deepen our own comprehension of the Bible.

The course will proceed in “biblical order,” focusing first on the primeval history in the first part of Genesis as understood by Milton in Paradise Lost; then the patriarchal history as understood by Mann in Tales of Jacob; then the Deuteronomic view of biblical history, especially the story of David in Samuel and Kings as conceptualized by Faulkner in Absalom, Absalom!; then the prophetic message exemplified in Amos and Jonah as a major focus in the first half of Melville’s Moby Dick, especially as seen in Father Mapple’s sermon on Jonah; then the wisdom literature—Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job and a modern version of Job found in Y. L. Perets’ story “Bonstye the Silent”; then the climax of Job in the description of Leviathan as a major informing influence on Melville’s concept of God and the White Whale in the latter half of Moby Dick; then the sense of parable in the gospel of Mark as seen through a series of Kafka’s parables; finally the issue of the extent of historicity in the Bible with special concern for the historicity of the passion narrative of Matthew—a central concern in Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.

Several themes and symbols will play across most of the material we will read—especially the distinction between ancient Near Eastern thought and narrative versus western rational thought and narrative; imagination versus historicity; the moon as the star of variability and deception versus the sun as the star of stability and reality; and (not least) the Devil in all his many manifestations.

Course Requirements:

Examinations:

Mid-term: Wednesday, March 2, 2011 during class period (15 % of grade)

Final Examination: Monday, May 9, 2 to 4 PM (30 % of grade)

Weekly Quizzes (15 % of grade)

NOTE: AN OVERALL 60 % AVERAGE ON THE WEEKLY QUIZZES IS A MINIMUM REQUIREMENT FOR PASSING THIS COURSE. Quizzes will be given each Tuesday, except as noted on the syllabus and will cover both the reading in the Bible and in the other readings assigned for this course.

Papers:

Short paper: approx. 5-7 pages (10 % of grade); due Wednesday February 16, 2011

Short paper assignment: Read all the book of Judges and Milton’s Samson Agonistes. Write an analytical study on some aspect of Milton’s interpretation of the Samson story in this poem. You are advised to focus on a narrow topic, which requires detailed analysis—rather than choosing a generalized topic with an analysis that is therefore tending towards the superficial.

Term Paper: approx. 10-15 pages; due Thursday, April 29, 2011 (30 % of grade).

Term Paper assignment: A topic of your choice, as long as it has been approved by the instructor. The paper should cover a theme or themes related to the course—although it is not necessarily required that the topic be confined to material read during the course of study. Make sure that you make a specific appointment to see the instructor to discuss your topic well in advance of the due date. Those who do not clear their topic do so at their own risk.

Note: All examinations and papers must be completed. Any requirement left unfulfilled at the course’s conclusion risks an automatic failing grade.

The standards of the university with regard to academic integrity as addressed in the student handbook are strictly followed in this course. Anyone who violates the university’s standards of academic integrity—especially in terms of cheating on exams or quizzes or plagiarism with regard to papers—risks an automatic failing grade.

Books required:

A Bible of your choice—but preferably not the King James Version.

Recommended Bible: The Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha (New York: Oxford).

Bulgakov, M.; The Master and Margarita; trans., D. Burgin, K. Tiernan (New York, Vintage).

Faulkner, W.; Absalom, Absalom! (New York, Random House).

Kafka, F.; Parables and Paradoxes (New York, Schocken).

Mann, T.; Joseph and His Brothers; vol. 1: Tales of Jacob, trans. H. T. Lowe-Porter (New York, Knopf).

Melville, H.; Moby Dick; ed. C. Feidelson, Jr. (New York, Bobbs

Merrill).

Milton, John; Paradise Lost and Selected Poetry and Prose; ed. N. Fry; (New York, Holt Reinhart).

Perets, Y. L., “Bonstye the Silent” trans. B. Zuckerman (supplied in photocopy)

NOTE: Neither Mann’s Tales of Jacob nor Kafka’s Parables and Paradoxes is currently in print in the USA. Arrangements will be made to make copies available to the class.

Schedule of Assignments:

Week 1 (January 10, 12):

Introduction to aims of the course and to the nature of biblical thought.

Note: Zuckerman will not be available for the first class meeting. Prof. Lynn Swartz Dodd will meet the first class.

No reading assignment.

No quiz.

Week 2 (January 19) NOTE: CLASS WILL NOT MEET ON 17TH (MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY); QUIZ WILL BE ON WEDNESDAY THE 19TH

Genesis; the Primeval Age.

Genesis 1-11.

Begin Milton’s Paradise Lost

Quiz only on Genesis assignment

Week 3 (January 24, 26):

Milton’s art of justifying God’s ways.

Continue Paradise Lost

Quiz on Paradise Lost, books 1-6

Week 4 (January 31, February 2):

Satan, Adam and Jesus.

Finish Paradise Lost

Quiz on Paradise Lost, books 7-12

Week 5 (February 7, 9):

The Patriarchal Narratives. The Jacob cycle: Mann’s unified view.

Genesis 12-50.

Begin Mann’s Tales of Jacob

Quiz on Genesis assignment only

Week 6 (February 14, 16):

The telling of the story of Jacob.

Finish Tales of Jacob

Quiz on Tales of Jacob (complete) only

SHORT PAPER DUE: February 16

Week 7 (February 23) NOTE: CLASS WILL NOT MEET ON 23rd (PRESIDENTS’ DAY); QUIZ WILL BE ON WEDNESDAY THE 25TH

The former prophets; kings, David and Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!

Second Samuel 9-21.

First Kings 1-2.

Begin Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!

Quiz on biblical assignment only

Week 8 (February 28, March 2): A three-fold tragedy

Finish Absalom, Absalom!

Quiz on Faulkner (complete) only

MIDTERM EXAMINATION: Wednesday March 2, 2011 during class period.

Week 9 (March 7, 9):

Prophecy; Jonah and Father Mapple’s sermon.

All of Amos

All of Jonah

Begin Melville’s Moby Dick

Quiz on biblical assignment; Moby Dick, chaps. 1-20

Week 10 (March 14-18)

SPRING BREAK

No reading assignment

Week 11 (March 21, 23)

Biblical Wisdom.

All of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes

Continue Moby Dick

Quiz on biblical assignment; Moby Dick, chaps. 21-70

Week 12: (March 28, 30):

Job and Bonstye

All of Job

Y. L. Perets, “Bonstye the Silent”

Continue Moby Dick

Quiz on biblical assignment; ( Perets’ story, Moby Dick, chaps. 71-100

Week 13 (April 4, 6):

Leviathan and Moby Dick

Finish Moby Dick

Quiz on the rest of Moby Dick

Week 13 (April 11, 13):

Parable in Mark and Kafka.

All of Mark

All of Kafka’s Parables and Paradoxes.

Quiz on Mark and and Kafka

Week 14 (April 18, 20):

Bulgakov’s devil and messiah: Reality by sunlight; fantasy by moonlight.

All of Matthew

Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita

Quiz on Matthew and Bulgakov (complete)

Week 15 (April 25, 29):

Concluding remarks and review for examination

No quiz

No reading assignment

LONG PAPER DUE: WEDNESDAY APRIL 29TH

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