Religion and literature

In lieu of a formal research paper you will present a final research project, much like a research paper, but with far less intensive investigation of sources and resources. This project is meant to be a culmination of a semester’s worth of thought and reading on the relationship of Religion and Literature.

For this project, I would like you to draw upon the insights from the three books assigned for this course, the “Methods and Madness” lecture, and any of the various Bulletin Board exercises in order to pick out some of the underlying religious themes, motifs, dynamics, and/or interpretive principles and apply them to a work of fiction, literature genre, or film of your choice. This might be a good excuse to go to the movies or a video store, or to spend some time watching television, or catching up on some favorite fiction. I would maintain that all stories have religious significance to the extent that they are “meaningful” narratives and give scope and significance to the human quest for identity and purpose. So, given the nature of the assigned readings for this course, it should be a fairly straightforward task for you to create a set of interpretive principles with which to sort the story or film of your choice. Use proper citation protocols such as parenthesis and page numbers to document any quotations or references. This project should be anywhere from three to five pages long.

 

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