English 171B - Fall, 2015

The Bible as Literature: Prophets and New Testament

Class Information

Instructor: Waters, Claire
CRN: 73370
Time: TR 9:00-10:20
Location: 207 Olson

Description

In this course, we will read selections from the books of the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible (plus some material from Genesis) and from the New Testament as centrally important cultural documents of western culture, looking particularly at the ways in which they were shaped by their authors and compilers and how this has inspired and informed later literary texts. We will read these selections with a focus on their literary rather than their theological aspects--genre, character, plot, setting, theme, poetic or prose form, repetition, allegory, metaphor, symbolism--and with an eye to cultural context, both of the creation of the biblical books and their later transmission and reception.

In addition to the Oxford Study Bible, there will be a course reader.

Grading

Tentative:
Close reading (3 pages): 10%
Short comparison paper (5-7 pages): 20%
Section attendance and participation: 10%
Midterm exam: 15%
Final paper (8–10 pages): 25%
Final exam: 20%

Texts

Oxford Study Bible: Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha, Editors: Suggs, Sakenfeld, Mueller