- Instructor
- Nicholas Williams
- Course Description
- The Bible has long been recognized as the most important source of the Western literary tradition, the "Great Code of Art," as William Blake called it. But until fairly recently, little attention had been paid to the literary qualities of the Bible's own stories, poems, proverbs, etc. This course is intended as both an introduction to the critical movement which studies "the Bible as Literature" (and thus features some critical readings drawn from that movement) and an opportunity to think and talk about the literary aspects of this important book, a book which I hope will emerge as altogether more unusual, stranger, than we might initially think. The instructor of this course assumes no doctrinal perspective on the Bible or on its status as the inerrant word of God. Both believers and non-believers in the Bible's holiness are welcome in the class, but students who cannot discuss or think about biblical texts apart from their
status as sacred truth should not take a course such as this one. In addition to considering the literary qualities of the Bible, we’ll look at one work of secular literature which draws heavily from biblical texts, in order to think about how influential the Bible has been on literature. Students will be asked to write interpretive papers, on both assigned and self-derived topics, and will take 2 exams.
Interested in this course?
The full details of this course are available on the Office of the Registrar website.
See complete course details
The College of Arts