RELI 235: Religion and Literature

RELI 235-007: Religion and Literature
(Spring 2023)

03:00 PM to 04:15 PM TR

Krug Hall 242

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Section Information for Spring 2023

Religion and Literature: Buddhist Narratives and Story Literature

What is literature and what can it achieve? How are religious truths transmitted? Why are we so attracted to stories and what makes for a good one? In this course, we address these questions by exploring the intersection of religion and literature in the Buddhist context. Over the course of the semester, we examine Buddhist narratives and story literature from the early development of the tradition up to the modern era and interrogate the ways in which narratives and stories can function as a site for shaping, configuring and refiguring our moral selves. Beginning with the ubiquitous story of the Buddha as prince Siddhartha Gautama, we will read some of the classics of Buddhist story literature across the Buddhist landscape paying close attention to the literary worlds that they produce and the ways in which they transform ours. 

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Explores the relationship between religion and literature in different times and cultures, the influence of religion on literary works, and how literature expresses major religious themes such as death and immortality, divine will and justice, suffering and human destiny, and religion and state. Limited to three attempts.
Mason Core: Literature
Schedule Type: Lecture
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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