Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis This subject explores a diverse range of major English literature, both poetry and fiction, over four centuries, all of it reflecting the dominant religious impulse of the West. The chosen texts embody a breadth of religious experience from Catholic (Crashaw, Hopkins, Flannery O'Connor) through Anglican (Donne, Herbert) to the Calvinist and Arminian strands of Puritanism (Bunyan, Milton). Attention will be given to the ways in which several of the selected texts turn upon issues of intense theological controversy, locating themselves within the field of a dynamic, contested tradition. The subject is concerned with cultural centrality: of how a shared concept of the sacred, albeit variously defined in its details and various experienced, shapes English literature across the centuries.
Assessment Seminar paper (1500 words) and participation: 20% + First essay (2000 words): 30% + Second essay (2500 words): 50%