7:00P-9:30p TR (5) 3 cr.
SECTION MEETS FIRST EIGHT WEEKS ONLY. MEETS WITH COMPARATIVE
LITERATURE C400 AND RELIGIOUS
STUDIES R410.
TOPIC: JOB: FROM THE BIBLE TO KAFKA
An intensive eight-week exploration of the relation between "justice"
and its partial
embodiments in morality and law, as represented in the biblical book
of Job and subsequent
texts in the Job tradition. We shall be looking at different models
of justice (e.g.,
retributive versus distributive), at suffering as a criterion of
righteousness, and at the
competing claims of ethics and aesthetics. This will be a course in
interpretation at the
boundaries of language, and thus in the inevitability of falling
short.
The first month will be devoted to a close reading of the text of Job,
with attention to its
cultural context (including biblical and ancient Near Eastern
parallels and the evolution of
legal codes), and to the rich tradition of biblical commentary,
ancient and modern. In the
second month, we shall be focusing on a set of modern works--most
notably King Lear,
the drawings of Blake, and Kafka's The Trial (along with
lighter fare, from
Archibald MacLeish to legal theory)--which effectively reconfigure the
biblical questions
and paradoxes.
No specialized knowledge or previous study of the Bible is required.
Students will write a
brief passage of biblical commentary (due at the end of the fourth
week) and a final
paper.