R410 Job: From the Bible to Kafka (3 cr.) TR 7:00-9:30P BH331 (Marks)
1st 8 weeks, meets with CMLT C400 and ENG L367

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.