RELIGION 15: Religion in Contemporary Fiction
Amherst College, Spring 2008
Dr. Jody Shapiro ’83, Visiting Lecturer
Office hours Tuesdays immediately after class and by appointment, Chapin 108
Email: jodysha@earthlink.net
Description: Religion has always been grounded in storytelling. As myth, as folktale, as
allegory, as parable, as speculation, the story form allows writer and reader to draw persuasive
connections—and distinctions—between internal experience, the social world, the natural world,
and a moral or cosmic order. As both religion and culture evolve, story remains fertile ground
for setting and contesting their foundations. This course examines how a range of contemporary
novelists speak to and through religion to engage the deep and incendiary matters of our times:
cross-cultural tensions; science and health; sex and gender relations; global and local politics;
war and the weapons of war; modernity vs. traditionalism; the fate of the earth; and of course the
meaning of life and death. Texts read address a variety of traditions and perspectives, including
but not limited to: modern monastic Roman Catholicism, Islam in 20th-century Iran, Protestant
fundamentalism, modern Hindu India, Biblical Judaism, Latter-Day Saints, Japanese Buddhism,
and American neopaganism.
REQUIRED TEXTS available at Food for Thought:
Ursula K. LeGuin, THE TELLING
Anita Diamant, THE RED TENT
Mark Saltzman, LYING AWAKE
Gita Mehta, A RIVER SUTRA
Marjane Satrapi, PERSEPOLIS
Margaret Atwood, THE HANDMAID’S TALE
Marilynne Robinson, GILEAD
Sherri Tepper, THE GATE TO WOMEN’S COUNTRY
Marion Zimmer Bradley, THE MISTS OF AVALON
OPTIONAL TEXTS: Kij Johnson, THE FOX WOMAN
Ursula LeGuin, THE BIRTHDAY OF THE WORLD
HANDOUTS: LeGuin: “Solitude” and “Paradises Lost”
Assignments are subject to amendment. Students are responsible for all material presented in
class discussion, both those listed on the syllabus and any that may be added later. Grades are
based on demonstrated command of the subject at hand, including in-class participation, two
written papers, and a final exam.
AN IMPORTANT WORD ABOUT LATE PAPERS: Everyone is a stickler about something.
Your professor for Religion 15 is a stickler about lateness. Papers are due to me in class at the
beginning of class on the date due--not after class, not in my mailbox, not under my office door.
“A day” is considered to begin after papers are collected at the beginning of class on the date
due, which is to say, if you turn in your paper after that class, it will be considered one day late.
Your grade for that paper will be docked 1/3 of its earned grade (i.e. reduced from B to B-) for
every day it is late, unless you have a documented excuse from a doctor or the dean.
SYLLABUS
January 29 We begin.
LeGUIN: THE TELLING
Jan 31, Feb 5
Part One: Modern Times
SALTZMAN: LYING AWAKE
Feb 7, 12
MEHTA: A RIVER SUTRA
Feb 14, 19, 21
SATRAPI: PERSEPOLIS
Feb 26, 28, March 4
First Paper Due March 4
Part Two: Futures
ATWOOD: THE HANDMAID’S TALE
March 6, 11, 13
SPRING BREAK March 15-23
TEPPER: THE GATE TO WOMEN’S COUNTRY
March 25, 27, April 1
LEGUIN, “Solitude” and “Paradises Lost” (handout and in LEGUIN: THE BIRTHDAY
OF THE WORLD which will be available at Food for Thought)
April 3
Second Paper Due April 8
Part Three: Pasts
DIAMANT: THE RED TENT
April 8, 10, 15
ROBINSON: GILEAD
April 17, 22, 24
BRADLEY: THE MISTS OF AVALON
April 29, May 1, May 6
May 8 We catch up, we sum up.
Final Exam date/time to be announced