SYLLABUS: PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION IN LITERATURE
RELP 2540 Spring 2013
MWF 11:00-11:50
ADM 312
Dr. Seth Holtzman
office: 308 Administration Bldg,
hours: MWF 2-4; T 11-12 if no meeting; & by appt.
phones: 637-4229 office; 636-8626 home
email: sholtzma@catawba.edu
Course summary:
This course examines a wide range of philosophical and religious concepts and issues within literature,
broadly interpreted to include novels, short stories, plays and poetry. Topics from the readings include
personal identity, the nature of selfhood, the nature of knowledge, the relationship between self and culture,
morality, social and political thought, the nature of knowledge, the metaphysical structure of the world, the
nature of the Divine, the relationship of the Divine to the world, our grasp of the Divine, and our relationship to
the Divine. We will also find connections between topics and between readings.
Class format is often lecture, but class discussion will be frequent and will constitute part of your grade.
Course topics are often quite abstract; be prepared to read and think on that level. No prior courses are
required, and no prior knowledge is assumed.
Expected learning outcome
Successful students will demonstrate:
Means of Assessment
By being successful on:
an understanding of some philosophical ideas
Short essays, midterm, and final exam
an understanding of some religious ideas
Short essays, midterm, and final exam
an awareness that literature (broadly interpreted) contains
philosophical and religious ideas
Short essays, midterm, paper, & final exam
an understanding of some examples of religious and
philosophical problems affecting modern Western thought
Midterm and final exam
Requirements and grading:
1) Attendance is required; you cannot learn the course on your own. As part of lecture or for purposes
of Socratic questioning, I will elicit some material from you in class, such as your grasp of the readings,
lecture, and course. Also, your participation by questions and in discussion is important. You need to be
present, mentally active and prepared. Class participation can raise your final grade by 1/3 of a grade.
2) Occasional essays, usually ½-1 page, listed in the schedule of readings. These help you wrestle
with a reading, usually before we cover it, and help me gauge your understanding. You may work on readings
with classmates; but for written assignments, separate and come to your own thoughts before any writing. I
will drop your lowest essay grade; late ones are not accepted. Together, 15% of your grade.
3) A take-home essay midterm testing your grasp of the readings, issues, and problems covered.
Handed out on Friday, Mar. 1st and due Monday, Mar. 11th. 20% of your grade.
4) A film on Sunday, April 7th from 3-6pm, we will watch together, you will participate in a discussion
immediately afterwards, and write a 3-page essay analyzing the film using course ideas. 10% of your grade.
5) A 30-minute presentation/question-and-answer class session in which you explicate ideas from
some reading(s) and then motivate/lead a discussion/q-&-a session. 10% of your grade.
6) An 8-10 page analytical paper, on a topic relevant to the course. I will meet with you both to help
you plan and rewrite it. The draft is due on Monday, April 15th, with the rewrite due Monday, April 29th, our
last class. Late papers will have their grades lowered. 20% of your grade.
7) A final exam, testing your conceptual grasp of the course, not your memory of facts. Exam date:
Friday, May 3rd, 11:30–2:30. Bring a “green book”; write in pen. 25% of your grade.
Criteria for Evaluating Writing Ability:
1. Content: Writing should reflect a sufficient understanding of the relevant subject. It should make good
use of the relevant concepts, distinctions, positions, and reasons included in course readings or brought out in
lecture or discussion. Writing should use precise words and well-constructed sentences that clearly represent
the writer’s reasoning. Your work should be clearly written, its claims precise, its structure clear, with an
explicit overall direction. It should be intelligible to an interested student.
2. Argumentation: It should be organized so ideas are arranged logically and clearly. Main points
should be backed by substantial and relevant details. Your work should be backed by good reasons. Your
claims and reasons should be consistent with each other. Anticipate and respond to any reasonable
objections.
3. Mechanics & Style: It should adhere to conventions of grammar, capitalization, spelling, and usage.
Writing style should be appropriate to the academy.
4. Citations and Documentation: Writers must clearly differentiate their own material from source
material. When writers use material that is not their own or not common knowledge, they must document the
source of the information using a standardized (i.e., either MLA or APA) method.
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Complete assignments on time. Other expectations about your writing: typed, paginated, tidy (bound
if needed), standard margins/fonts, & dark print. Failure to meet these will hurt your assignment grades. Your
paper (not the essays) should have a cover page with name, course name/number, date, my name, and a title.
The Catawba College Writing Center offers free, one-on-one consultations to all students. Tutors have been
intensely trained; while they won’t rewrite your papers for you, they will give you feedback and encouragement
at all stages of the writing process (brainstorming, drafting, revising, polishing). Be prepared to discuss your
assignment and to begin making revisions, with the tutor’s guidance, during your session. The Writing Center
is open afternoons (in ADM 211) and evenings (in the Library, Study Room #5). Walk-ins are welcome, but we
honor appointments first. For more info or to make an appointment, call 704-645-4819 or stop by ADM 211.
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Criteria for Evaluating Oral Presentation Communication Ability:
1. Content: Mastery of relevant subject matter
2. Structure: Clear and meaningful order within the assigned time frame
3. Style: Clear and appropriate; good use of language
4. Delivery: Speed; Diction; Volume; Expressions; Eye Contact
--------------------------------------------------------------Criteria for Evaluating Discussion Facilitation Communication Ability:
1. Knowledge: Your level of understanding of material & resources is enough to prompt class with
meaningful discussion questions.
2. Structure: Discussion should proceed on topic in organized fashion.
3. Participation: Encourage & value everyone’s contribution.
4. Time: Discussion should stay within allotted time & neither rush nor drag.
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Criteria for Evaluating Analytical Reading Ability:
1. Clear understanding of the author’s thesis
2. Clear understanding of the author’s argumentation
3. Determination of the author’s viewpoint
"A"
"B"
“C”
“D”
“F”
Superior mastery
Good mastery
Satisfactory achievement
Less than satisfactory achievement
Unsatisfactory achievement
A+ 97-100
B+ 87-89
C+ 77-79
D+ 67-69
A
B
C
D
93-96
83-86
73-76
63-66
ABCD-
90-92
80-82
70-72
60-62
A+ is not a possible final course grade. Grades can and should measure achievement only, not effort.
Texts:
(you must use the exact editions/publishers I specify)
1) Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (bookstore)
2) Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse (bookstore)
3) The Accident, by Elie Wiesel (purchase used online)
4) “Antigone”, by Sophocles ( bookstore)
5) “The Madwoman of Chaillot”, by Jean Giraudoux (handout)
6) “The Bald Soprano”, in Four Plays, by Eugene Ionesco (bookstore)
7) handouts
Reading and taking notes:
I expect you to do all of the readings; to do well in the course you will need to. Some material is easy,
accessible on your first attempt. Other readings are more taxing and will probably require multiple readings.
Lectures will sometimes track the readings but may also range far afield. Come to class having done
the readings. You will be responsible for all of it, and the final exam will be frightening if you have not read it
all. Since lectures can cover material not in the readings, this is another reason to attend each class. You
cannot get by with noting only key terms and definitions. Your notes are an invaluable resource for
understanding the course and for the final exam. This course focuses on understanding concepts and ideas,
not on memorizing facts; your notes should reflect that.
Absences and violations:
To keep attendance--and learn your names--I will institute a seating chart in the first few classes.
Choose a permanent seat; see me to change it. I will use the chart to check attendance promptly at the start
of class. If late, you might be counted absent; if late enough, you do count as absent. Avoid tardiness; if you
are often late (w/o good reason), I will choose to count you as absent. Sleeping and other forms of mental
disconnect in class count as an absence. When absent, you are responsible for missed assignments and
classroom material. Get notes from a classmate. If you still have questions, you may contact me.
No absences are excused. After 3 penalty-free absences, which you needn’t explain to me, further
ones lower your final grade: minus 1/3 grade for 4-5 total absences, 2/3 for 6-8, minus 1 grade for 9-10.
Missing class right before or after a vacation counts as a double absence. Over 10 absences for other than
an emergency is automatic grounds for an "F" (or an "I"), regardless of your grades. Provide documentation if
you are missing class due to required school-sponsored activities.
Respect the people and ideas in our class. I don't care if you eat or drink, sport a hat, or wear rags. I
do care that you pay attention (so, no cell phones or activated pagers/beepers/watches), you are on time and
ready to work, you have a positive attitude even if you struggle, and you contribute positively to class.
Honor Code violations include cheating, working with someone to complete individual assignments
(unless specifically allowed), falsifying an emergency to skip class or an assignment, as well as plagiarism, the
act of intentionally or unintentionally employing a writer's ideas (and even words) without giving the writer due
credit. See me for help about borrowing someone's ideas or words for your use. No electronic devices are
allowed during an exam, except for simple watches, computers (if specifically allowed), and any needed
medical devices. Specifically, cell phones and any devices that allow for texting are prohibited. Violation of
this policy can result in an “F” for that exam.
Schedule of Readings:
Novels
Poems
Supplements
Short stories
“Plays"
January 9, 11
Psalm 8
How is humanity understood? What place do human beings have? What is it to have a place? What
implications are there for a pre-modern humanistic worldview? What is the point of the Psalm?
The House of Atreus
Why does Tantalus do what he does? Should humans be with the gods? What are the consequences?
Do his descendents bear responsibility for his actions? Why are they cursed?
Coleridge: Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Does the poem’s structure (such as first-person narration, a frame, the Parts, and length) contribute
to the poem’s message? What does an albatross symbolize to sailors? What role does the albatross
have when it arrives at the ship? Why does the mariner kill the albatross? Who is to blame? What is
a curse? What state of being is the mariner left in? What is the mariner’s purpose in life by the end?
ESSAY #1: When does the mariner begin to change for the better? What changes,
and
why does that matter?
January 14, 16, 18
The Garden of Eden story; and Campbell, The Power of Myth
What is the point of the Garden? In what respects are Adam and Eve human/not human? How is the
Garden perfect? Is disobedience consistent with perfection? What do they do to jeopardize their
place in the Garden, and how does that affect them? Why does God evict them? What will they now
be like outside the Garden? Why does God have the angels block the entrance to the Garden with a
flaming sword? What does that say about the rightful place of humans?
Creation and the myth of Prometheus
Why does Prometheus help humanity? Is it his place to? What are the results for humanity and the
Olympian gods? Does anyone foresee the consequences?
The myth of Pygmalion and his descendents
What is Pygmalion seeking, and why? In one version of the myth, what bad consequence happens in
later generations? What should be humanity’s rightful ideal?
ESSAY #2: What is the relevance of the Pygmalion myth to the novel? Consider the
ideas
of creation, of place, of hubris, of the Divine, of hospitality, of character, and of fate.
The Birth of Modern Scientific Consciousness
What characterizes pre-modern consciousness? What leads to a fundamental change to our modern
consciousness? What ideas characterize our new modern scientific consciousness? How does this
framework of ideas contribute to meeting material needs? How does it change our conceptions of
knowledge, of power, of nature? Why speak of this new scientific thought as “masculine”?
Frankenstein, pp. vii-xlviii
Why does Shelley subtitle her story “The New Prometheus”? What does the introduction mean by
blaming “masculinist science”? How does the Garden of Eden story relate to the story? What is the
relevance of the Enlightenment ideal of using reason to reshape culture and life? How did the
Romantics see themselves as correcting or rejecting that ideal?
January 23, 25
Adams: Is the Modern Western Mind Deranged?
Looking past the superficial critique of cultural issues and problems, what does Adams identify as the
“soulscape” of our modern Western civilization? What does he contend is causing that soulscape? In
what sense does he speak of our cultural “mind” (mindset) as “deranged”?
Fromm: excerpts from The Art of Loving
What is Fromm’s account of the healthy self? What is Fromm’s account of the act of loving? Why
does he conceive it as an act of will? What is it that he contends we love about someone? How then
does love imply self-love? Can you apply these ideas to the Frankenstein story?
Bettelheim: About Discipline
What is Bettelheim’s account of discipline and its application to parenting? Can you apply these ideas
to the Frankenstein story?
On mirroring in parenting
What does healthy child development require? Why does the growth of subjectivity (selfhood)
require intersubjectivity? Can you apply these ideas to the Frankenstein story?
Frankenstein, pp. 1-55
Why does Shelley begin with a frame story about Walton? What does Walton want? What is he
warned about? Why does he continue? What does Shelley’s choice of words convey: “tranquillize my
mind”? Notice the pronouns he uses when he talks about/to his sister, including about friendship.
What do we learn about Walton’s psychology? Is he self-aware? How does Walton respond to Victor?
Why does Victor tell Walton his story? What do we learn about Victor from his account of childhood?
How is Elizabeth “presented”? How does he describe his character, especially versus Clerval? Why
does Victor come to be attracted to “natural philosophy”? What comes to be his measure of success?
Does he achieve it? At what costs?
ESSAY #3: Discuss when and why Walton and then Victor invoke the idea of fate or
destiny. Are they correct? Why do they believe that they are fated or destined?
January 28, 30, Feb 1
Jung, the shadow, and the Other
What is Jung’s account of the healthy self? What is the role of the “shadow” in the self? What tends
to happen to our “shadow”? Why does that cause us problems? Can you apply these ideas to the
Frankenstein story?
Donne: excerpt from An Anatomy of the World
What does Donne contend has happened to our understanding of ourselves and of our world, and
why? What has “new philosophy” called “in doubt”?
Yeats: The Second Coming
What does Yeats mean by “the centre cannot hold”? Why the negative consequences to a failure of a
“centre”? Why does Yeats view these matters apocalyptically?
Frankenstein, pp. 56-86
At the moment of his life’s success, why does Victor respond to the creature as he does? How does
the creature respond to him? Noting Victor’s feelings and lack of feelings, what is wrong with Victor’s
feelings? How do we see Victor’s selfishness at work? Why does Victor choose not to tell anyone
what he has done? How does Justine’s story parallel partly the story of Frankenstein’s creature?
ESSAY #4: Discuss Victor’s approach to creation, generally and regarding the
creature.
February 4, 6, 8
Jewett: A White Heron
Where has Sylvia come from? How does she respond to her new place? What is her basic conflict in
the story, and why is it so pointed? What does nature and her place in nature mean to her?
Bishop: The Fish
Why has the narrator caught the fish, and why let it go at the end? Why emphasize the physicality of
the fish in such detail (note the organs, the colors)? What might the fish symbolize?
Frankenstein, pp. 87-144
How does Victor respond to the deaths of William and Justine? From the creature’s story, what do we
learn about his character, “upbringing”, and life? What does the story teach us about society? What
does the creature ask of Victor, and why? Why does Victor respond as he does?
ESSAY #5: Is Victor justified in labeling the creature a monster?
February 11, 13, 15
Blake: Auguries of Innocence
How does Blake understand the natural world? What perspective does he urge on us? Why feel the
need to urge that perspective?
Silverberg: The Sixth Palace
What is Bolzano’s and Lipescu’s conception of knowledge at the start? Why doesn’t it serve them
well? How does Bolzano change? How does he outwit the robot? Or does he?
Frankenstein, pp. 145-178
How does Victor respond to the deaths of William and Justine? From the creature’s story, what do we
learn about his character, “upbringing”, and life? What does the story teach us about society? What
does the creature ask of Victor, and why? Why does Victor respond as he does?
ESSAY #6: What does the creature understand to be the right relationship between
culture and the development of human beings? Does Victor agree?
February 18, 20, 22
Whitman: When I heard the learn’d astronomer
What is the narrator listening to, and why does he respond as he does? What is Whitman telling us
about our modern conception of nature and its effects on us?
Frankenstein, pp. 179-215
Why does it take Elizabeth’s death to lead Victor finally to tell someone of the creature? What do we
learn of Victor through his exchange with the magistrate? What becomes Victor’s newest life goal?
Why does the creature want Victor to live? Where does his pursuit take him? Why does Shelley
return to the frame story of Walton at this point? What does Victor conclude about himself? What
does he warn Walton about? How does the creature respond to Victor’s death? Why does the
creature have the last word?
ESSAY #7: Discuss some of the many parallels between Victor and Walton.
February 25, 27, Mar 1
Giraudoux: “The Madwoman of Chaillot"
Who are the truly credible characters? Why are they often labeled not credible or treated as is they
are not? What is the main difference between the truly credible characters and those who are not?
What is main divide presented in the play? Why does Giraudoux present this divide in the form of a
comedy, even a comedy with unrealistic elements?
ESSAY #8: Why present the main characters are if they are insane? Are they?
March 11, 13, 15
Roetke: In a Dark Time
What does Roetke mean by “death of the self”? Can the self really die? Or can there only be a “new”
self that emerges out of an “old” self? What does he mean by “I” in “which I is I?”
Tao Te Ching (excerpt)
“Tao” means “way”, so the first line can be read, “The Tao that can be spoken of is not the Tao”. Why
can’t we speak of the Ultimate Way, the Tao? Can we speak of it in some ways but not in others? How
does understanding the Ultimate as an (impersonal) Way provide guidance in human life?
Hopkins: Pied Beauty
Why a paean, even a psalm, to what is dappled, varied, irregular, even flawed? (By contrast, note the
traditional emphasis on perfection, especially when it comes to the Divine.)
Singer: Gimpel the Fool
What is it to be a fool? What historically was the role of the fool? In what ways is Gimpel a fool?
Why? In what ways is he not a fool? Why? What relationship does the story present between
knowledge, foolishness, wisdom, and religion? Is “foolishness” ever good?
ESSAY #9: Why is a fool, for Gimpel, one who does not believe? Believe what and
why?
Cummings: you shall above all things be glad and young
What is Cummings’ message? How does he connect it to knowledge and to progress?
Siddhartha, pp. vii-xix, 1-23
Who is Siddhartha? What is his place? Why is he dissatisfied? How does he relate to his father? Why
does he join the Samanas first? Why does he leave them? What is his response to meeting the
Buddha? How are he and Govinda different? What does he believe he learns from the Buddha?
March 18, 20, 22
The House of Thebes
Does Cadmon do something wrong? Why are his descendents cursed? Do they fall into a pattern?
Was either of Antigone’s brothers the rightful heir to the throne?
Sophocles: “Antigone”
Why does Creon ask as he does? Does he have a choice? Why does Antigone act as she does? Does
she have a choice? What principles are at stake on each side? What leads Creon to change?
Samuel: And Even Beyond
The Litvak represents intellectual (orthodox) Judaism in mutual conflict with the newer Chassidism, an
emotional/experiential approach to (orthodox) Judaism represented by the rabbi. Who prevails, and
why? What lessons is Samuel conveying through this story?
Cummings: I thank you, God, for most this amazing
What does the narrator give thanks for? Why the claim that “I who have died am alive again today”?
Lawrence: The Song of a Man Who Has Come Through
What is the narrator asking for? What role does he wish to play? Why the mention of angels?
Siddhartha, pp. 25-46
What does he learn from the ferryman? From his life with Kamala? From his life with Kamaswami
Why does he leave all of this behind (yet again)?
ESSAY #10: What is Siddhartha really seeking? Does he understand what he is
seeking?
Why is it so difficult to “find”?
March 25, 27
Graves: In Broken Images
What is the poem contrasting? Why? Why does it do it in this way? What is at stake? Who is the
“he”, and who is the “I”?
Ammons: Corsons Inlet
What does the narrator notice on the walk? What relationship obtains between order and chaos?
What does the narrator learn from this? What conception of nature emerges?
Dostoevsky: The Grand Inquisitor
What are Jesus’s 3 temptations in the New Testament? What has happened to the Church in the
story? Why has the Church become corrupt? Why does Jesus Come at this point in history (clearly it’s
not the End of Time)? Why does Jesus’s Coming threaten the Church? Why does the Cardinal act as
he does at the end?
Siddhartha, pp. 46-81
What does Siddhartha learn at the river? What does he learn in relationship to his son? Why does he
go back to the river? What do we learn from Siddhartha’s and Govinda’s final encounter?
ESSAY #11: What does Siddhartha discover by the end of the book? Has he reached
Nirvana? What is his final outlook on the Buddha?
April 3, 5
Stevens: Less and Less Human, O Savage Spirit
Why does the poem require “a god” to be silent, uncommunicative, unreal to us? Why does it hint
that we are actually connected to the Divine?
Jeffers: The Great Explosion
What account of the universe (now partially discredited) does the poem offer? What consequences
does it imply for our lives, for the Divine?
Dugan: Love Song: I and Thou
Who is this “love song” to? What has gone wrong? Is he really talking about a house? Why does he
say “I will live in it until it kills me”?
The Accident, pp. 11-56
Why does the narrator affirm his need to lie? What has happened to him to cause him to become the
way he has? Why is Kathleen attracted to him? Why does he allow himself to be attracted to her?
ESSAY #12: Why is he so deadened? (Not all concentration camp survivors were like
him.)
April 8, 10, 12
Teasdale: Mastery
Why is the narrator so opposed to a belief in God? What conception of God and of belief in God does
the narrator have? Why think that faith is opposed to doubt?
Rukeyser: This Morning
How does the narrator experience the morning and life? Why does she describe herself as “a violent
woman in the violent day”? What contrast does she draw?
Tan: Half and Half
Why is the mother dissatisfied with her daughter? Why does the narrator get married, and why does it
end? What does Bing’s death come to symbolize?
ESSAY #13: What ways do the concepts of faith and fate conflict in the story?
Arnold: Dover Beach
What does the narrator hear in the tide’s ebb and flow? Why does he mean by “the Sea of Faith”?
What judgment does he level against the world? Why? What is his respond to that? Why?
The Accident, pp. 57-85
How are the narrator and Kathleen in conflict? How are the narrator and Dr. Russel in conflict? Why
does he lie to Dr. Russel? Why does Kathleen return after 5 years? Why does he agree to help her?
April 15, 17, 19
Eliot: The Hollow Men
Why does Eliot present us (all) as the “hollow men”? What has happened to us? Why? Why the
epitaph to the character of Kurtz in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”?
Coleridge: Human Life
Why does Coleridge subtitle it as he does? What is the conception of humanity presented? Why does
the poem contend that that conception is unavoidable and problematic?
Silverberg: Passengers
What are “passengers”? How do people manage? What happens to the narrator that is different?
How does he respond? Why? What happens to personal identity if we cannot trust our memories?
The Accident, pp. 86-127
Why doesn’t he tell Kathleen the real story of (the other) Sarah? Why does Wiesel write the novel out
of temporal order? What is the meaning of the title? What does the narrator decide at the end?
ESSAY #14: What about our world view makes the narrator’s suffering worse?
April 22, 24, 26
Clough: The Latest Decalogue
What does Clough mean by the title? What is the import of this new Decalogue?
Auden: The Unknown Citizen
Why the title? What knowledge do we learn about this person? Is it what we need to know? Why or
why not? What are the implications of this “knowledge” for our understanding of self and world?
Introduction: The absurdity of the Absurd
What leads to the early twentieth-century Theater of the Absurd? What characterizes those plays?
Why? How do audiences tend to respond?
Ionesco: “The Bald Soprano”
How do the Martins try to establish that they are married? What does the doorbell ringing episode
imply? What characterizes the dialogue? What about this play is absurd? Why?
ESSAY #15: How does our modern world view lead to absurd lives?
April 29
Olds: Last Night
Why is she “almost afraid” the next day? What happened that night? Why then speak of love?
Larkin: High Windows
What does the narrator note is happening across generations? Why describe it as a “long slide…To
happiness”? Why the metaphor of high windows?
ESSAY #16: An essay of your choice on the Olds poem.