- CC 325 AX - Religion and Contemporary Global Literature
- 3 or 4 Credits
TR 2:50-4:05 pm - Professor Upton
Cross listed with THEO 360 AX
Fulfills upper level theology requirement or cultural diversity requirement.
What is religion, and how does it shape our modern world? What is the relationship between religion and politics, or religion and secularity? What happens when one religion encounters another through colonialism, commerce, or global conflict? How do religion and literature interact amidst the complex dynamics of contemporary globalization?
This course will trace these questions in and through close readings of select contemporary literary works from different areas of the world. The course will focus on Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead (America), Shusako Endo’s The Samurai (Japan), Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (India), Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (Columbia), and Uwem Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them (Nigeria). Each of these texts provides us with a snapshot of characters attempting to either be religious or grapple with religion in a context of profound social struggle and unrest. Each shows how concerns about religion or being religious reach into the minute details of everyday life. And each one gives its own distinct account of how literature reflects on and interacts with this complex human reality. These works of contemporary fiction resonate because they ask our own questions about religion and its place within our lives, while attempting their own distinct, radical answers.
