Literature Courses

LIT 211 Introduction to Literature (3)
Prerequisite: ENG 122 or instructor permission
The short story, poetry, and drama are introduced through a basic study of each. This course focuses on how to read critically, the importance of identifying the writer’s worldview, and how to critically analyze each of these genres.

LIT 221 British Literature (3)
Prerequisite: ENG 122 or instructor permission
Reading, discussion, and written analysis of major works of British literature from Beowulf to the present. Possible authors include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Swift, Johnson, Austen, Elliot, and Woolf. Students will be encouraged to compare and contrast their contemporary Christian worldview with that of the authors they are reading.

LIT 222 American Literature (3)
Prerequisite: ENG 122 or instructor permission
Reading, discussion, and written analysis of major works of American literature from the Puritans to the present. Possible authors include Bradford, Sojourner Truth, Douglass, Franklin, Emerson, Thoreau, Twain, O’Connor, Frost, Dickinson, and Faulkner. Students will be encouraged to compare and contrast their contemporary Christian worldview with that of the authors they are reading.

LIT 223 World Literature (3)
Prerequisite: ENG 122 or instructor permission
Reading, discussion, and written analysis of major works of literature from different countries and time periods. Possible authors include Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Voltaire, Swift, Twain, Conrad, Camus, Goethe, and Dostoevsky. Student will be encouraged to compare and contrast their contemporary Christian worldview with that of the authors they are reading.

LIT 231 Classical Literature (3)
Prerequisite: ENG 122 or instructor permission
Reading, discussion, and written analysis of major works of literature from classical Greece. Possible authors include Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, and Aristotle. Readings from the Old Testament will be included in this course. Student will be encouraged to compare and contrast their contemporary Christian worldview with that of the authors they are reading.

LIT 233 African American Literature (3)
Prerequisite: ENG 122 or instructor permission
Reading, discussion, and written analysis of major works of African-American literature from the colonial days to the present. Possible authors include Wright, Ellison, Du Bois, Washington, Hughes, Hurston, King, Jr., and Douglass. Student will be encouraged to compare and contrast their contemporary Christian worldview with that of the authors they are reading.

LIT 241 Literature and the Christian Imagination (3)
Prerequisite: ENG 122 or instructor permission
Reading, discussion, and written analysis of major fictional works by one or more of the following: J.R.R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, and G.K. Chesterton-to understand how their works may or may not reflect a specifically Christian worldview. Discussion about the imagination, what makes fiction “Christian,” the limits of story telling, and the use of fantasy as a literary form will also be included in the course. Students will be encouraged to compare and contrast their contemporary Christian worldview with that of the authors they are reading.