Literature and Society
Curriculum Description
Literature and Society offers courses on traditional historical periods, major authors, and the genres of literature. Grounded in a careful reading of texts, the courses also offer students the opportunity to explore the relationship of literature to such disciplines as art, film, theatre, photography, theology, and cultural history. These courses give close attention to the human values implicit in literature.
Faculty Advisor
Abby A. Johnson, Ph.D., University of Illinois; Adjunct Professor of Liberal Studies, Georgetown University. With her Ph.D. in English, she concentrates as a teacher and scholar on topics in American culture, particularly in the areas of literature and photography.
abbyron@cox.net
Degree Requirements
In order to earn a Master's degree in the Literature and Society curricular field, students must complete six courses in this field including one Core course and one Human Values course or two Core courses, and a three-credit thesis reflecting this field. To complete the total number of credits required for the MALS degree, 30 credits, three elective courses may be selected from any Liberal Studies courses or up to two courses at the University appropriate to this degree with the approval of the Program Director. The selected curricular field will appear on the final transcript of record.
Curricular Field
Click here for the current pamphlet describing the requirements for this field and the listing of its courses and faculty advisor. The following courses are a sampling of recent course offerings in this field.
Core:
The Myth of the HeroCurricular Field Core:
American Literature and the American IdeaClassic and Romantic: Styles and Values in Western Culture
Literature in the Modern World
Curricular Field Elective:
African Politics and the NovelBuddhism through Literature and Art
Great Books of Islamic History
Immigrant Literature and the American Experience, 1965 to the Present
James Joyce: A Culture and Literary Study
Orientalism: Western Perceptions of Near Eastern Culture and Values
Russia: Politics and Culture through Literature and Film
The New Testament and Social Justice
Curricular Field Human Values:
American Religious Voices: Ralph Waldo Emerson and William JamesChaucer's Canterbury Tales and the Late Medieval Renaissance
Cinema and American Values
Classics in the Catholic Tradition
Dante: The Journey to Freedom
Fragmentation and Reintegration
Government and the Individual: Source of the Problematic
The Art of Biblical Literature
The Book of Genesis: Literature, Ethics, and Theology
The Old Testament and Social Justice
Theological Issues in the 20th and 21st Century Fiction
Theology and Literature