Do a close, literary reading of a Biblical text (preferably one we haven’t discussed in class). You don’t need to use outside sources, although you will want to draw on translation aids, and you may interact with literary interpretation(s) as well. Essays should be ten pages and are due on May 14 at our final.
For your meeting with me, please have a passage in mind that you want to focus on and a tentative outline. We can talk through what you have and how your argument might develop.
You might find the following resources to be helpful if you are looking for poems or stories about particular biblical texts or motifs:
- A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature, edited by David Lyle Jeffrey
- Chapters into Verse: Poetry in English Inspired by the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, edited by Robert Atwan and Laurance Wieder.
- Gospels In Our Image: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Poetry Based on Biblical Texts, edited by David Curzon
- John in the Company of Poets: The Gospel in Literary Imagination, by Thomas Gardner