HSU Introduces New Faith & Literature Sequence in English M.A.

Inspired by the university motto, “An Education Enlightened by Faith,” HSU English professors are teaming up to combine their love for literature with their Christian beliefs. The M.A. in English program is beginning a four-course Faith and Literature sequence next semester. The courses will investigate themes of faith, spirituality, and Christianity in a given period or genre.

“As readers and teachers of literature, the HSU English professors all are intensely interested in the spiritual dimensions of literature,” said Dr. Traci Thompson, head of the HSU English Department. “We may all articulate this differently, but what drives us as scholars is a desire to examine and explore how literature sustains individuals on their journeys of faith even as that literature sometimes challenges, frustrates, or saddens us as it reveals the truths of —to borrow a phrase from William Faulkner—‘the human heart in conflict with itself.’”

Dr. Thompson will teach the first class in the sequence, exploring faith themes in 20th Century Poetry. The course will examine the works of modern American poets such as Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Hart Crane, e e cummings, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Anne Sexton, and Carl Sandburg.

The Faith and Literature sequence is new, not only to HSU, but to English programs around the country.

“Bringing these interests together in this course sequence makes our program pretty distinctive,” said Dr. Jason King, Director of the M.A. in English. “There are very few, in any, English M.A. programs that advertise a Faith and Lit. emphasis.”

Dr. King plans to teach a course about faith in contemporary novels, including the works of Shusaku Endo and Marilynne Robinson.

Dr. Larry Fink will continue to teach his C. S. Lewis class which covers works such as Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics. His other course ideas include Catholic Literary Revival, Christian Fantasy, and Christian Heroic Novels.

Other possible course topics include Puritanism in the works of American colonial writers, Deism during the American Revolution, and the way faith informed the treatment of slavery in American Romanticism.

Students can enroll in the M.A. in English program through May. An undergraduate degree in English is not required. Learn more here.