Western Literature II covers classic works from the neo-classical era, the Romantic era, 19th-century realism, naturalism, modernism, and post-modernism, coming to understand them in the context of cultural and intellectual history. Students will learn answers to questions such as:  Why are these works important? Why have they lasted, and why are they still referenced by Western culture today? What might be a Christian point of view on them?

Students will also learn literary terms and the formal aspects of literary construction to help answer these questions. Students participate in online discussion forums with each other during the week.  Students will also participate in bi-weekly live chat discussions with each other and the professor, on Thursday evenings from 8 – 9 p.m. EST.  Students will need a headset with microphone to participate.  The professor provides lectures, some in multi-media, and notes and discussion questions on the works. Students will write two papers: one to “dialogue” with a professional critic, and one to engage in literary criticism of their own. Students are evaluated by these papers, two exams, and the quality of their class participation.
 
Literature to Be Studied
 
We study the following works, each of which is central to the movement of Western culture since the early 1700s: 
 
Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
Voltaire, Candide
Goethe, Faust
Shelley, Frankenstein
Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author
Kafka, The Metamorphosis
Eliot, The Wasteland
Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children
Beckett, Waiting for Godot