Literary Legacies: Friends, Families, and Fellowship in Fiction

This course will survey notable literary characters, families, and relationships within classical fiction. Students will read one classical work monthly and will critically interact with selected characters. Students will consider the author’s development of chosen characters and will virtues and vices of character’s. Great consideration will be given to how these character traits manifest in relationships and how they might apply to our lives individually and communally.

Course Objectives:

1. Critically analyze character development in classical literary works
2. Consider how themes of works are influenced and established by characters
3. Identify characters qualities and deficiencies within selected works
4. Consider biblical allusions within works
5. Submit fictional characters to biblical teaching
6. Consider the theological beliefs and values implicit in characters
7. Glean wisdom from familial and communal interactions between characters
8. Recognize healthy and unhealthy fellowship
9. Make application of identified values and virtues to our individual lives
10. Consider biblical texts and promises to encourage and uphold virtuous living
11. Produce composition in reflection on characters and anticipation of relationships

Texts:

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Howards End by E.M. Forster

Kindle versions are fine and many of these can be found on Project Gutenberg free of charge.