This course aims to critique the complex relations between religion and literature; to detect and identify religious motifs and symbolism in literary representations.  The course investigates the pre-eminent and historical influence of sacred literature on literatures in English, and examines different literary representations and deconstructive readings of religious texts.  It also evaluates the tension between religious and literary paradigms, and the resulting conflicts due to fundamentalism, pluralism, heterodoxy, and blasphemy.