2011 Courses

Courses for January Term 2011

RELB 1559: Buddhism in Fiction and Film [3]

Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Associate Professor

This course is an introduction to Buddhism and an exploration of the place of Buddhism within contemporary Asian, European, and North American cultures through fiction and film. By focusing upon the presence of Buddhist themes within contemporary novels and films produced throughout the world, the course encourages us to consider Buddhism (and religion in general) not as an ancient, monolithic, and isolated tradition but as a vibrant, adaptable, and contested aspect of modern global culture. The interpretive goals in each case are to identify possible Buddhist sources for narrative themes and, more importantly, to consider how, why, and by whom Buddhism is employed in recent film and fiction to address contemporary issues. A more general goal of the course is to illustrate that Buddhism is a complex social and cultural phenomenon that cannot be reduced to any simple doctrine.