King’s College London
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
COURSEWORK ESSAYS 2024/25
5ABA0020 Literature and the Sacred
Write ONE essay of 3,000 words from the list below. Please follow the submission
guidelines displayed in the King’s E-learning and Teaching Service (KEATS) module
assignment submission area.
If you either fail to submit material for assessment or submit on or after the deadline
and have not made a request for an extension or have not satisfied the Chair of the
Assessment Sub Board that your mitigating circumstances offer valid reasons for
submitting late work, you will have an automatic penalty applied. Penalties for late
submission are outlined here:
https://internal.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/students/dllc/academic assess/assessment/coursework
Make sure you have read the information about Assessment and its presentation in the
Department Handbook: https://internal.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/students/dllc/academic assess/assessment/style-guide-dllc
Your attention is drawn to the Faculty guidelines on plagiarism & other related forms
of cheating. In submitting your essay you will be assumed to have complied with these
regulations. For more information and relevant links, see the following page:
https://internal.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/students/dllc/academic assess/assessment/plagiarism
A minimal approach to Generative AI is permitted for assessment for modules offered
by the DLLC (Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures). This means that you
are permitted to use spell check and grammar check tools but you are not permitted
to use any other tools to prepare, generate or edit your work.
Essays should be written in ENGLISH.
1. ‘“Sacred scripture” is not only a sociological category but also a formal aesthetic category where theological content interacts with literary form.’
Discuss this statement with reference to the sacred scripture(s) of AT
LEAST TWO different traditions.
2. Discuss how a particular genre lends itself to representing the sacred by
assessing relevant writings from AT LEAST TWO traditions.
3. Explore the way in which literary or sacred texts reuse and reinterpret
sacred tradition by tracing how one character, episode, image or theme
from a sacred text is employed in AT LEAST TWO literary, religious, or
sacred texts.
4. Compare and contrast the literary strategies in representing the
unrepresentable and speaking about what is beyond words in passages from
sacred, religious, or literary texts of AT LEAST TWO different traditions.
5. What is the language of mysticism Discuss with reference to AT LEAST TWO
works from different traditions.
6. ‘[W]e have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to
sustain us […]; and most of what now passes with us for religion and
philosophy will be replaced by poetry.’ (Matthew Arnold, ‘The Study of
Poetry’) Discuss Arnold’s statement by relating it to its historical context
and analysing AT LEAST TWO relevant literary texts.
7. ‘The sacred and the political are inseparable’. Consider this statement with
reference to AT LEAST TWO literary texts and compare and contrast how
this relationship is portrayed and reflected on in them.
8. ‘I must sacrifice what I love.’ (Jacques Derrida, Gift of Death and
Literature in Secret) Discuss Derrida’s statement in relation to ANY TWO
sacred, religious, or literary texts.
9. What form and significance does the sacred assume in works of fiction
Discuss comparatively with reference to AT LEAST TWO works.
10. ‘The “death of God” has not stopped modern literature from exploring the
sacred, but such explorations now end with a question mark instead of an
exclamation mark.’ Discuss with reference to AT LEAST TWO literary works
from the twentieth or twenty-first century.
Explanatory Note on Terminology:
sacred texts: central writings religious/spiritual tradition, afforded special status
religious texts: writings with religious contents and/or functions
literary texts: any other writings
different traditions: different religious/spiritual and/or literary-linguistic backgrounds