RS 356: Death and Dying

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

COURSE OUTLINE 2001

The faculty union is in the midst of contract negotiations and there is a possibility of work interruption that may affect this course. Updates on this situation will be provided throughout the course.

RS 356: Contemporary Religious Thought: Death and Dying

Sierra Hall 384
Mondays, 7:00 to 9:45 p.m., Ticket No. 74521

Instructor:

Amir Hussain
Office: Faculty Office Building, Room 234
Phone: (818) 677-2741 (or Religious Studies Dept. at 677-3392)
Fax: (818) 677-3985
Email: amir.hussain@csun.edu
Web Page: http://www.csun.edu/~ah34999
Office Hours: Mondays, 9:00 to 11:30 a.m., and 6:15 to 6:45 p.m.

Course Description:

"The joyful will stoop with sorrow, and when you have gone to the earth I will let my hair grow long for your sake, I will wander through the wilderness in the skin of a lion".

--from The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh, perhaps the oldest surviving story in Western literature, speaks to us about certain understandings of death and mourning. This course is a cross-cultural look at death and dying in several different religious traditions. In the first half of the course, we will specifically examine the religious traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Primal traditions. In the second half of the course, we will examine how these different traditions interact and affect the lives and deaths of women, children and men. This course will be of interest to students who find the death rituals of "others" profoundly awkward, as well as the student who can make no sense of her or his own received rituals of mourning.

Goals for students enrolled in this course are 1) to develop the ability to think both empathetically and critically about conflicting religious claims; 2) to gain knowledge of the history and culture of several major religious traditions; and 3) to understand how various religious traditions understand death and dying. This course satisfies the C-3 category of General Education requirements, and is classified as "writing intensive".

Required Texts:

Colin Murray Parkes, Pittu Laungani and Bill Young, editors, Death and Bereavement Across Cultures (London: Routledge, 1998[1997]).

David Field, Jenny Hockey and Neil Small, editors, Death, Gender and Ethnicity (London: Routledge, 1997).

Both texts are on reserve in the Reserve Book Room of the Oviatt Library.

Lecture outlines will be available from the instructor throughout the course.

Evaluation:

It is important for each student to know at the outset that this course requires daily reading, written assignments and a final examination. Moreover, regular class attendance and participation are required. Clear, grammatically correct composition and standard spelling are expected on all written assignments.

Information on the written assignments and the research paper (which will be on a topic of the student's choice, in consultation with the instructor) will be provided separately during the course. The final examination will be cumulative, and based on both books. The exam will be graded on a) familiarity with the readings and b) independent questioning and reflection elicited by the lectures and classroom discussions. Methodical reading, conscientious writing of the assignments, and participation in class discussion will prepare students for the exam.

Active class participation will positively affect the student's final grade. More than one unexcused absence during the semester will negatively affect the student's grade. The University's grading policy, including the plus/minus system, will be used. The University's cheating policy will be followed in this course.

Grades will be determined as follows:

30% Written assignments (6 assignments, worth 5% each)
30% A reflective research paper of not more than 15 pages, due November 26
30% A final examination on December 10
10% Class participation

Journal Writing and Written Assignments:

For this course, you will be asked to keep a learning journal. This journal is intended to 1) improve your writing fluency; 2) increase your recall and comprehension of the readings; and 3) help you to articulate the ideas that you develop during the course. How you keep this journal is up to you. Many students prefer a spiral-bound notebook, others a looseleaf binder that they can divide into sections, and others an electronic journal. However you keep it, this journal is meant to be a personal record of your learning in this course. As such, you are the only person that will ever read your journal.

At times in the course, I will ask you to take out your journals and write in them. In addition to these opportunities to write in your journal during class time, you should write in your journal after you have done the reading for a particular section. You should write about 5 to 7 pages per week in your journal. Some topics you might address are:

What were the important points of this reading (or lecture, or class discussion)?
Do you agree or disagree with those points? Why?
What questions do you have about the reading (or lecture, or class discussion)?
How does the reading (or lecture, or class discussion) relate to your own experience, or to other outside reading/research that you have done?
How does the material in the Death, Gender and Ethnicity book relate to the information that is presented in the Death and Bereavement Across Cultures book?

For each religious tradition that we study, I will ask you to select from your journal the piece that you consider to be the most important to you, revise it, and submit it as a formal written assignment. This assignment should not be simply a summary of your notes, but your own reflection on what you have learned. Each assignment should be between two and three typed, double-spaced pages. These assignments will be graded on such things as spelling, punctuation, grammar, word precision and style, in addition to content. Journal assignments will be collected at the beginning of the classes indicated below. If you do not hand in the assignment when it is due, you may turn it in at a later time. Do not turn the assignments in to the Departmental Office. They will not accept assignments. Turn in late assignments to me personally, in my office.

The penalty for late assignments will be one letter grade per day late (with the "day" ending at 6:00 p.m.). All assignments are due on Mondays, and can earn a maximum grade of A. If an assignment is turned in on Tuesday, it can earn a maximum grade of B+. If it is turned in on Wednesday, it can earn a maximum grade of C+, and if turned in on Thursday, a maximum grade of D+. The first assignment will be graded, but the grade will not be recorded. This first assignment will give you feedback on my grading system (see grading standards outline ).

Schedule of Topics and Dates for Handing in Written Assignments:

Aug. 27: Introductory meeting: What are we doing in this course and why? Methodological and other issues in this course. The roles of women, children and men. READING: Field, Introduction, Chapter 1; Parkes, Chapters 1 and 2.

Sept. 3: No class due to Labour Day.

Sept. 10: First assignment due: What object, film, song, piece of music, art or writing helps you to understand death? "There's a bit of magic in everything / and then some loss to even things out": Death and dying in America. READING: Field, Chapter 9.

Sept. 17: "Our bodies are known to end, / but the embodied self is enduring, / indestructible, and immeasurable": Hinduism. READING: Parkes, Chapter 4.

Sept. 24: Assignment on Hinduism due. "Everything that arises also passes away, so strive for what has not arisen": Buddhism. READING: Parkes, Chapter 5.

Oct. 1: Assignment on Buddhism due. "Glorified and sanctified be G-d's great name": Judaism. READING: Parkes, Chapter 6.

Oct. 8: Assignment on Judaism due. "He is not here; he is risen": Christianity. READING: Parkes, Chapter 7; Field, Chapters 7 and 10.

Oct. 15: Assignment on Christianity due. "Indeed it is We, We who give life and We who give death and unto Us is the returning": Islam. READING: Parkes, Chapter 8; Field, Chapter 10.

Oct. 22: Assignment on Islam due. "It is a good day to die": Primal Traditions. READING: Parkes, Chapter 3.

Oct. 29: Assignment on Primal Traditions due. "Son in irons and husband clay / Pray. Pray": Women. READING: Field, Chapters 5 and 6.

Nov. 5: "I shall not murder / The mankind of her going with a grave truth / Nor blaspheme down the stations of the breath / With any further / Elegy of innocence and youth": Children. READING: Field, Chapters 2 and 3; Parkes, Chapter 10.

Nov. 12: "And I will honor my father with these words I write down / And as long as I remember him he'll always be around": Men. READING: Field, Chapter 4.

Nov. 19: "In my dream the pipes were playin' / In my dream I lost a friend". Intersections: Death and dying in multi-cultural, multi-religious America.

Nov. 26: Research Paper due. Intersections continued. "I hope my going brings ‘em peace": The death penalty in America.

Dec. 3: Overview and review. READING: Field, Chapter 11; Parkes, Chapters 11, 12 and 13.

Dec. 10: Final Exam (8:00 to 10:00 p.m.). Final exam is cumulative, based on everything covered in the course.