ENGL 2222: Visions of Heaven & Hell W. Scott Howard
Winter Quarter, 2005 Sturm Hall 387-E
M & W 11:00-12:50; MRB 5B 303-871-2887; showard@du.ed

Course URL: http://www.du.edu/~showard/W05.2222.html

Course Description: How and why have European and English poets, cosmologists, and visual artists from the 14th through the 19th centuries imagined and represented Heaven and Hell? This course addresses that question through close examinations of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (c.1321), John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667-74), William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell (c.1793) and Milton (c.1808), thus offering a focused study of foundational works by three major poets. Students will investigate these four primary texts with regard to: their immediate cultural, cosmological, and poetic contexts; their accompanying illustrations in various editions; and recent essays in literary criticism and theory. Structural and thematic differences and similarities between Dante’s, Milton’s, and Blake’s visions of creation, chaos and all things in between will be of central importance. Assignments will have both critical and creative components.

Required Texts:
Alighieri, Dante. The Portable Dante. Ed. Mark Musa. New York: Viking Penguin, 2003. ISBN: 0142437549; $17.00.

Danielson, Dennis, ed. The Book of the Cosmos. New York: Perseus, 2001. ISBN: 0738204986; $20.00.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Alastair Fowler. 2nd ed. London: Addison-Wesley Longman, 1998. ISBN: 0582215188; $40.00.

Rivers, Isabel. Classical and Christian Ideas in English Renaissance Poetry. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 1994. ISBN: 0415106478; $32.95.
Teaching Method: Seminar (lecture & discussion)

Method of Evaluation & Grading:
6 short essays (each 2 pages in length) 20 %
5 quizzes 15 %
2 longer essays (each 3 pages in length) 15 %
1 paper (10-12 pages in length) 40 %
participation 10 %
Extra credit (3 %): Recitation of at least 14 lines of either Dante’s, Milton’s or Blake’s poetry and/or prose.
Note on essays: Unless otherwise specified, all essays are due at the beginning of class in hard copy form: typed, double-spaced, in 12-point font and with pages stapled. Essays that do not conform to these guidelines will be considered late. Work submitted late will receive a deduction of -0.5 per day.

Note on attendance: For each unexcused absence the student’s overall grade in the class will be diminished by -0.5.

Note on plagiarism: Students are expected to submit original work for all assignments. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in an automatic F in the course.

Notes on grading:

1. The ‘Check’ System: I’ll be grading your weekly essays and quizzes with a ‘check system’ that will follow these guidelines: A ‘check plus’ on all of your weekly essays and quizzes will translate into a grade of 4.0/A for those percentages of your overall grade in the course. Each ‘check’ on a weekly essay or quiz will reduce your grade for those components (40%) of your overall grade in the course by -0.5. Each ‘check minus’, by -1.0; each missing essay or quiz, by -2.0. If you ever receive less than a ‘check plus’ on one of the weekly essays, you will have the option to revise and resubmit the essay for a higher grade. Those revisions (plus originals) will be due by the beginning of the next class meeting.

2. The ‘Point & Letter’ System: I’ll be grading your longer essays and final paper with a ‘point & letter’ system that corresponds to the following grade ranges: A (4.0-3.9); A- (3.8-3.5); B+ (3.4-3.2); B (3.1-2.9); B- (2.8-2.5); C+ (2.4-2.2); C (2.1-1.9); C- (1.8-1.5); D+ (1.4-1.2); D (1.1-0.9); D- (0.8-0.5); F (0.4-0).
CALENDAR: (subject to changes)

Week 1 The Book of the Cosmos
M 1/3 Course Introduction
W 1/5 The Book of the Cosmos

Week 2 Visions of Chaos, Creation & Change: God to Galileo
M 1/10 The Book of the Cosmos
W 1/12 The Book of the Cosmos/Short Essays Due/Vita Nuova/Rivers

Week 3 A Dark Wood: Inferno, Cantos I-XVII
M 1/17 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: University Closed
W 1/19 Vita Nuova/Rivers/Short Essays Due/Inferno, Cantos I-XVII

Week 4 A Winding Path: Inferno, Cantos XVIII-XXXIV
M 1/24 Quiz #1/Inferno, Cantos I-XVII & Cantos XVIII-XXXIV
W 1/26 Inferno, Cantos XVIII-XXXIV/Rivers/Short Essays Due

Week 5 This Great Argument: Paradise Lost, Books I-III
M 1/31 Quiz #2/Paradise Lost, Books I-III
W 2/2 Paradise Lost, Books I-III/Rivers/Short Essays Due

Week 6 Pandemonium, Providence & Paradise: Paradise Lost, Books IV-VI
M 2/7 Quiz #3/Paradise Lost, Books IV-VI
W 2/9 Paradise Lost, Books IV-VI/Rivers/Longer Essays Due: Paper Proposals

Week 7 War in Heaven, The Creation of Earth & The Desire for Knowledge: Paradise Lost, Books VII-IX
M 2/14 Quiz #4/Paradise Lost, Books VII-IX
W 2/16 Paradise Lost, Books VII-IX/Rivers/Short Essays Due

Week 8 The Fall of Eve & Adam: Paradise Lost, Books X-XII
M 2/21 Quiz #5/Paradise Lost, Books X-XII
W 2/23 Paradise Lost, Books X-XII/Rivers/Longer Essays Due: Final Paper Introductions

Week 9 Enough! Or Too Much: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
M 2/28 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell @ The Blake Archive:http://www.blakearchive.org/main.html/Milton, A Poem, Book the First @ The Blake Archive: http://www.blakearchive.org/main.html
W 3/2 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell/Milton, A Poem, Book the First/Short Essays Due

Week 10 Say First!: Milton, A Poem
M 3/7 Milton, A Poem, Book the Second @ The Blake Archive: http://www.blakearchive.org/main.html
W 3/9 Final Papers Due
INTERNET & WWW Resources:
Dante, Milton & Blake:
Digital Dante: http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/projects/dante/
Paradise Lost Study Guide: http://www.paradiselost.org/
The Milton-L Home Page: http://www.urich.edu/~creamer/milton/subscribe.html
Milton Reading Room: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/
Milton Review: http://www.richmond.edu/~creamer/review.html
Milton Quarterly: http://voyager.cns.ohiou.edu/~somalley/milton.html
The Blake Archive: http://www.blakearchive.org/main.html
The Blake Multimedia Project: http://www.multimedia.calpoly.edu/libarts/smarx/Blake/blakeproject.html
Renaissance & Early Modern Studies:
Luminarium: http://www.luminarium.org/lumina.htm
Renaissance Editions: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/ren.htm
Project Gutenberg: http://www.promo.net/pg/
Ficino: FICINO-request@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA
Early Modern Literary Studies: http://www.humanities.ualberta.ca/emls/emlshome.html
Seventeenth-Century News: http://www-english.tamu.edu/pubs/scn/
Renaissance Forum: http://www.hull.ac.uk/Hull/EL_Web/renforum/
Explorations in Renaissance Culture: http://www.smsu.edu/english/eirc/eirc.html
Conferences:
H-Net Discussion Network: http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/announce/
UPENN Calls for Papers: http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/
Libraries:
Penrose Library: http://www.penlib.du.edu/; Iliff School of Theology: http://www.iliff.edu/
Huntington Library: http://www.huntington.org/; The British Library: http://portico.bl.uk/
Note on copyright and fair-use guidelines: All image reproductions in this document and the corresponding web pages for this class follow fair-use guidelines. The Library of Congress provides information on copyright at <http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/>. An explanation of the fair-use doctrine may be consulted at <http://fairuse.stanford.edu/>.