H211 Ideas and Experience:  Visions of Heaven and Hell
Richard Cecil

Beginning with Gilgamesh’s journey across the sea of Death, and
ending with Bunyan’s allegory of the journey of the soul to heaven,
we will read, in chronological order, a series of great books which
go beyond earthy experience.  Although these books range in tone
from Lucian’s satirical atheism in DIALOGUE OF THE GODS to Bunyan’s
naïve faith in PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, each of them powerfully evokes
heaven, hell, and the gods a physical realities rather than as
ideas.  Each of these works presents us with a great example of
creative imagination at work in literature.

Written work in the course will consist of three three—five page
critical papers plus a 6-10 page creative paper—a short visionary
account of the author’s visit to heaven or hell.

Course texts:

Gilgamesh, The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aenead, Selected Satires of
Lucian, The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradisio), Paradise
lost, The Pilgrim’s Progress.