MW 1:00-2:15pm
HU 108

This section is an Intensive Writing course.
In this course we will read accounts of voyages to Hell, Heaven, and
many imaginary and real places in between.  Beginning with Homer’s
seventh century B.C. account of Odysseus’ complicated voyage (and
his even more complicated arrival) home after the Trojan War, and
ending with Voltaire’s satirical analysis of the treats (robbery,
rape, cannibalism, slavery) awaiting the modern, eighteenth century
traveler through the “Best of All Possible Worlds,” we will read ten
great accounts of fantastic voyages.  The central work in the course
will be Dante’s Divine Comedy, which describes a journey down into
the central pit of hell, then up to the top of heaven, in the most
brilliant and compelling poem in any language.  In the final week we
will read and discuss contemporary accounts of imaginary voyages,
written by each member of the class.

COURSE TESTS:  Homer, The Odyssey trans. Robert Fitzgerald; Virgil,
The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fitzgerald; Dante:  The Inferno; The
Purgatorio; The Paradiso; trans by John Ciardi; Shakespeare:  The
Tempest; Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress; Swift:  Gulliver’s Travels;
Voltaire, Candide; Samuel Johnson, Rasselas.