HEAVEN HELL & JUDGMENT SPRING 2012

ENG 375/ AHI 318

Mondays, 7:00 - 9:40 P.M., 201 NSC

SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Diane Christian, engdc@buffalo.edu

Office Hours: Monday after class, Wednesday 1-3, & by appointment, Clemens 615 or 610

Teaching Assistants:

Dr. Rene Rojas, rojas@ecc.edu , hours M 4:45 - 6, Baldy walkway & by appointment

Amanda Davis Buonopane, ajdavis2@buffalo.edu, hours M 5-6:30, Starbucks and by appointment

Megan Faragher megan.faragher@gmail.com, hours W 3-4, Clemens 321 & by appointment

Content: Heaven Hell & Judgment considers great verbal and visual texts of eternal reward and punishmen--images and stories of heaven, hell, and moral judgment from ancient Sumer and Egypt to modern film. We will study the Sumerian goddess Inanna's descent to the great below, the Egyptian weighing of the soul, classical underworlds in Homer and Plato and Virgil, blessed places and judgment scenes. We'll also consider Hebrew and Christian biblical texts, especially the Apocalypse or Revelation, medieval illuminations, Romanesque churches, Dante's Inferno and Paradiso, Signorelli’s and Michelangelo’s and Bosch’s paintings of last things, Milton’s Paradise Lost and Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven & Hell. We’ll end with the classic film A Matter of Life and Death, released in America as Stairway to Heaven.

Books:

Heaven Hell & Judgment, a photocopied course book containing assigned readings and a glossary, may be purchased at Queen City Imaging, 3100 Main Street.

Other books are available from Talking Leaves Bookstore, 3158 Main Street.

Required:

The Holy Bible, King James version. Ballantine, paper. (You can use other texts)

The Divine Comedy, Dante, tr. Mandelbaum. Knopf Everyman, hard cover.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.Blake. Oxford, paper..

Recommended:

The History of Hell. Turner. Harcourt Brace, paper.

Heaven: A History. McDannell & Lang. Yale, paper.

Inanna. Wolkstein & Kramer. Harper, paper.

Images:          The images studied in class are available at this location on line:

http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/english/faculty/christian/syllabi/375

To access the images on line, use a web browser (e.g. Explorer, Netscape) and go to the above location. Click “Images” Hit ENTER. You should then be able to access the images which are arranged by week and outlined on the ON-LINE IMAGES SCHEDULE. To enlarge an image, click on it.

Examinations: Quizzes will be given in class on February 13, March 26, and April 30. Each counts for 20% of your grade.

Paper: A paper analyzing the film A Matter of Life and Death (Am. release Stairway to Heaven) and bringing to bear all the material of the course will be due by 5 P.M. Monday May 7.

The paper comprises 40% of your grade.

HEAVEN HELL & JUDGMENT

Readings marked with *** are included in the photocopy text Heaven Hell & Judgment

Jan 23:***"The Descent of Inanna from the Great Above to the Great Below" (Sumer)

***"The Feather of Maat"(Egypt) [texts distributed first class also]

Jan 30:Bible texts: From the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament in the Christian Bible) read Genesis chapters 1-3, Ecclesiastes, and Daniel chapters 7 - 12

From the Christian New Testament read The Gospel According to Matthew and the Apocalypse (also called Revelation). Some texts will also be distributed.

Feb 6:***Homer. The Odyssey, tr. Fitzgerald. Books XI, XII, XXIV

                        ***Virgil. The Aeneid, tr. Fitzgerald. Book VI

                        ***Plato and Greek Underworld References as excerpted

Feb 13:Apocalypse (Revelation), and medieval Apocalypse illuminations. FIRST QUIZ.

Feb 20:Medieval Last Judgments, biblical texts and church sculpture and painting.

***Texts Matthew 13:36-50; Matthew 25; Mark 9:36-49; Luke 19-21; 1Corinthians 15; 1Thessalonians 4:15-17; Hebrews 1 - 5.

Feb 27:***Visions of Tondal (text) and images online at http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1771&handle=book&pg=1

                        Dante’s Inferno

Mar 5:Dante's Inferno, Purgatorio

Mar 12:No class. Spring break.

Mar 19:Dante's Purgatorio, Paradiso.

Mar 26:Dante's Paradiso. SECOND QUIZ.

Apr 2:Signorelli' s paintings of the Last Things. Michelangelo's "Last Judgment"

Apr 9:Hieronymus Bosch's "Last Judgment"

      ***Milton, Paradise Lost, Books I - III, X, and selections.

Apr 16:Blake's The Marriage of Heaven & Hell. Use textbook for images.

Apr 23:Film A Matter of Life and Death (American release title Stairway to Heaven).

Apr 30:Summary. THIRD QUIZ (The THIRD QUIZ may also be taken Wed. May 9 at 7:15 p.m. in NSC 201.)

May 7:Paper Due in HH&J-marked box in Clemens 306 before 5 P.M. NO EXTENSIONS.