English 3325-2048 (Fall 2004) Dr. R.-J. Frontain
Religion, Literature, and Art Office: Irby 118B
T Th 2:40-3:55 Office Hours: T Th 9-12
Irby 313
COURSE DESCRIPTION
All art (painting, poetry, dance, sculpture, architecture, song) has its roots in religion because it stems from the human impulse to sacralize an otherwise unbearably ambivalent world. Similarly, every religion--no matter how advanced a particular sect’s stage of social development--must rely upon forms of symbolic expression in its attempt to name the unnameable. This course will look at religion, literature, and art, not as three discrete and potentially antagonistic human activities, but as interdependent manifestations of the same impulse: to bridge the gap between humankind and a Totally Other that holds out the possibility of ultimate meaning. Seminal works on the phenomenology of religion by Rudolf Otto and Mircea Eliade will provide a theoretical context for discussion of the creative impulses of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins and painter Vincent Van Gogh, two near-contemporaries who were driven to fashion a highly innovative art in the service of a divinely animated universe to whose sacramental character others had been blinded by the Industrial Revolution.
TEXTS
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Major Works, ed. Catherine Phillips (Oxford UP)
Pascal Bonafoux, Van Gogh: The Passionate Eye (Abrams)
The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, ed. Ronald de Leeuw (Penguin)
Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy (Oxford UP)
Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (Harcourt)
SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS
R 19 Aug. Introduction: Faith and the Imagination
T 24 Aug. Hopkins: First Group
"God’s Grandeur" (128), "The Starlight Night" (128), "As kingfishers catch fire" (129), "Spring" (130), "The Windhover" (132), "The Caged Skylark" (133), "Hurrahing in Harvest" (134), "The Lantern out of Doors" (134), "Binsley Poplars" (142), "Henry Purcell" (143), "Felix Randall" (150), "Spring and Fall" (152), "Harry Ploughman" (177)
R 26 Aug. "
T 31 Aug. "
R 2 Sept. "
T 7 Sept. "
R 9 Sept. "
T 14 Sept. Hopkins: Second Group
"To seem the stranger" (166), "I wake and feel" (166), "No worst, there is none" (167), "(Carrion Comfort)" (168), "Patience, hard thing" (170), "Justus quidem tu es, Domine" (183)
R 16 Sept. "
T 21 Sept. "
R 23 Sept. Hopkins: Third Group
"The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo" (155), "The Wreck of the Deutschland" (110), "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection" (180)
T 28 Sept. "
R 30 Sept. "
T 5 Oct. "
R 7 Oct. MIDTERM EXAMINATION
T 12 Oct. Otto, The Holy, pp. 1-71
R 14 Oct. FALL RECESS
T 19 Oct. Otto 72-142
R 21 Oct. Eliade, Sacred and Profane, pp. 1- 113
T 26 Oct. Eliade 116-213
R 28 Oct. PAPER #1 DUE IN CLASS
T 2 Nov. Discussion of Van Gogh: during the next four weeks, read and bring to class Bonafoux’s edition of the paintings, and read Letters
Van Gogh, Letters 1-82
R 4 Nov. " 83-161
T 9 Nov. " 162-310
R 11 Nov. " 311-39
T 16 Nov. " 340-440
R 18 Nov. " 441-509
T 23 Nov. Conclude discussion of Van Gogh
R 25 Nov. THANKSGIVING RECESS
T 30 Nov. PAPER #2 DUE IN CLASS
R 2 Dec. Class Recitations
R 9 Dec. (11 am-1pm): FINAL EXAMINATION
OBSERVATIONS
1. Final Grade: Paper #1 (20%), Paper #2 (30%), Midterm examination (20%), Final examination (20%), and Recitation (10%). Any penalty for excessive absence/tardiness will be deducted from this final average.
2. Explication Paper. A 4-5 page typewritten paper (1000-1250 words, employing MLA documentation format) explicating any poem by Hopkins not discussed in class is due Oct. 28. The paper should use the explication to isolate and comment upon a significant theme or operation of Hopkins.
3. Term Paper: A 5-7 page typewritten paper (1250-1300 words, employing MLA documentation format) comparing and contrasting any poem of Hopkins with any picture of Van Gogh, and making intelligent use of Otto, Eliade, and the letters of both Hopkins and Van Gogh, is due in class on Nov. 30. The term paper should make a significant statement about the interrelationship of religion, literature, and art.
4. Recitation. During the final class meeting, each student will deliver an interpretive recitation of the poem on which his/her paper is based, as well as present the painting that he/she makes primary use of in the term paper.