Mar 28, 2024  
2019 - 2020 Academic Catalog 
    
2019 - 2020 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

ENG 120-01, 03, & 05 - Literary Analysis

4 credits (Fall and Spring)
This is Hell. This section invites participants to a tour of Hell, in all its names and analogues. In particular, the course will focus on Hell’s aesthetic dimensions from multiple literary perspectives to sample some of the most striking representations of this sometimes physical, sometimes existential “state” in the fields of literature, the visual arts, and the performing arts from the nonmodern to the present period. We will reflect on these imaginative renderings’ salient features and artistic merits, as well as gauge their impacts on audiences and critics past and present. Enlisting the aid of literary theory and practicing literary analysis, we will elaborate on the anthropological, philosophical, and ethical codes embedded in Hell’s artistic expressions, and will attempt to come to terms with its justice system. Given the conditions of its inmates, who may or may not earn our sympathy, contempt, or admiration, we may ask: Is Hell a moral space? What are its rules? How has it developed across cultures and evolved over time? What does it mean for artists to represent Hell in an aesthetically beautiful way, provided they do so?

Prerequisite: None.
Note: Sections 03 & 05 in the fall. Section 01 in the spring.
Instructor: Abdelkarim