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January 23: Introduction to Course: The Sublime
– Each member of the course brings in an example of “the sublime”
January 25: Jumping in to the Sublime
– Erich Auerbach, “Odysseus’ Scar” from Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Culture. Trans. Willard R. Trask. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1968. [Course Packet]
– Homer, “Book 19.” The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. Intro. and Notes by Bernard Knox. New York: Penguin, 1999. [Course Packet]
– Genesis 22. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. Ed. Michael D. Coogan. 3rd Ed. New Rev. Standard Version. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. [Course Packet]
January 30: Sublime Beginnings
– Longinus. On the Sublime. First Century Greek text edited by D.A. Russell. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1964. * *
February 1: Sublime Beginnings and Its Late-Twentieth-Century Criticism
– Longinus. On the Sublime. First Century Greek text edited by D.A. Russell. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1964. * *
– Neil Hertz, “A Reading of Longinus” from The End of the Line: Essays on Psychoanalysis and the Sublime. New York: Columbia UP, 1985. 1-20 [Course Packet]
– Suzanne Guerlac, “Longinus and the Subject of the Sublime.” New Literary History. Special Issue: "The Sublime and the Beautiful: Reconsiderations.” 16.2 (1985): 275-289. [JSTOR online]
ESSAY 1 DUE
Essay Prompt: What is the relationship of sublimity to language for Longinus? Please answer this question as clearly and forcefully as you possibly can. Although you should focus on the treatise itself, you may draw on other materials we have read up to this point to supplement your points if you wish to do so. This essay must be 2 typed pages and formatted according to MLA documentation.
February 6: The Republican Period and the Sublime: Milton
– Book I and IV of John Milton, Paradise Lost. 1674. Ed. Gordon Teskey. New York: Norton, 2005.**
February 8: The Republican Period and the Sublime: Milton
– Book IX of John Milton, Paradise Lost. 1674. Ed. Gordon Teskey. New York: Norton, 2005.* *
February 13: Republicanism and the Sublime: Milton
– Book XIII of John Milton, Paradise Lost. 1674. Ed. Gordon Teskey. New York: Norton, 2005.*
February 15: Old Testament in the Post-Republican World and Beyond
– “Introduction”; “Prologue”; and “Curse” from The Book of Job. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. New York: Harper Perennial, 1992.
February 20: Old Testament in the Post-Republican World and Beyond
–The Book of Job. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. New York: Harper Perennial, 1992.
ESSAY 2 DUE
Essay Prompt: Milton’s Paradise Lost and The Book of Job are both identified as “sublime” texts. Would you say that these two texts are ultimately more similar or more different? How? Why? Please address this question as forcefully as you can, putting these two texts into dialogue in a manner that is both useful and provocative for you and your reader. This essay must be 2 typed pages and formatted according to MLA documentation.
February 22: Sublime Satire
– John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. “A Satyre Against Reason and Mankind” [Course Packet]
– René Descartes, “Meditation II” from Meditations on First Philosophy. [Course Packet]
February 27: Neo-Classicism and Sublimity (I)
– Alexander Pope, Preface to his translation of The Iliad (1715-20); “Peri Bathos; or, Martinus Scriblerus, His Treatise of the Art of Sinking in Poetry” (1728) [Course Packet]
March 1: Neo-Classicism and Sublimity (II)
– Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Man” [Course Packet]
March 6: The Eighteenth-Century Taste for the Sublime
– Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. 1757. Ed. James T. Boulton. Indiana: U of Notre Dame P, 1993. **
March 8: The Eighteenth-Century Taste for the Sublime
– Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. 1757. Ed. James T. Boulton. Indiana: U of Notre Dame P, 1993. **
March 13: CANCEL for conference
March 15: Eighteenth-Century Poetry and the Sublime
– William Collins, “Ode to Fear” (1747) [Course Packet]
– Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard” (1742-44/pub.1750-51) [Course Packet]
ESSAY 3 DUE
Essay Prompt: Would Edmund Burke consider Alexander Pope, John Wilmot, William Collins, or Thomas Gray to be the most sublime poet? How? Why? Please answer this question as precisely and provocatively as you can. This essay must be 2 typed pages and formatted according to MLA documentation.
March 21: SPRING BREAK
March 27: Continental Sublimity: Kant
– Immanuel Kant, from The Critique of Judgement. 1790. Ed. James Creed Meredith. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1952. 3-227 **
March 29: Continental Sublimity and Postmodernism
– Immanuel Kant, from The Critique of Judgement. 1790. Ed. James Creed Meredith. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1952. 3-227 **
– Jean-Francois Lyotard, “Answering the Question: What is Postmodernism?” from The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. 1979. Trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1984. 71-82 [Course Packet]
April 3: Romanticism and the Sublime (I)
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) [Course Packet]
April 5: Romanticism and the Sublime (I)
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) [Course Packet]
– William Wordsworth, “Elegiac Stanzas” (1805) [Course Packet]
April 10: Romanticism and the Sublime (II)
– William Wordsworth, The Two-Part Prelude (1799) [Online Reserve]
– William Blake, "The Lamb"; "The Tyger" [Handouts]
ESSAY 4 DUE
Essay Prompt: Would Kant consider Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, or William Blake to be the most sublime poet? How? Why? Please answer this question as precisely and provocatively as you can. This essay must be 2 typed pages and formatted according to MLA documentation.
April 12: The Gothic Novel
– Anne Radcliffe. The Italian. Ed. Frederick Garber. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.
April 17: The Gothic Novel
– Anne Radcliffe. The Italian. Ed. Frederick Garber. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.
April 19: The Gothic Novel
– Anne Radcliffe. The Italian. Ed. Frederick Garber. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.
April 24: Gothic Parody
– Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey. 1798/ p. 1817/1818. Ed. Marilyn Gaull. New York, Longman, 2005.
April 26: Gothic Parody
– Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey. 1798/ p. 1817/1818. Ed. Marilyn Gaull. New York, Longman, 2005.
May 7: FINAL ESSAY DUE by noon via electronic submission
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Office & Office Hours
 Independence 175B
T 2:30-3:45pm and by appointment
Course Location & Time
Lippitt Hall 203
T/R 12:30-1:45 pm
Required Texts
Longinus, On the Sublime. 1 A.D. Trans. W. H. Fyfe; Rev. D. A. Russell. Loeb Classical Library, 1996.
ISBN: 0674995635
John Milton, Paradise Lost. 1674. Ed. Gordon Teskey. New York: Norton, 2005.
ISBN: 0393924289
The Book of Job. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. New York: Harper Perennial, 1992.
ISBN: 0060969598
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. 1757. Ed. James T. Boulton. Indiana: U of Notre Dame P, 1993.
ISBN: 0268000859
Immanuel Kant. The Critique of Judgement. 1790. Trans. James Creed Meredith. New York: Oxford UP, 1978. ISBN: 0198245890
Anne Radcliffe. The Italian. Ed. Frederick Garber. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.
ISBN: 0198245890
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey. Ed. Marilyn Gaull. New York: Longman, 2004.
ISBN: 0321202082
Suggested Texts
Michael Greer. What Every Student Should Know About Citing Sources with MLA Documentation. New York: Longman, 2006.
ISBN: 0321447379
Joseph Gibaldi. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th Rev. Edition. MLA P, 2003
ISBN: 0873529863
Diana Hacker. A Writer’s Reference. 5th Sprl edition. Bedford/St. Martin's P, 2003.
ISBN: 0312412622
Course Requirements
Participation (15%)
4 Short Essays (40%)
Seminar Paper (45%)
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Overview