I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by. –John Masefield (1878-1967), British poet
Welcome to the Introduction to Literature (ENC1102) class here at the Art Institute. As your instructor, I will post description of course material and assignments and discussion of key terms and selections presented in class (and additional material too, perhaps). You should visit the site to stay abreast of material and apprised of any changes to assignments or selections to be covered.
Course Description: The course is designed as a study of some of the various genres of literature–lyric and narrative poetry, fictional and non-fictional narratives, and dramatic works in performance. The themes, forms and conventions of the various works we read will provide means of discussion, and written and oral performance.
Themes: “Nature” is perhaps the primary thematic focus, and a wide field of play, for there is no escaping Nature, the ultimate source and end of all things human and non-human. What is Nature actually, and what is not? We look at nature through the lens of "Art," an entirely human construct, one which includes philosophy, religion, history, science and, importantly, language. In so far as humans are nature’s creatures, however distinct, highly evolved, and increasingly removed from direct contact and awareness of the Earth, Sun, Moon, Stars, and all the world's “creatures great and small,” we are yet defined and bound by our relationship to the natural world, the Cosmos, out of which we emerged, as did all things, some 13 billion years ago, when the Big Bang occurred, according to scientific calculations.
We are born, grow to youth and maturity, age, and then die . . . and in this our lives reflect the age-old succession of the seasons and life elemental. A continual process of creation and destruction, as the old gives way before the new, and what is past becomes an archive of artifacts, and stories, whereby we can trace our origins, and wonder and speculate about the mysteries. In fact, As William Faulkner wrote, the past is never dead. The vital function that artists perform in creating art works, their evocations and explorations of the material and spiritual realms, provide an endless source of inspiration and wonder. I am hoping you find it so, at any rate.
The course material invites you to consider representations of nature, and our relationship to the natural world, and to each other, family, society, culture. Indeed, we may see nature as antagonist, ally, or morally neutral, even amoral, reflective of processes far beyond our ability to comprehend, in which savagery, destruction, suffering and death stand equally with kindness, creation, joy, and life. Life comprises a great many conceptual opposites and their reconciliation is a life's work. The poems and stories illustrate just such work. We think in categories of opposition: life/death; light/dark; good/evil; finite/infinite; material/immaterial/spiritual; mutable/immutable; temporal/eternal; transcendence/immanence; the One/the Many. We have the given and what we make of it verbally or linguistically, conceptually. Art manifests the human imagination and spirit in its attempt to recreate, name, and understand the world and the life lived in it.
We live in time, and in space, and the phases of life and nature provides rich subject matter for writers reflecting on the experience of living. Nature, in fact, appears a mirror and a touchstone of the Self and human experience. We are part of universal nature, and we bring our particular human nature to it, with our griefs, our joys, our forebodings, aspirations, and imaginings. The Book of Nature informs us to the extent we take the time to read it and to acknowledge how it shapes us. A falling leaf, a sudden snowfall, the stars shining in the blackness of space–these speak to us. Indeed, it is a story of "supernatural" dimensions in human imagination, and thus the religious and spiritual experience is necessarily a theme we will address.
Eternal, Infinite, Immutable, Immortal, God, the One, and their polar opposites–the temporal, finite, mutable, mortal, human, the many–we shall see how these concepts are embodied, literally and symbolically or figuratively in various works. We shall see how some artists have articulated the search for Truth, God, the impact of Beauty, the experience of the Sublime. Literature gives us a window into the human experience that is not to be missed.
As regards symbols and stories, myths and legends, whether of ancient Babylon, Egypt, Greece, India the Judeo-Christian world, Native America, or the contemporary U.S., Joseph Campbell wrote that they refer “primarily to our inner selves” and not to “outer historical events” (Thou Art That 28), that they are psychological archetypes known to all mythologies.” Beyond the necessities imposed by our animal nature, he writes, is “another order of living, which the animals do not know, that of awe before the mystery of being, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, that can be the root and branch of the spiritual sense of one’s days” (29).
And so when we read “To see a World in a Grain of Sand,” by William Blake, we may sense the great mystery of the heavenly, infinite, eternal realms evoked by his focus on the familiar, small by comparison, microcosm of sand particle and wild flower. By metaphor and symbol we bridge in language inner and outer worlds, subject and object, the personal and the cosmic.
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In writing about literature, you will reproduce in summary or direct quotation lines of text to illustrate and to ground your descriptions and interpretations in the precise language used by the poet. You will want to show readers how you have arrived at your conclusions about its construction and meaning. Use quotation marks around the word-for-word phrasings and lines and a slash or virgule to separate lines of text that run no more than three successive lines. Blocks of text four or more lines in length should be indented or offset 10 spaces, without use of quotation marks.
In "Snow Toward Evening," Melville Cane shows the surprise and delight of an unexpected turn in the weather. The poem begins thus:
Suddenly the sky turned grey.
The day,
Which had been bitter and chill,
Grew soft and still. (1-4)
The lines above, by virtue of end rhyme, appear as couplets of uneven length that come to a hushed, extended close with the words "soft and still." The next line is a single word, "Quietly," from which the remainder of the poem hangs, as if suspended, like the "petals cool and white," the snow that falls "from some invisible blossoming tree" (lines 7, 6). The airy dance of flakes is wonderful, a kind of epiphany, a manifestation of divine grace.
HOMEWORK: For homework please read the poetry and prose selections in the packets distributed week one, beginning with the first entries and working forward. Read also the introduction and "Nature" section of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay Nature. Take notes on key ideas and lines. These will be useful when you start writing in response to the texts.
Note: the following site, which I have permission to use from the author, contains much helpful background information on reading poetry, the formal elements of poetry, key themes of English Romanticism, readings (interpretative presentations/essays) of selections, etcetera. It appears as a link on the upper right pullout drawer of the blog page, A Guide to the Study of Literature.
This first page may be updated to cover week one's lecture and discussion before we meet again for class week 2. Until then . . .
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