Hell: An Introduction
ENGL 395
Spring 2027
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01
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An inquiry into the changing experience of damnation, from sin to despair, in Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost. Both are epics, poems of history, but their notions of history and of its lessons, belong to the specific historical moments of their composition. Both struggle, as Milton puts it, "To justify the works of God to man" but in different ways: Dante, through a representation of how hell represents divine justice as an expression of divine love: his sinners are not so punished for their sins as by them. Their torments are representations of the false good they pursue in their sins. They pursue damnation. For Milton, as for Shakespeare, original sin is not so much pride, an inborn sense of superiority, as ambition, an inborn sense of lack and intolerable sense of inadequacy that can be dispelled only by equaling the "most high," even if it means to reign in hell rather than serve in heaven. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (English) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
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