In surveying the changing stages of epic storytelling from Homer to Blake, we will explore its dynamics as a ground for mystic completeness, making it a holistic story: its uses of epiphany (encounters with divinity), ascesis (the growth of self-restraint), and emanation (the outburst of prophecy and mystic creation).
*Recommended reading will be shared with those enrolled in this course.
ADDENDUM to “Harvesting Mysticism in the Epic, from Homer to Blake”:
To enhance discussion in this course I have decided to focus mainly on the culminating figure, William Blake, especially his early poems, with brief summaries of the great epics. Relevant material from the epic tradition will be visited in brief lectures and summaries. Our excellent and inexpensive texts are the Erdman & Bloom edition of Blake’s work and Eternity’s Sunrise: The Imaginative World of William Blake, by Leo Damrosch.
