Esoteric Literature:

WEEK 1

January 13: Introduction to English Literature

Lecture Outline:

  -  English Literature: An Introduction

An introduction to English Literature designed for English majors at the University-level. The lecture focuses on defining the discipline of English Literature, as a Humanities discipline distinct from the Natural Sciences and Social Sciences; the lecture outlines questions students should keep in mind as they study literature or philosophy books. The lecture also discusses at a high level the major literary periods in English Literature, the major literary genres and the types of Literary Theory approaches to interpreting texts that the student should keep in mind.

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on English Literature: An Introduction

January 15: Introduction to Esotericism

Lecture Outline:

  -  Esoteric Literature: An Introduction

An introduction to various traditions of esoteric literature: including the tradition of philosophic esotericism arising from the "old quarrel of philosophy and poetry" in Greece, the traditions of religious esotericism arising from various forms of Biblical secrecy. The prevalent understanding of esotericism as linked with mysticism is explained. The claim is that we need to understand "Esotericism" as a broad category encompassing philosophical, religious (including mystical and orthodox esotericisms) and literary traditions. 

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Esoteric Literature: An Introduction

WEEK 2

January 20: Plato

Required Reading:

  -  Plato, Republic,  (375 BCE); Books 1 - 4 

  -  Total:  ca. 125 pages of reading

Lecture Outline:

  -  The Golden Age of Athens: An Introduction

An introduction to major political and cultural events of 5th Century BCE Athens, which serve as the crucial context for properly understanding the great works of the period -- including, the emergence of the polis in Greece, the democratic reforms of Cleisthenes, the Persian Wars, the Age of Pericles, the Peloponnesian Wars, the Sophists and the Death of Socrates.

  -  Plato: An Introduction (Reading a Platonic Dialogue)

An introduction to successful strategies for interpreting a Platonic dialogue. The approach presented here follows the lead of Leo Strauss and John Sallis in paying particular attention to the dramatic aspect of the dialogues. This is coupled with a Heideggerian approach to the unsaid, ontological elements of the dialogues.

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on The Golden Age of Athens: An Introduction

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Plato: An Introduction (Reading a Platonic Dialogue)

January 22: Plato

Lecture Outline:

  -  Plato's Republic: An Introduction

A detailed introduction to Plato's monumental work. I follow John Sallis and Leo Strauss in paying particular attention to the dramatic action within the dialogue. The import of Plato's work in relation to the interpretation of the esoteric tradition as well as its impact on the history of literary theory are emphasized.

🖥️ Recorded Lectures on Plato's Republic: An Introduction

WEEK 3

January 27 / 29: Plato

Required Reading:

  -  Plato, Republic,  (375 BCE); Books 5 - 7 and 10

  -  Total: ca. 115 pages of reading

Lecture Outline:

  -  Plato's Republic: An Introduction

A detailed introduction to Plato's monumental work. I follow John Sallis and Leo Strauss in paying particular attention to the dramatic action within the dialogue. The import of Plato's work in relation to the interpretation of the esoteric tradition as well as its impact on the history of literary theory are emphasized.

🖥️ Recorded Lectures on Plato's Republic: An Introduction

WEEK 4

February 3 / 5: Dante

Required Reading:

  -  Dante, Letter to Can Grande,  (ca. 1320); 

  -  Total: 3 pages of reading

Lecture Outline:

  -  Medieval Literary Theory: Fourfold Method (Quadriga)  

A detailed introduction to medieval traditions of allegorical interpretation -- including discussions of the multiple levels of meaning posited by: Origen, John Cassian, St. Augustine, Hugh of St. Victor, St Thomas Aquinas, Dante and Boccaccio.

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Medieval Literary Theory: Fourfold Method (Quadriga)

WEEK 5

February 10: Chaucer

Lecture Outline: 

  -  Medieval Literature: An Introduction

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Medieval Literature: An Introduction

February 12: Chaucer

Required Reading:

  - Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, "The General Prologue" (1400) 

  -  Total: ca. 22 pages

Lecture Outline: 

  -  On Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue

WEEK 6

February 17 / 19: READING WEEK

WEEK 7

February 24: The Renaissance

Lecture Outline: 

  -  The Renaissance: An Introduction

An Introduction to the Renaissance. The lecture presents on overview of the various historical drivers contributing to the birth of the Renaissance, or the early modern revolution in thinking. Finally, the lecture focuses on the Renaissance understanding of art, as exemplified by Sidney's Defence of Poetry, as a response to Plato's critique of poetry. 

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on The Renaissance: An Introduction

(from a previous course on British Literature Before 1700 (2020))

February 26: MID-TERM EXAM

WEEK 8

March 3: Shakespeare

Lecture Outline: 

  -  Shakespeare: An Introduction

An introduction to the study of Shakespeare's dramatic works. The lecture discusses the emergence of professional theatres in Elizabethan England, Shakespeare's works and Shakespeare's use of various dramatic genres. 

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Shakespearean Drama: An Introduction

(from a previous course on British Literature Before 1700 (2020))

  -  Shakespeare's Histories: An Introduction

An introduction to Shakespeare's history plays, both the "English Histories" and the "Roman Histories". The predominant concerns of the genre with politics and war are discussed, as is the historical context of the writing of these plays during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604). Finally, Shakespeare's place in the philosophy of history is considered.

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Shakespeare's Histories: An Introduction

(from a previous course on War in Literature (2023))

March 5: The Research Essay

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on How to Write a Research Essay

(from a previous course on Time and History in Literature (2021))

Lecture Outlines:

  -  Research, Think, Write

  -  Elements of an Excellent Academic Essay

An overview of how to write a research essay, applicable to most Humanities assignments at the University level.  A description of what makes for a good: Thesis, Argumentation, Logical Organization, Style and Mechanics.  

WEEK 9

March 10 / 12: Shakespeare

Required Reading:

  - Henry V (1599)

  -  Total: 140 pages

Lecture Outline: 

  -  Shakespeare's Henry V: An Introduction 

An introduction to the play focusing on the play's political teaching with respect to the shift from the medieval to the modern age. Henry V is represented as the ideal ruler for the modern age, combining the classical virtue's required of a warrior king with the Christian virtues needed to consolidate authority. 

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Shakespeare's Henry V: An Introduction

(from a previous course on War in Literature (2023))

WEEK 10

March 17 / 19: Shakespeare

Lecture Outline: 

  -  Shakespeare's Henry V: An Introduction 

An introduction to the play focusing on the play's political teaching with respect to the shift from the medieval to the modern age. Henry V is represented as the ideal ruler for the modern age, combining the classical virtue's required of a warrior king with the Christian virtues needed to consolidate authority. 

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Shakespeare's Henry V: An Introduction

(from a previous course on War in Literature (2023))

WEEK 11

March 24: Literature in the Age of Reason

Lecture Outline: 

  -  Restoration and Eighteenth Century Literature: An Introduction 

An introduction to English literature during the Restoration and Eighteenth Century -- focusing on pivotal works of Dryden, Swift, Pope, Johnson as well as the rise of the novel.

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Restoration and Eighteenth Century Literature: An Introduction

March 26: The Second Wave of Modernity and the Rise of History

Lecture Outline: 

  -  The Second Wave of Modernity and the Rise of History

A lecture on the "Second Wave" of modernity and the rise of "historical" thinking. This shift in thinking is explored in the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant and G.W.F. Hegel.

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on The Second Wave of Modernity and the Rise of History

WEEK 12

March 31: Romanticism: An Introduction

Lecture Outline: 

  -  Romanticism: An Introduction

A detailed introduction to the various philosophical currents leading to the Romantic movement -- namely, the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment and Kant's "Copernican Revolution" in epistemology. In addition, an introduction to the Romantics' response to the Industrial and French Revolutions. Romantic aesthetics and key themes are explored.

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Romanticism: An Introduction

April 2: William Wordsworth

Required Reading:

William Wordsworth, "Tintern Abbey" (1798); and "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" (1800)

Total: ca. 25 pages

Lecture Outlines:

 -  Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey": An Introduction

An introduction to Wordsworth's poem, focusing on the title, the setting, and the sense of the sublimity and divinity of nature expressed in the poem. 

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey": An Introduction

WEEK 13

April 7: Woolf

Required Reading:

  -  Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (1927)

  -  Total: 170 pages

Lecture Outline:

- Modernism: An Introduction  

An introduction to the intellectual roots of "Modernism" in such thinkers as Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. Finally, an introduction to some of the aesthetic movements of literary modernism -- in particular how Modernism's exploration of the "fragmentation" of meaning and experience was connected with Cubism in the visual arts. 

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Modernism: An Introduction

(From a previous course on War in Literature (2022))

April 9: Woolf

Lecture Outline:

  -  Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse: An Introduction

An introduction to To the Lighthouse, focusing on Woolf's unique articulation of the lived experience of temporality and what allows these experience to endure in "moments of being".

🖥️ Recorded Lectures on Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse: An Introduction

(From a previous course on Time and History in Literature (2025))

WEEK 14

April 14: Woolf

Lecture Outline:

  -  Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse: An Introduction

An introduction to To the Lighthouse, focusing on Woolf's unique articulation of the lived experience of temporality and what allows these experience to endure in "moments of being".

🖥️ Recorded Lectures on Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse: An Introduction

(From a previous course on Time and History in Literature (2025))