Esoteric Literature:

WEEK 1

September 11: 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

WEEK 2

September 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 Lectures on Esoteric Literature: An Introduction

September 18: Plato

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.

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

WEEK 3

September 22: Plato

Required Reading:

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

  -  Total:  ca. 125 pages of reading

Lecture Outline:

  -  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 Plato: An Introduction (Reading a Platonic Dialogue)

September 25: 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 4

September 29 / October 2: 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

October 2nd: Discussion Post on Plato 

Value = 10%

WEEK 5

October 6 / 9: 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 Lectures on Medieval Literary Theory: Fourfold Method (Quadriga)

WEEK 6

October 13: Medieval Literature

Lecture Outline: 

  -  Medieval Literature: An Introduction

A detailed introduction to medieval English literature, focusing on the essential features and importance of linguistic and literary developments between Anglo-Saxon (Old English) Literature, Anglo-Norman Literature, and Middle English Literature.

🖥️ Recorded Lectures on Medieval Literature: An Introduction

October 16: Chaucer

Required Reading:

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

  -  Total: ca. 22 pages

Lecture Outline: 

  -  Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: An Introduction

A lecture introducing Chaucer's monumental work. The lecture focuses on Chaucer's life as a public servant and the diversity of his literary output. The frame narrative of The Canterbury Tales are compared and contrasted with Boccaccio's frame narrative in the Decameron. The opening lines of the General Prologue are analyzed in relation to the way they build on and subvert generic expectations of the Medieval Romance, in particular the Romance of the Rose. Finally, the nature of Chaucer's work as "Estates Satire" is explored by analyzing the ambiguous portrayal of the Knight, the Prioress, the Monk and the Pardoner in the General Prologue. This Estates Satire is one aspect of Chaucer's "esoteric doctrine". The latter is also explored in relation to how we can interpret Chaucer's work in accordance with the medieval "Four-fold" method of interpretation.

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: An Introduction

WEEK 7

October 20: MID-TERM EXAM

You will be given two passages (one from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and one from Plato’s Republic); you will be asked to identify the context of the passage and to analyze the passage, discussing how the passage points to deeper levels of meaning within the work as a whole.

Value = 20% 

October 23: CLASS CANCELLED

You may wish to consult the materials below to get a head start on 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 8

October 27 / 30: READING WEEK

WEEK 9

November 3: Leo Strauss and the Three Waves of Modernity

Lecture Outline: 

  -  Leo Strauss and the Three Waves of Modernity

An introduction to Leo Strauss's categorization of the "Three Waves of Modernity". 

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Leo Strauss and the Three Waves of Modernity

Other Background Lecture Notes:

  -  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

🖥️ Recorded Lecture on Machiavelli and the First Wave of Modernity

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

November 6: 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))

WEEK 10

November 10: Shakespeare

Required Reading:

  - Henry V (1599)

  -  Total: 140 pages

Lecture Outline: 

  -  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))

November 13: 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

November 17: 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))

November 20: CLASS CANCELLED

You may wish to use this time to finalize your research essay, or read the work (Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse) we will be studying in Weeks 12 and 13.

November 20th: Research Essay Due

Value = 30%

WEEK 12

November 24: 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))

November 27: 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 13

December 1 / 4: 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))

TBD: FINAL EXAM

You will be given two passages (one from Shakespeare's Henry V and one from Woolf's To the Lighthouse); you will be asked to identify the context of the passage and to analyze the passage, discussing how the passage points to deeper levels of meaning within the work as a whole.

Value = 40%