Our aim is to establish and to appraise critically the constructed, man-made element in visions of the cataclysmic end of time--from the biblical apocalypse (at the end of the first century of the common era) to the present day. The course traces the evolution and transformation of the narrative genre of apocalypse, suggesting that the plot and pattern of the traditional “vision”: has effectively socialized apocalyptic visionaries both religious and now secular down through the history of Western anxiety over the end of the world it as we know it.

Traditional apocalypse is a religious concern and, hence, indisputably for some a matter of personal and community faith. The course aims to respect faith commitments as appropriate, in acknowledgment that the most influential of all apocalyptic visions (in Revelation) has been held to be divinely inspired or transmitted. Indeed, for certain American evangelical Protestant communities the doctrine of Second Coming and Last Judgment early in the century was declared to be one of the six “fundamentals” of the faith.

The expressive prophetic vision of "last things" is a recurring phenomenon in religion, literature, and the arts. The course stresses the seminal influence of Revelation and the revolutionary, antinomian poetic-pictorial art of the Romantic, William Blake (1757-1827). We discuss the manner and meaning of uses of the metaphor/myth of apocalypse by modern writers, artists, film-makers, musicians, and religious “prophets.”

The concept of the "apocalyptic imagination" (or, more recently, the "apocalyptic imaginary") provides a thread of continuity. The continuing historical-cultural influence of Revelation, both formal (as a literary structure) and substantive (as a blueprint for revolution and metamorphic change), of course, provides another.

Students will receive 30% of the information in this course from lectures, 10% from discussion, 35% from the readings, and 25% from the assignments and tests

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students who successfully complete the course should be able to (a) discern more than one "genre" of apocalypse in the Western cultural heritage, (b) display elementary knowledge of William Blake’s career "project," and (c) avoid single-minded popular interpretations of apocalypse literature and intelligently discuss varient interpretative models and contexts.

REQUIRED READING

Revelation (King James “Authorized” version preferred)
William Blake: Selected Poetry, ed. Stevenson (Penguin)
An American Dream, Norman Mailer
“New Heaven and New Earth,” D.H. Lawrence (hand-out)
Howl and Other Poems, Allen Ginsberg
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

• Class attendance - participation expected - 5%
• Week 1 - QUIZ on Revelation - 10%
• Week 8 - submit Blake PAPER (5-6 pages, number pages) - 25%
• Week 10 - QUIZ on An American Dream - 10%
• Week 14 - either PAPER (on topic relevant to study of apocalypse, but not on Blake - 5-6 pages, number pages) or your own APOCALYPSE (of equivalent length or weight, to be explained in class) - 25%
• FINAL EXAM - 25%

COURSE SCHEDULE:

Read the material assigned for discussion on the day indicated.

Week 1

(Tue) Introduction
(Thu) Introduction

Week 2

(Tue) Revelation (in its entirety), recommend also: Ezekiel, Daniel, Mark 13, I Thessalonians 4:13-5:11

(Thu) Revelation - QUIZ

Week 3

(Tue) Medieval Millennialism, radical Protestant Reformation apocalyptic
(Thu) Slides: Apcalypse and Last Judgment in Western Art

Week 4

(Tue) Blake: "Vision of Last Judgment" (hand-out)
(Thu) William Blake: "The Everlasting Gospel" (266-75), Letters(134-8)

Week 5

(Tue) William Blake: "Book of Urizen" (100-4), Film: Kenneth Clark's "Urizenic" interpretation of Blake
(Thu) William Blake: "Songs of Experience" (21-51), "I saw a chapel all of gold"(52-3), "Auguries of Innocence" (147-50), "My Spectre" and "Mock on" (151-3), Klopstock (hand-out)

Week 6

(Tue) William Blake: "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" (66-80)
(Thu) William Blake: "The Book of Urizen," (esp. 100-4); video: Kenneth Clark's "Urizenic" interpretation of Blake

Week 7

(Tue) William Blake: "Milton" (161-195)
(Thu) William Blake: "Jerusalem" (196-265,esp.196, 208, 227-9, 242-45, 250-65)

Week 8

(Tue) Video: "Doomsday" (concluding the English National theater production of "The Mysteries" - medieval village re-enactment of the biblical story)
(Thu) Recording: Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time"
BLAKE PAPER DUE (caution: plagiariam alert)

Week 9

(Tue) Ghost Dance apocalyptic: Messiah cult among Native Americans in the West in the 1880's (slides)
(Thu) D.H.Lawrence, "New Heaven and New Earth" (handout)

Week 10

(Tue) An American Dream
(Thu) Cancelled (Center on Religion in the South Spring Forum: "Pentecostelism in the South," Luteran Seminary, 4301 N. Main)

Week 11

(Tue) An American Dream / QUIZ
(Thu) An American Dream

Week 12

(Tue) Dispensationalist Premillennialism in America
(Thu) Futurist Jerry Falwell vs. "Historist" Hal Lindsay (recordings)

Week 13

(Tue) David Koresh, Heaven's Gate and other instances of "folk" Christian "prophecy" - see Ted Daniels, Rapture Index, and other sites on the Internet
(Thu) Howl, the "bop apocalypse"

Week 14

(Tue) Ginsberg reading Howl at Naropa (recording)
(Thu) Childhood's End

Week 15

Childhood's End / PAPER (Caution: plagiarism alert) or APOCALYPSE DUE

FINAL EXAM