Epic Journeys from Homer to Milton

When Dante opened his Divine Comedy with a line about his progress along "our life's path," he was relying on a well-worn metaphor, but one that leads to a truth about the way we think about ourselves and tell our stories. We want to believe that our lives are going somewhere, that our stories will make sense, and that we will transcend the mundane run of our days. Philosophy tries to describe our purpose or destination; religion, perhaps, to prescribe it; literature shows the journey there: Odysseus striving homeward, Aeneas seeking Rome, Dante climbing from Hell's pit into the stars of Paradise, Satan falling into that same pit from those same stars.

In this program we will study works of literature from antiquity into the Restoration (17th-century) period that consider the wayfarer, the vagabond, the pilgrim, and the exile. Epic poetry is especially well-suited to these characters, and we will meet them in Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil’s Aneid, Dante's Comedy, and John Milton's Paradise Lost. Note that our reading expectation is substantial. Throughout the program, we will work as both readers and writers to articulate the significance of these foundational works to modern lives and journeys, including our own.

The objectives of the program include a knowledge of fundamental texts in world literature; experience in reading sustained and complex narratives; an understanding of the interplay between form and thought in a literary text; greater facility with expository and creative writing; and hopefully, new and convivial intellectual and artistic traveling companions. Our class time will be devoted heavily to book seminars and will also feature lectures and writing workshops.

First-years interested in this program who are demonstrably ready for demanding academic work can reach out to the faculty, Andrew Reece (reecea@evergreen.edu) and Steve Blakeslee (blakesls@evergreen.edu), to request entry into the program.”