Peter O'Leary

'No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone.' (T.S. Eliot.) 'Wayward Puritan. Charged with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is antinomian.' (Susan Howe.) Poets relate to literature in the way they delve into its historical matter and context. Just so, they transform the art by disobeying its widely-held presumptions. In this workshop, we will study the works of five seminal poet-critics-Ezra Pound, T.S.Eliot, Charles Olson, Susan Howe, and Nathaniel Mackey-in an effort to bring reading and writing (about these poets and about your own work as well) into a mutually elucidating act. We will be especially interested in how these poets relate to each other's work, with special attention paid to correspondence. To that end, your work in this course will be undertaken on a manual typewriter in the form of letters exchanged with your classmates.

Seven thunders! Seven seals! Blaring trumpets and clashing cymbals. A seven-headed hydra. A lamb on a throne of blood. Stars falling to earth. The beginning and the end. And an angel saying, ¿What thou seest write in a book.¿ The metaphors and the agitation of the Book of Revelation are intense. They draw from the deepest sources of the imagination: Awe at life, magical beasts and powerful forms, proclamations of power, and fears about life¿s end. Written 1900 years ago, the Book of Revelation continues to feed the imagination. In this course, first we will read Revelation closely, looking at it in the context of the genre and meaning of apocalypse in the tradition of the Abrahamic religions. Second, we will read Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer, an uncanny novel about an ecological catastrophe that may be an alien invasion. Alongside, we will read Pope Francis¿s encyclical Laudato Si¿, his discussion of the moral and religious flaws that have caused climate change. Third, we will consider ¿The Leftovers,¿ a television series that concerns the aftermath of a global, apocalyptic event that happens in the near future in which 2% of the world suddenly vanishes in a Rapture-like event. And throughout this course, we will consider the question: What will a modern apocalypse look like?

Esotericism refers both to a field of knowledge hidden from common view and a moral reality suggesting secrecy, occultism, danger, conspiracy, and vast quantities of arcane lore and revelation. This course introduces students to a basic theory of esotericism in relation to the active production of art in the context of the spiritual. The spiritual has a living context in art, visible in various forms of the visionary, the sacred, and the sublime, for which the doctrines of different esoteric disciplines, such as Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Astrology, and Alchemy, can serve as keys.

The catalogue 'The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting, 1890-1985' will serve as a master resource for this course, as well as selected readings from artists, scholars, and researchers, including Marsilio Ficino, Carl Jung, Antoine Faivre, Jeffrey Kripal, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Arthur Versluis, Hermes Trismegistus, Evelyn Underhill, H.P Blavatsky, and Richard Tarnas, to name a few.

Students will generate visual art on the themes of the class during the studio portion of the course; for the symposium portion of the course, they will produce several short informative essays about figures from the history of Western Esotericism, as well as a final research project, in the form of a personal essay, work of creative fiction, poetry, or drama, or an advanced horoscope, to be presented to the class.

Esotericism refers both to a field of knowledge hidden from common view and a moral reality suggesting secrecy, occultism, danger, conspiracy, and vast quantities of arcane lore and revelation. This course introduces students to a basic theory of esotericism in relation to the active production of art in the context of the spiritual. The spiritual has a living context in art, visible in various forms of the visionary, the sacred, and the sublime, for which the doctrines of different esoteric disciplines, such as Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Astrology, and Alchemy, can serve as keys.

The catalogue 'The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting, 1890-1985' will serve as a master resource for this course, as well as selected readings from artists, scholars, and researchers, including Marsilio Ficino, Carl Jung, Antoine Faivre, Jeffrey Kripal, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Arthur Versluis, Hermes Trismegistus, Evelyn Underhill, H.P Blavatsky, and Richard Tarnas, to name a few.

Students will generate visual art on the themes of the class during the studio portion of the course; for the symposium portion of the course, they will produce several short informative essays about figures from the history of Western Esotericism, as well as a final research project, in the form of a personal essay, work of creative fiction, poetry, or drama, or an advanced horoscope, to be presented to the class.

A monolith manifests in orbit around Jupiter, emitting a signal. A beacon? A winter-bound planet¿s denizens are androgynous with powerful predictive powers. An aberration? Space travel is enabled by the ingestion of enormous quantities of a geriatric spice a messianic figure suddenly learns to manipulate. A drug trip?! Among popular genres, science fiction is the riskiest conceptually and among the trickiest to master. Because of its relative narrative freedom, science fiction has been a place for some of the wildest, most outlandish, yet frequently astute speculation on the experience of religion that can be found in all modern literature. In this course, you¿ll read some novels (by William Gibson, Frank Herbert, and Ursula K. LeGuin), short stories, (by Ted Chiang, Arthur C. Clarke, and Raccoona Sheldon), and view some films (2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and Close Encounters), and study the work of some theorists of religion (Freud, Jung, Le¿vi-Strauss, and Eliade). Assignments vary, but they might include some or many of the following: weekly reading responses, quizzes, papers, and exams.

Islam is in the news these days, with a frequency that leads more often to confusion than to clarity. From newscasters, to pundits, to politicians, basic knowledge of the features of Islam are inconsistent and uninformed. The focus of this course involves four areas: 1) The Life of Muhammed & the Revelation of the Quran, 2) historical distinctions & movements (between Sunni & Shi'i, for instance), 3) Islamic mysticism (Sufism & Ismailism), 4) Islamic arts in relation to theology (calligraphy, architecture, Quranic recitation). The goal of the course is to give students a cultural and theological grounding in the history, arts, and sciences of Islam.

A detailed investigation of one or a few topics in religious studies with an eye to addressing contemporary interests.