120016 VO Literature Course - 17th Century English Metaphysical Poetry (2008W)

The course will provide an advanced interdisciplinary approach to the poetry of the six major "metaphysical poets" of the 17th c.: John Donne (1572-1631), George Herbert (1593-1633), Henry Vaughan (1621-1695), Richard Crashaw (c.1613-1649), Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) and Thomas Traherne (c.1637-1672). Starting from a definition of the rather fuzzy term "metaphysical" as applied to these poets, the course will contextualize their works within the given cultural, religious and literary traditions and relate it to their often astonishing lives and spiritual experiences. The striking diversity of their poetry and some of the shared distinctive characteristics as well as notable differences both in terms of style and themes will be considered. In particular, the perennial topic of man's quest for immediate "experimental knowledge of God" extolled in sacred poems by Herbert, Donne, Crashaw, Vaughan and Traherne will be explored by employing a multi-disciplinary method of literary hermeneutics: an innovative reading of selected religious poems relying on insights derived from theology, psychology, psychoanalysis, the history of painting and recent research in the phenomenology of mysticism). Moreover, several profane love lyrics and a few of the stunningly explicit erotic poems by Donne and Marvell will also be discussed.