Syllabus
4.10.2023
Kniha Jób: Historický a literární kontext 11.10.2023
Kniha Jób: Theologické a filosofické interpretace 18.10.2023
Kniha Jób: Existenciální témata 25.10.2023
Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy (Božská komedie): The place of human beings in the Middle Ages. General Introduction. Everyman. Paradiso I, 120; Inferno V and Inferno XXVI 1.11.2023
Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy (Božská komedie): Intermezzo: Purgatorio XXI, Paradiso I-II-III 8.11.2023
Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy (Božská komedie): The first man. Ulysses (Inferno XXVI) and Adam (Paradiso XXVI) 15.11.2023
Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (Zuřivý Roland): Ariosto’s Anthropology of Desire 22.11.2023
Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (Zuřivý Roland): Orlando’s Madness and the Identity Lost 29.11.2023
Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (Zuřivý Roland): The Place of Women in Ariosto’s Modernity 6.12.2023
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Introduction and Intellectual Sources 13.12.2023
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Victor Frankenstein and the Science of Life 20.12.2023
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: The Creature and its Fate
Annotation
The Human Condition: Suffering, Knowledge, Redemption
Big/Great Books of the Western Cultural Tradition, Interpreted Philosophically
The western cultural tradition, by which we mean a blend of the intellectual influences of Graeco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian thought, has formed the basic religious (monotheism), intellectual (philosophy), political (democracy), economic (free market) and legal (equality of individuals before the law) models which in the course of history have deeply influenced the collective and individual existence of western man. The constant tension between the demands of these ideals and their practical realization has led to recurring conflicts both at the social level (wars and revolution) and at the level of individual life (existential crises). Various aspects of these situations have, from time immemorial, been reflected in theoretical and artistic works which not only evaluate the situations, but also put forward different solutions, and offer perspectives for possible ways forward. If we look beyond large-scale systematic works offering blueprints for the organization of society as a whole, we find a range of texts which reflect individual existential challenges (naturally in a social context) and which, as such, have commanded a wide reception by asking fundamental questions about the meaning of human life while, at the same time, pointing to certain positive solutions. The aim of this course is to use such key literary works to show the basic characteristics of existential inquiry and the search for its adequate treatment. The basic feature of these ‘big/great books’, it transpires, is the question of human suffering, with the attempt to understand this suffering and to reach a release from it with reconciliation to one’s fate. In the winter semester of the 2023-2024 academic year the following books will be our focus:
The Book of Job (Milan Lyčka)
Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy (Anna Tropia)
Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (Daniele De Santis)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (James Hill)