REL 290T(F) Explorations of the Afterlife (W)
From Heaven to Hell, Valhalla to Hades, the Fields of Aaru to the Land of Yellow Springs, all cultures have generated images of other worlds that lie beyond death. By considering examples from a range of different cultures, this tutorial will guide students on an exploration of the topographies of these shadow-lands. In an effort to map the continuities and discontinuities between these visions of the hereafter, we will consider them as reflections of existing social hierarchies, examining their underlying assumptions about punishment and redemption, family, and ethics. Along the way, we will discuss culturally specific notions of death and mourning, attitudes towards the bodies of the dead, and controversies about the nature of the soul. Texts will include selections from primary works in translation, such as Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's Inferno, and The Tibetan Book of the Dead, as well as selections from secondary literature, including Teiser's The Scripture on the Ten Kings, Gauchet's The Disenchantment of the World, and Bremmer's The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife.
Format: tutorial.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 10). Preference given to Religious Studies and Asian Studies majors.
Tutorial meetings to be arranged. JOSEPHSON