Daniel TARR - CYBERGURU - English Literature and Linguistics

"Verum est, certum et verissimum, quod est, superius naturam habet inferioram et ascendens naturam descendentis."

education and studies | english teaching

English Literature and Linguistics

William Blake	I have studied English Literature and Linguistics at the Eötvös Lóránd University of Sciences, Faculty of Arts (ELTE BTK), Department of English Literature and Linguistics (DELL) in Budapest. Due to my deep involvement in philosophy I was more attracted to literature and especially mysticism and mystic poetry. Therefore I have specialized on the British mystics, such as John Milton and William Blake.
Essays
Course Description

William Blake - The Book of Urizen

In my thesis I carry out a close-reading of William Blake’s The Book of Urizen. My analysis observes the accordance between Blake’s work and the hermetic traditions, especially on the philosophical side. In my analyses I draw immediate parallels between Blake’s visionary work and the teachings of various mystic and hermetic traditions and outline the obvious correspondences of the two. My aim is not to find immediate historical or referential links between the poem and the mystic teachings, but to reveal the possible meaning of the visionary epic. I wish to show the connections between Blake's visionary poetry as art and formulated philosophies both depicting the same universal truths. My point is to show the universality of the ideas expressed.

Therefore I draw immediate analogies from the traditions and teachings of Gnosticism, Neoplatonism and Greek mythology, the Sumerian and Persian mythology, Hermetic philosophy, Alchemy and Occultism, the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, and some Eastern examples from Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese philosophy. I also draw parallels with the Bible and John Milton's Paradise Lost.

Furthermore, I don't only give a complex analyses of Blake's The Book of Urizen, but also William Blake the visionary mystic. That is why chapters I & II are included. Altogether my work is a tribute to the great master of poetry, William Blake himself – the seer of universal truths.

The Book of Urizen is Blake's Genesis, and the core of his Bible of Hell, re-shaping the Fall and the Creation of the physical universe. It is also the locus for his mythology in 'A Song of Liberty', America, Europe, The Song of Los, The Book of Ahania and The Book of Los, all of which rest on the ideas presented in this poem. Urizen, like Milton's Satan, was an angel enjoying the immoral life, though among democracy of immortals. He is not cast out for rebellion against law, but separates himself by demanding that Law be established. Los, the immortal artist, emerges to define, clarify and make sense of the disaster, by the power of imagination. Blake works in many more allusions. Los becomes Adam, and Enitharmon his Eve. Orc is born to her, like Cain, but also the Serpent.

The storyline of the poem is as follows: Urizen – a god of Reason who separates himself from other Eternals, demands obedience to his self-proclaimed principles, and falls into Chaos – is an abstract, vain and punitive deity. A body is created for him by , 'the eternal prophet' or Divine Imagination. But Los, exhausted, divides into male (Los) and female (Enitharmon). Their child Orc – who represents Rebellious Energy – is born but immediately chained to a rock. Urizen then explores his deadly world, and mankind shrinks up from Eternity. Finally, some of Urizen's children begin an exodus.

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Here is the content of my thesis-paper:

William Blake - The Book of Urizen

I. Introducing William Blake
II. Major Influences

The Romantic period

Protestant mysticism

Political Radicalism

Neoplatonism

Freemasonry and Secret Societies

The New Church

III. The Book of Urizen

The Chapters

Preludium

Chapter I. - Urizen

Chapter II. - Prior to Existence

Chapter III. - Grasping Subsistence

Chapter IV. - Taking form

Chapter V. - Foundations of Life

Chapter VI. - Generation

Chapter VII. - Chains of Being

Chapter VIII. - The Material World

Chapter IX. - The Human Race

Appendix: William Blake - The Book of Urizen
Bibliography
List of Plates

Interested? All written documents are available for reading in the » Library.

» You can also read the full work (Web version) [« read it ] (MS Word) [« read it ].

Essays

Available in English:

British-American Culture

3 Short Essays on Film : Comedy of the 1920s [« read it ] ; The US in the 1930s [« read it ] ; Harold Pinter - The Dumb Waiter [« read it ]
4 Short Essays : Bright and Beautiful - Environmental Problems [« read it ] ; Freedom of Speech [« read it ] ; Religion or Faith? [« read it ] ; Capital Punishment [« read it ]

Bias in the Media [Autumn 1994] - [« read it ]

'Nam on the Net [Spring 1996] - [« read it ]
Nationalism and National Minorities [Spring 1994] - [« read it]
Personal Relationships in the U.S. - based on the films "Manhattan" and "When Harry met Sally" [Autumn 1994] - [« read it ]
William Holman Hunt - The Lady of Shalott [Spring 1996] - [« read it ]

Linguistics

Applied Linguistics Glossary [Autumn 1994] {ELTE DELL} - [« read it ]

English affixes [Autumn 1993]

Heads (Linguistic difficulties of Percolation) [Spring 1995] - [« read it ]

The etymology of paradise, dough, and fiction [Autumn 1994] - [« read it ]

Parts of Speech [Spring 1995] - [« read it ]
Stress in the English language [Autumn 1994] - [« read it ]

Text analyses of "Intended Lease for Life" 1420 [Spring 1996] - [« read it ]

Literature

H.P. Lovecraft - The Cthulhu Myth [Spring 1994] -[[« read it ]
Milton’s Pradise Lost - The Fall of Man [Autumn 1996] - [«read it ]
The Psychology of Crime in Edgar Alan Poe’s writings [Autumn 1995] - [« read it ]
William Shakespeare - Sonnet XCIV [Spring 1994] - [« read it ]
Percy Bysshe Shelley - Ode to the West Wind [Autumn 1993]
The new era of America : Walt Whitman [Autumn 1994] - [« read it ]
William Blake – The Book of Urizen (MA Thesis) [March 2000] - (Web version) [« read it ] (MS Word) [« read it ].

W.B. Yeats - Purgatory [Spring 1994] - [«read it ]
Contemporary British Mosaic (5 short essays) : Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day [« read it ] ; Timothy Mo - Sour Sweet [« read it ] ; John Agard - English Girl Eats Her First Mango [« read it ] ; Stephen Poliakoff - Coming into Land [« read it ] ; Salman Rushdie - The Satanic Verses [« read it ] [Autumn 1995]
Poetry: Poems for practice [« read it ] ; The Death of Poetry [« read it ]

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Course Description

MA equivalent course in English Literature and Linguistics

[Autumn 1993 – Autumn 1996 (MA in 2000)]

Introductory courses (10 courses. 19 hours)

Code

Name of Course

Teacher

Grade

AN-102/c

Language Practice I.

Márta Pellérdi

A level (5)

AN-104/c

Professional Language Use I.

Martin Baker

A level (5)

AN-106/i

Language Practice II.

Márta Pellérdi

A level (5)

AN-108/a

Professional Language Use II.

Dr. Walanne Steele

A level (5)

AN-111/a

Introduction to British-American Literature

Prof. Aladár Sarbu

C level (3)

AN-112/g

Intro to British-American Literature seminar

Dóra Csikós

A level (5)

AN-121	Intro to British-American Culture & History	Tamás Magyarits	C level (3)
AN-141	Introduction to English Linguistics	Péter Lázár	B level (4)
AN-142/j	Introduction to English Linguistics seminar	Péter Szigetvári	B level (4)
AN-199	Intermediate English Language Exam		B level (4)

Main courses (24 courses 38 hours)

Code	Name of Course	Teacher	Grade
AN-204/e	Language development 1. (Film and Culture)	Julie Gray	A level (5)
AN-206/f	Language development 2. (Journalism)	Edit Kontra	B level (4)
AN-208/b	Language development 3. (Media Studies)	Antonia Burrow	A level (5)
AN-211	English poetry	Dr. Gyõzõ Ferencz	B level (4)
AN-212/i	English poetry seminar	Krisztina Szalay	A level (5)
AN-213	English novel and fiction	Gizella Kocztur	D level (2)
AN-214/g	English novel and fiction seminar	Judit Friedrich	A level (5)
AN-215	English drama	Erzsébet Zombory	B level (4)
AN-216/c	English drama seminar	Dóra Csikós	A level (5)
AN-221	History of England I.	Miklós Lojkó	C level (3)
AN-223	History of England II.	Andrea Velich	C level (3)
AN-231	American Literature	Michael Blumenthal	A level (5)
AN-232/i	American Literature seminar	Zsófia Bán	A level (5)
AN-233	History of the USA	Tamás Magyarits	D level (2)
AN-241	English Phonetics and Phonology	Törkenczy / Nádasdy	D level (2)
AN-242/e	English Phonetics and Phonology seminar	Péter Siptár	C level (3)
AN-243	English Phrasal Syntax	László Varga	D level (2)
AN-244/g	English Phrasal Syntax seminar	Lajos Marosán	B level (4)
AN-245	English Clausal Syntax	Éva Stephanides	D level (2)
AN-246/d	English Clausal Syntax seminar	Péter Lázár	C level (3)
AN-251	History of the English Language and Dialects	Veronika Kniezsa	D level (2)
AN-252/g	History of English Lang. and Dialects seminar	Ádám Nádasdy	D level (2)
AN-261	English Applied Linguistics	Judit Zerkowitz	D level (2)
AN-299	English Language Comprehensive Exam		D level (2)

Specialized courses (13 courses. 22 hours)

Code	Name of Course	Teacher	Grade
AN-312.05	Literature spec. sem. (Guilt and Suffering…)	Ildikó Lányi	A+ level (5)
AN-322.03	Literature spec. sem. (Multicultural Mosaic)	John Drew	A level (5)
AN-332.14	American spec. sem. (The Vietnam Syndrome)	Tamás Magyarits	A level (5)
AN-351.01	Linguistics spec. sem. (History of Spelling.)	Veronika Kniezsa	A level (5)
AN-352.07	Linguistics spec. sem. (Middle English)	Veronika Kniezsa	A level (5)
AN-366.12	Spec.sem.1. (19^th century Australian Literature)	Carl Whitehouse	A level (5)
AN-374.13	Spec.sem.2. (Patrick White)	Carl Whitehouse	A level (5)
AN-322.09	Spec.sem.3. (Cambridge poetry loft)	John Drew	A level (5)
AN-322.14	Spec.sem.4. (Pre-Raphaelites – English painting)	Éva Péteri	A level (5)
AN-312.23	Spec.sem.5. (William Blake)	Ágnes Péter	A level (5)
AN-312.48	Spec.sem.6. (John Milton - Paradise Lost)	Mark Thomas	C level (3)
AN-322.19	Spec.sem.7. (The Death of Poetry)	Drew & Ferencz	A level (5)
AN-500	Dissertation: "William Blake – The Book of Urizen"		A level (5)
AN-501	Comprehensive Final Exam		B level (4)

Index No.: XLVI-0884/93

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Last updated: 21-01-2008