HUM 211: Western Humanities Tradition: Continuity
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Fall, 2003, Section 13 TTH 8:00
Section 15 TTH 9:30
Dr. Jean Lorrah
FH 7B-15
Tel. 762-4720
e-mail jean.lorrah@murraystate.edu
Office Hours:
MW 10:30-1:30
F 10:30-12:00
TTh 11:00-1:30
Visit the Class Website
Visit Dr. Lorrah's Website
Catalogue Description:
An exploration of humanistic themes as reflected in literary and philosophical works prior to the 20th century.
Required Texts and Materials:
Davis et al. Western Literature in a World Context, vol 1 (WLWC)
Humanities 202 Supplementary Text (Supp)
Voltaire, Candide
Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part One
Course Packet (CP, available in August from Copy Express in the Business Building)
Purpose:
1. To examine specific human themes from a variety of perspectives.
2. To improve students' ability to read, analyze, and compare literary and philosophical works and to discuss and write about the questions they suggest.
3. To introduce students to significant literary and philosophical works and the historical and cultural traditions from which they emerged.
Course Objectives:
To receive credit, a student should be able to
1. Identify some important issues in western thought prior to the 20th century.
2. Understand and compare the diverse positions expressed in the works read in the course.
3. Communicate that understanding effectively.
Content Outline:
The course readings are divided into three units: The Ancient World, The Middle Ages and Renaissance, and The Enlightenment..
Instructional Activities:
Class activities include discussion of readings and background lectures.
Field, Clinical, and/or Laboratory Experiences:
Students are required to participate in the Humanities 211 Forum on Blackboard. Films and forums may be provided. Students are encouraged to use the world and the Internet as their laboratory as well.
To enter Blackboard: Click here. Login with your first initial and last name and the last four digits of your social security number. Once you have logged in, change your password to something you can remember. If you used Blackboard for a previous class, your old password may still be in effect.
Resources:
There are numerous free computer labs on campus where students may do word processing, access e-mail, or do research on the Internet. The instructor may occasionally provide audio or video material.
Written Work:
There will be two examinations during the semester, and a final examination. There will be two original 750-word papers on interpretive, analytic, or comparative topics. Papers must be typed. Use the free computer labs if you don't have your own computer. There will be five quizzes, unannounced. If you are not in class the day of a quiz, or arrive more than ten minutes late, you miss the opportunity to earn 20 points.
Attendance Policy:
You are expected to attend each class meeting. Your course grade will be lowered ten points for each unexcused absence over 3.
Academic Honesty (from Undergraduate Bulletin, p. 11):
Cheating, plagiarism (submitting another person's material as one's own), or doing work for another person which will receive academic credit are all impermissible. This includes the use of unauthorized books, notebooks, or other sources in order to secure or give help during an examination, the unauthorized copying of examinations, assignments, reports, or term papers, or the presentation of unacknowledged material as if it were the student's own work. Disciplinary action may be taken beyond the academic discipline administered by the faculty member who teaches the course in which the cheating took place.
Note: Faculty reserve the right to invalidate any examination or other evaluative measures if substantial evidence exists that the integrity of the examination has been compromised.
Makeup Policy: |
Missed quizzes may not be made up. Points for Internet forum participation are limited to ten per week and a maximum of 100 for the semester. If you begin to participate when there are only three weeks left in the semester, the maximum number of points you can earn is 30. Papers drop 10 points per day that they are late (that is per day, not per class meeting—a paper due Thursday, turned in the following Tuesday, has lost 50 points). The next day begins at the end of each class meeting. Talk to me (telephone, e-mail) before you miss an exam, not afterward. I am very easy about making arrangements for any sensible reason as long as you let me know ahead of time. After you miss, you must provide evidence of illness, hospitalization, or some equal emergency in order to make up the exam. Oversleeping is not an emergency. Your roommate's emergency is not your emergency.
Grading Procedures:
Papers earn up to 100 points, calculated as follows: Idea 10, Thesis 10, Content 20, Organization 20, Mechanics 20, Clarity 10, Originality 10. Click here for further information on how your papers are graded.
You have the opportunity to earn 700 points in this course, as follows:
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5 quizzes @ 20 points |
100 |
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3 exams @ 100 points |
300 |
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2 papers @ 100 points |
200 |
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Forum @ 100 maximum |
100 |
| |
TOTAL |
700 |
FINAL GRADES:
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619+ A |
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330+ D |
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514+ B |
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Below 330 E |
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430+ C |
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Schedule of Work
Read the assignments before we discuss them in class.
T/Th READING ASSIGNMENTS (Fall 2003)
August 21 Thurs.
Introduction to the themes of the course: self, other, and community
Unit One: The Ancient World
26 Tues., Introduction to the Ancient World; Introduction to Homer; Odyssey
28 Thurs., Homer, Odyssey
September 2 Tues., Sophocles, Antigone
4 Thurs., Sophocles, Antigone
9 Tues., Sappho and Catullus, selected poems
11 Thurs., Aristophanes, Lysistrata
16 Tues., Plato, Allegory of the Cave; Apology
18 Thurs., Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics
23 Tues., Hebrew Texts: from Genesis; Christian Text: Sermon on the Mount
25 Thurs., Confucius, PAPER I
30 Tues., Epicurus, "Letters to Herodotus and Menoeceus"; Epictetus, from the
Discourses and the Enchiridion
October 2 Thurs., EXAM 1
Unit Two: The Middle Ages and the Renaissance
7 Tues., Introduction to the Middle Ages and selections from
Bardic Poetry: “The Wanderer” and “The Wife's Lament”
(Midterm Grades Due 8 October)
9 Thurs., Marie de France, Lais and Cappelanus from The Art of Courtly Love
14 Tues., Dante, The Inferno
16 Thurs., Boccaccio, The Decameron
21 Tues., Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "General Prologue"
23 Thurs., Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales"--Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale"
28 Tues., Introduction to the Renaissance; Renaissance Poetry (selections)**
30 Thurs., Machiavelli, The Prince
November 4 Tues., Shakespeare, Henry IV, part one
6 Thurs., Shakespeare, Henry IV, part one
11 Tues.,EXAM 2
13 Thurs., Shakespeare, Henry IV, part one
Unit Three: The Enlightenment
18 Tues., Hobbes, LeviathanPAPER II
20 Thurs., Locke, Second Treatise of Government
25 Tues., Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
27 Thurs., No Class – Thanksgiving Break
December 2 Tues., Voltaire, Candide
4 Thurs., Voltaire, Candide
**Renaissance Lyrics
1. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 (WLWC 2050), Sonnet 130 (WLWC 2050)
2. John Donne, "The Sun Rising" (WLWC 2054), "The Canonization" (WLWC
2055), "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (packet)
3. Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress" (WLWC 2062),
4. Louise Labé, Sonnet 18 (WLWC 2067), Sonnet 19 (WLWC 2067)
5. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, "The Rhetoric of Tears" (WLWC 2074), "To
Her Portrait" (WLWC 2075)
6. Ann Bradstreet, "Before the Birth of One of Her Children" (packet),
Final Exams:
HUM 211-13, Thursday, Dec. 11, 8:00-10:00AM
HUM 211-15, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 8:00-10:00AM
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Arachnophilia.
