HUM 211: Western Humanities Tradition: Continuity
Fall, 2005,
Section 12, TTh 9:30, FH 504
Section 15, TTh 11:00, FH 504
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 8:30-9:30, 12:30-1:30
Website: http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/jean.lorrah/
Catalogue Description:
An exploration of humanistic themes as reflected in literary and philosophical works prior to the 20th century.
Required Texts and Materials:
The Bedford Anthology of World Literature, Beginnings – 1650 (Package A)
Purpose:
Course Objectives: Upon completion of HUM 211, students should be able to do the following:
- To examine specific human themes from a variety of perspectives.
- To improve students' ability to read, analyze, and compare literary and philosophical works and to discuss and write about the questions they suggest.
- To introduce students to significant literary and philosophical works and the historical and cultural traditions from which they emerged.
Content Outline:
- Identify significant ideas in western thought prior to 1789;
- Demonstrate an understanding of the diverse positions expressed in the works read in
- course;
- Critically analyze a variety of literary and philosophical works;
- Communicate their understanding of literature and philosophy in both clearly-written essays and oral presentations.
The course readings are divided into three units: The Ancient World, The Middle Period, and The Early Modern Period.
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: Go to Dr. Lorrah's website and click on the Blackboard link, or enter directly after you have the Blackboard page bookmarked. Log in with the part of your MSU email address before the @ (I log in as jean.lorrah). First time users, use the last four digits of your social security number as your password. 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. If you want to go there right now, click here.
Resources:
There are numerous free computer labs on campus where students may do word processing, access email, or do research on the Internet. If you absolutely cannot get to a computer at least twice a week, ask around for a section of HUM 211 that does not require it, and drop and add. Your instructor may occasionally provide audio or video material. Don't forget the university library!
Written Work:
There will be two examinations during the semester, and a final examination. There will be an original 750-word paper on an interpretive, analytic, or comparative topic. 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. Finally, you are required to write a minimum of 1000 words on the Blackboard Forum during the course of the semester, at the rate of 100 words per week. The forum counts as the equivalent of a second paper.
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. 10):
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. The paper drops 10 points per day that it is late (that is per day, not per class meeting—a paper due Wednesday, turned in the following Monday, 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.
You have the opportunity to earn 600 points in this course, as follows:
5 quizzes @ 20 points 100 3 exams @ 100 points 300 1 papers @ 100 points 100 Forum @ 100 maximum 100 TOTAL 600
FINAL GRADES:
535+ A 300+ D 450+ B Below 300 E 380+ C Week of Aug. 24 Introduction to the themes of the course: self, other, and community; Intro. to Ancient World.
Schedule of Work
Read the assignments before we discuss them in class.
Unit One: The Ancient World
Week of Aug, 29 Odyssey Week of Sept. 6 Sophocles, Oedipus cycle; Antigone Week of Sept. 12 Antigone: Aristophanes, Lysistrata; Week of Sept. 19 Lysistrata; Sappho and Catullus Week of Sept. 26 Allegory of the Cave EXAM Thursday Week of Oct. 3 Phaedo (excerpts); Aristotle Week of Oct. 10 Hebrew Texts, Genesis; Bhagavad Gita; Confucius Unit Two: The Middle Period Week of Oct. 17 Intro, Sermon on the Mount; Arabian Nights Week of Oct. 24 Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love; Marie de France, Chevrefoil; Boccaccio, Decameron PAPER Tuesday Week of Oct.31 Dante, Inferno, Chaucer, Intro. Week of Nov. 7 Chaucer, General Prologue; Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale EXAM Thursday
Unit Three: The Early Modern Period Week of Nov. 14 Intro to Early Modern Period; Poems, Petrarch, Shakespeare Week of Nov. 21 Machiavelli, The Prince; Cervantes, Don Quixote Week of Nov. 28 Shakespeare, The Tempest Week of Dec. 5 Milton, Paradise Lost Final Exam: Section 12, Wednesday, Dec. 14 8:00-10:00am
Section 15, Monday, Dec. 12, 8:00-10:00am
This page created with
Arachnophilia.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]