HUM 212: Humanities in the Modern World: Diversity
Spring, 2000, Section 01, MWF 8:30-9:20, FH 507
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Dr. Jean Lorrah
FH 7B-15
Tel. 762-4720
e-mail jean.lorrah@murraystate.edu
Office Hours:
MWF 8:00-8:30, 9:30-10:30, 11:30-12:30
Tues. 11:00-2:00
Thurs. 11:00-12:00
Visit the Class Website
Visit Dr. Lorrah's Website
Catalogue Description:
An exploration of humanistic themes as reflected in literary and philosophical works of the modern period.
Required Texts and Materials:
Rubenstein and Larson, Worlds of Fiction (WF)
Gould, Classic Philosophical Questions, 8th ed. (CPQ)
Frost, A Boy's Will and North of Boston
Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men
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 modern western thought.
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: Self, Other, and Community.
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 212 Forum. (The forum was set up by another instructor, Marcie Johnson--you will meet and exchange messages with her students in this forum.) Films and live forums are also provided. Students are encouraged to use the world and the Internet as their laboratory as well.
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. 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 one-third of a letter grade for each unexcused absence over 3. If for any reason you miss one-fourth or more of the class meetings, you will not receive a passing grade for the course. [Italics mine.] Please note that "for any reason"; it means excuses will not be accepted.
This is an across-the-board policy instituted by the Committee on Humanistic Studies. Do not complain to Dr. Lorrah about it; she didn't make it up. Complain to the Director of Humanistic Studies.
College of Humanistic Studies Policy on Academic Integrity.
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 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.
How Your Papers are Graded
You have the opportunity to earn 700 points in this course, as follows:
| |
5 quizzes @ 20 points |
100 |
| |
3 exams @ 100 points |
300 |
| |
2 papers @ 100 points |
200 |
| |
Forum @ 100 maximum |
100 |
| |
TOTAL |
700 |
FINAL GRADES:
| |
619+ |
A |
330+ |
D |
| |
514+ |
B |
Below 330 | E |
| |
430+ |
C |
Schedule of Work
Read the assignments before we discuss them in class.
Wed. 1/19 Introduction to the themes of the course: self, other, community.
Unit One: Self
Wed. 1/19 Updike, "A&P" (WF)
Fri. 1/21 Tan, "Half and Half" (WF)
Mon. 1/24 Jewett, "A White Heron" (WF)
Wed. 1/26 Bentham, "Happiness is to Do What is Good for All People" (CPQ 140-47)
Fri. 1/28 Joyce, "Eveline" (WF)
Mon. 1/31 Buzzati, "The Falling Girl" (WF)
Wed. 2/2 Kant, "Duty is Prior to Happiness" (CPQ 148-63)
Fri. 2/4 Kant, continued.
Mon. 2/7 Nietzsche, "Happiness is Having Power" (CPQ 164-70)
Wed. 2/9 Nietzsche, continued.
Fri. 2/11 EXAM I
Unit Two: Other
Mon. 2/14 Mason, "Shiloh" (WF)
Wed. 2/16 Glaspell, "A Jury of Her Peers" (WF)
Fri. 2/18 Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" (WF)
Mon. 2/21 Frost, Selected Poetry PAPER I
Wed. 2/23 de Beauvoir, "Woman as Other" (to be distributed)
Fri. 2/25 Conrad, "Amy Foster" (WF)
Mon. 2/28 "Amy Foster" continued
Wed. 3/1 Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men
Fri. 3/3 Gaines, continued.
Mon. 3/6 Gaines, continued.
Wed. 3/8 EXAM II
Fri. 3/10 Sartre, "Existentialist Ethics" (CPQ 171-81)
Unit Three: Community
Mon. 3/20 O'Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (WF)
Wed. 3/22 Grimshaw, "The Idea of a Female Ethic" (CPQ
183-93)
Mon. 3/27 Lessing, "Woman on the Roof" (WF)
Wed. 3/29Lessing
Fri. 3/31 Allende, "And of Clay Are We Created" (WF)
Mon. 4/3 Grahn, "Boys at the Rodeo" (WF)
Wed. 4/5 Grahn PAPER II
Fri. 4/7 Silko, "Yellow Woman" (WF)
Mon. 4/10 Ellison, "Flying Home" (WF)
Wed. 4/12 Walker, "Everyday Use" (WF)
Fri. 4/14 Benedict, "Ethics are Relative" (CPQ 92-99)
Mon. 4/17 Stace, "Ethics Aren't Relative" (CPQ 100-13)
Wed. 4/19 Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown" (WF)
Fri. 4/21Narayan, "A Horse and Two Goats (WF)
Mon. 4/24 Hurston, "The Gilded Six-Bits" (WF)
Wed. 4/26 Ngugi we Thiong'o, "A Meeting in the Dark"
(WF)
Fri. 4/28 Kasaipwalova, "Betel Nut is Bad Magic" (WF)
Mon. 5/1 Frost, Selected Poems
Wed. 5/3 Frost, cont.
Fri. 5/5 Review
FINAL EXAM
Monday, May 8, 8:00-10:00am
Arachnophilia.