HUM 212: Humanities in the Modern World: Diversity Dr. Jean Lorrah
Spring, 2004, TTh, Section 14, 8:00-9:15, FH 207, Section 17, 9:30-10:45, FH 207
FH 7B-15
Tel. 762-4720
e-mail jean.lorrah@murraystate.edu
Office Hours:
MW 10:30-1:30
TTh. 11:00-1:30
F 10:30-12:00
Website: http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/jean.lorrah/
Catalogue Description:
An exploration of humanistic themes as reflected in literary and philosophical works of the modern period.Required Texts and Materials:
nd Ed. (WF)
Rubenstein and Larson, Worlds of Fiction, 2
Gould, Classic Philosophical Questions, 8th ed. (CPQ)
Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men
Ibsen, A Doll's House
Kelly, The Seagull Reader: Poems
Purpose:
Humanities Objectives: A student who has successfully completed the Humanities sequence (HUM 211 and HUM 212) 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.
Course Objectives: Upon completion of HUM 212, students should be able to do the following:
- Engage in critical analysis of presented material,
- Demonstrate a familiarity with the world's historical, literary, philosophical, and artistic traditions,
- Demonstrate a familiarity with core values in diverse cultures,
- Communicate ideas effectively, and
- Demonstrate the ability to make informed ethical choices.
Content Outline:
- Identify significant contemporary ideas as expressed in literary and philosophical works from a variety of western and nonwestern cultures;
- Demonstrate an understanding of the diverse positions expressed in the works read in the course;
- Critically analyze a variety of literary and philosophical works from both western and nonwestern sources;
- Communicate their understanding of literature and philosophy in both clearly-written essays and oral presentations.
The course readings are divided into four units: Self, Individual and Society, Certainty and Doubt, and Moral Choice.
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. Films and 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 one original 750-word paper on an interpretive, analytic, or comparative topic. 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 three.
Academic Honesty:
Policy is on p. 11 of the Undergraduate Bulletin.
Makeup Policy:
Missed quizzes may not be made up. A pop quiz is not a pop quiz if you know it happened the day you were absent. 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.
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 paper @ 100 points 100 Forum @ 100 maximum 100 TOTAL 600
FINAL GRADES:
530+ A 285+ D 440+ B Below 285 E 370+ C
Schedule of Work
Read the assignments before we discuss them in class.
January
13 Tues. Introduction to the course and the major themesUnit One: Self How do we learn who we are or who we want to be? Stories in Unit One dramatize moments when characters learn or test their values. In these readings, we will move from examples of decisive (if not always deliberate) characters to those who, for reasons we will explore, cannot quite decide the course their lives should take
15 Thurs. Updike, “A & P” and Housman, “Terrence, This Is Stupid Stuff”; Jewett, “A White Heron
20 Tues. Mason, “Shiloh”
22 Thurs. E. B. Browning, “How Do I Love Thee,” Bishop, “The Fish” and Wright, “A Blessing”
27 Tues. Silko, “Yellow Woman” and Buzzati, “The Falling Girl”
29 Thurs. Joyce, “Eveline,” and Plath, “Daddy”; Min, “The One Who Goes Farthest Away” and Lee, “The Gift”
Transition to Unit Two:
February
3 Tues. Austen, Pride and Prejudice
5 Thurs. Austen, Pride and Prejudice
10 Tues. EXAM I
Unit Two: Individual and Society The readings in this section focus on the tension between the individual and the social environment. Faulkner's story “A Rose for Emily” dramatizes numerous issues, such as gender, class, sexuality, race, power, love, and alienation, emphasized by other readings. The selections are arranged to allow for progression from an examination of the outcast to representations of an indifferent community and then to various individuals' reactions to the community, which may vary due to racial and cultural differences, sexual orientation, and gender, among other factors.
12 Thurs. Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”; Browning,
“My Last Duchess,” Keats, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”
Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium”
17 Tues. Jeremy Bentham, “Happiness Is to Do What Is Good for All People,” Allende, “And of Clay Are We Created,” Auden, “Musée des Beaux Arts”
19 Thurs. Conrad, “Amy Foster,” Frost, “Mending Wall”
24 Tues. Ibsen, A Doll's House
26 Thurs. Ibsen, A Doll's House
(Midterm Grades Due 27 Feb.)
March
2 Tues. Glaspell, “A Jury of Her Peers,” Walker, “Everyday Use”
4 Thurs. Hughes, “Theme for English B,” Dove, “The House Slave” Grahn, “Boys at the Rodeo,” McCann, “My Mother's Clothes”
Unit Three: Certainty and Doubt This section explores one of the central issues of our time—the quest for certainty. Through philosophical arguments as well as fiction and poetry, writers explore the nature of humans' desire for answers and direction.
9 Tues. Benedict, “Ethics Are Relative,” Ngugi, “A Meeting in the Dark,” Arnold, “Dover Beach,” Yeats, “The Second Coming” 11 Thurs. Stace, “Ethics Are Not Relative”; Hopkins, “God's Grandeur” and “The Windhover”
15-19 No Class—Spring Break
23 Tues. O'Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and Tan, “Half and Half”; Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” Stevens, “Anecdote of the Jar,” Housman, “To an Athlete Dying Young”
25 Thurs EXAM II
Unit Four: Moral Choice In this section we explore some of the ways in which philosophy and literature confront the problem of good and evil. As we consider several ethical philosophies and literary dramatizations of moral dilemmas, we are able to look more closely at our own concepts of morality.
30 Tues. Dickinson, Poems #465 and #712 Shelley, “Ozymandias,” Wordsworth, “The World Is Too Much With Us”
Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men
April
1 Thurs. Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men
6 Tues. Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men
8 Thurs. Jackson, “The Lottery,” Immanuel Kant, “Duty Is Prior to Happiness”
13 Tues. PAPER Nietzsche, “Happiness Is Having Power,” Jarrell, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
15 Thurs. Sartre, “Existential Ethics”
20 Tues. Sartre, “Existential Ethics”
22 Thurs. Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”
27. Tues. Catchup Day
29. Thurs. Catchup DayFinal Exams:
HUM 212-14, Thursday, May 6, 8:00am
HUM 212-17, Wednesday, May 5, 8:00am
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