Humanities 211-02 & 03
Tradition: Continuity
FALL 2001
Helen Roulston



FH 206
MWF 8:30 & 9:30
Office: FH7B 1O
Office Hours: MWF 11:30-12:30
TTH 8:30-11:00, T 11:00-2:00
Office Phone: 762-4712
E-mail: helen.roulston@murraystate.edu
Website: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5426
http://www.geocities.com/helenroulston
Humanities Website

II. Catalog Description: An exploration of humanistic themes as reflected in literary and philosophical works prior to the twentieth century.

III. 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.

IV. To Receive Credit, Students Should Be Able to:
        1. Identify some important issues in western thought prior to the twentieth century;
        2. Understand and compare the diverse positions expressed in the works read in the course;
        3. Communicate that understanding effectively.

V. Course Outline: The course readings are divided into three units:
        The Ancient World
        Middle Ages and Renaissance
        Enlightenment and Romantic Periods.
The course as a whole will trace the development of three themes:
        Self
        Other
        Community.

VI. Instructional Activities: Class activities include discussion of readings and background lectures.

VII. Field, Clinical, and/or Laboratory Experiences: Films and forums are provided. Students are encouraged to use the world and the Internet as their laboratory as well.

VIII. Resources: Students may use computer labs to surf the Interned and to type their papers. Students are encouraged to communicate with the professor via e-mail about their papers and attendance.

IX. Grading Procedures: There will be 2 exams, both essay and objective, plus 2 typed papers, at least 750 words, on interpretive, analytic, or comparative topics.
        Extra papers, including major overhauls of poor essays, may be handed in for extra credit. All essays must be revised. Satisfactory minor revisions will get a check, more extensive revisions a check plus or double plus. Each paper and exam will be counted equally. This unit is 75% of the grade.
        Quizzes and optional extra-credit assignments, such as written evidence of attendance at previously approved university and community events, count a total of 10%. Each quiz and piece of written evidence will count 10 points towards the 10%. Alternatives to missed quizzes may be handed in provided the absences are excused and the professor approves.
        The final exam, both essay and objective, counts 15%.
        Essay grades are based on style, content, organization, spelling and grammatical accuracy, handling of any appropriate research material, as well as promptness. Papers late without excuse will be marked down one step of a grade (e.g., A to A-, B+, etc.) for each class period after the due date.)
        A=90-100, B=80-89, C=70-79, D=60-69, E=0-59
        Students must complete all the work to receive a passing grade in the course.

X. Attendance Policy: Regular class attendance is vital to academic success.
        The official Humanities absence policy will be enforced. The course grade will be lowered one-third of a letter grade for each unexcused absence over three. To avoid the grade penalty, students must offer plausible excuses, preferably authorized written ones, whenever they miss classes. All students must be aware that missing more than 25% of scheduled class sessions (10 classes) for any reason whatsoever will result in automatic failure of the course. If this last requirement causes problems for students, especially those with legitimate excuses, they must take up the matter with the Director of Humanities, who, along with the Humanities Committee, is responsible for this policy.

XI. Academic Honesty Policy: Students are responsible for following the College of Humanistic Studies policy on academic integrity.
        "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 copying of examinations, assignments, reports or term papers, or the presentation of acknowledged material as if it were the students' 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." Students are also responsible for the Academic Honesty policy statement on p. 50 of the 2001-’03 Undergraduate Bulletin.

XII. Texts and References:
Humanities 211 Supplementary Text (Sup)
Davis, et al., Western Literature in a World Context. Vol. I (WLWC)
Voltaire, Candide
Moliere, Tartuffe
Behn, Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave
Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
Course Packet (CP)

XIII. Prerequisites: English 101, 102, IDC 101, 102 or the equivalents

PART 1: THE ANCIENT WORLD
M Aug 27        Introduction to the Course and Its Themes: Self, Other, Community

W Aug 29        Introduction to the Ancient World (WLWC, 8-18); Introduction to Homer (WLWC, 19-24);
                        Homer, Odyssey, Books 1, 5 (WLWC 156-68, 205-18)

F Aug 31         Homer, Odyssey, Books 9-11 (WLWC, 218-62)

M Sep 3          Labor Day--No Class

W Sep 5          Homer, Odyssey, Books 19-22 (WLWC, 274-314)

F Sep 7            Introduction to Sophocles (WLWC, 409-12); Sophocles Antigone (WLWC, 413-45)

M Sep 10        Introduction to Sappho (WLWC, 326-28); Poems (WLWC 328-34);
                        Introduction to Catallus (WLWC 549-51); Poems (WLWC, 551-54);
                        Introduction to Ovid (WLWC 642-45); Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 1 (WLWC 645-49)

W Sep 12        Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 10 (WLWC, 663-74);
                        Introduction to Plato (WLWC, 513-16); Plato, Allegory of the Cave (WLWC, 513-15, 534-39)

F Sep 14          Plato, "Apology" (WLWC, 516-32); Excerpt from "Phaedo" (WLWC, 532-34)

M Sep 17        Introduction to Aristotle (WLWC, 539-40); Aristotle, "The Nicomachean Ethics"
                        (The Doctrine of the Mean) (WLWC 542-43); (Sup 2-17)

W Sep 19        Hebrew Texts: Genesis (WLWC 678-86); Ecclesiastes (Sup, 37-41)

F Sep 21         Christian Text: Jesus, "Sermon on the Mount" (WLWC, 765-68);
                        Introduction to Confucius (WLWC 870-71); Confucious, Analects (WLWC, 871-74);
                        ESSAY 1 DUE

M Sep 24        Epicurus, "Letters to Herodotus and Menoeceus" (Sup, 18-26)

W Sep 26        Epictetus, Excerpts from the Discourses and the Enchiridion (Sup, 27-36)

F Sep 28          EXAM 1

PART II: MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE

M Oct 1          Introduction to the Middle Ages (WLWC, 888-900); "The Wanderer" (WLWC, 1114-16);
                        "The Wife's Lament" (WLWC, 1117-18); "The Dream of the Rood" (CP)

W Oct 3          de France, Lais: "Chevrefoil," (WLWC, 1261-65); "Bisclavret" (CP);
                        Introduction to Cappelanus (WLWC 1505-06); Cappelanus, Excerpt from The Art of Courtly Love
                        (WLWC, 1514-15)

F Oct 5            Introduction to Dante (WLWC 960-67); Dante, The Inferno, Cantos 1-5, 34
                        (WLWC, 968-87, 1044-48)

M Oct 8          Introduction to Boccaccio (WLWC 1265-67); Boccaccio, The Decameron,
                        "Fourth Day, First Tale," "Conclusion" (WLWC, 1282-89)

W Oct 10        Introduction to Chaucer (WLWC 1304-09); Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "General Prologue"
                        (WLWC, 1309-24)

F Oct 12         Chaucer, "Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale," "Wife of Bath's Tale" (WLWC, 1324-48)

M Oct 15       Chaucer, "Prologue to the Pardoner's Tale," "Pardoner's Tale" (WLWC, 1348-60)

T Oct 16         Midterm Grades due

W Oct 17        Introduction to the Renaissance and Machiavelli; Machiavelli, Excerpts from The Prince
                        (WLWC, 1528-37, 1627-43)

F Oct 19          Fall Break: No Class

M Oct 22        Introduction to Cervantes (WLWC, 1689-91); Cervantes, Excerpts from Don Quixote
                        (WLWC, 1692-1715, 1720-27, 1792-98)

W Oct 24        Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (Acts I-III)

F Oct 26          Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (Acts IV-V)

M Oct 29        Renaissance Poetry: Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 "That Time of Year,"
                        Sonnet 129 "Th'Expense of Spirit," Sonnet 130 "My Mistress' Eyes" (WLWC 2050-51);
                        Donne, "The Good Morrow," "The Sun Rising," "The Canonization" (WLWC 2053-55)

W Oct 31        Renaissance Poetry: Donne, "To His Mistress Going to Bed," "Holy Sonnet 14,"
                        "Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward" (WLWC 2056-58),
                        "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (CP);
                        Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress," "The Garden" (WLWC 2062-65)

F Nov 2           Renaissance Poetry: Labé, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19 (WLWC 2067)
                        de la Cruz, "The Rhetoric of Tears," "To Her Portrait" (WLWC 2074-75);
                        Bradstreet, "Before the Birth of One of Her Children,"
                        "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Appointment,"
                        "Another Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment,"
                        "Here Follows Some Verse upon the Burning of Our House" (CP);
                        ESSAY 2 DUE

M Nov 5         Introduction to Milton (WLWC, 1975-78);
                        Milton, Paradise Lost, Excerpts from Books 1, 4 (WLWC, 1979-2002)

W Nov 7         Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9 (WLWC 2002-26)

F Nov 9           EXAM 2

PART III: THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND ROMANTIC PERIODS

M Nov 12        Molière, Tartuffe

W Nov 14        Hobbes, Leviathan (Sup, 59-69)

F Nov 16          Locke, Second Treatise of Government (Sup, 70-83)

M Nov 19        Jefferson, Declaration of Independence (Sup, 84-87)

W Nov 21        Thanksgiving Break: No Class

F Nov 23          Thanksgiving Break: No Class

M Nov 26         Behn, Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave

W Nov 28         Behn, Oroonoko; Rowlandson, Excerpt from Her Captivity Narrative (CP)

F Nov 30          Voltaire, Candide, Chapters 1-18 (1-40)

M Dec 3           Voltaire, Candide, Chapters 19-30 (40-77)

W Dec 5           Hume, "Of Miracles" (Sup 88-96);
                          Rousseau, Excerpts from Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (CP)

F Dec 7             Crèvecoeur, Excerpts from Letters from an American Farmer (CP)

M Dec 10         Conclusion and Review


Teaching