Humanities 211-01 & 02
Tradition: Continuity
FALL 2003
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/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
Molière, Tartuffe
Behn, Oroonoko, The Rover & Other Works
Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I

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

PART 1: THE ANCIENT WORLD
W Aug 20 Introduction to the Course and Its Themes: Self, Other, Community

F Aug 22 Introduction to the Ancient World (WLWC, 8-18); Introduction to Homer WLWC, 19-24);
Homer, Odyssey, Books 1, 5 (WLWC 156-68, 205-18)

M Aug 25 Homer, Odyssey, Books 9-11 (WLWC, 218-62)

W Aug 27 Homer, Odyssey, Books 19-22 (WLWC, 274-314)

F Aug 29 Introduction to Sophocles (WLWC, 409-12); Sophocles Antigone (WLWC, 413-45)

M Sep 1 Labor Day--No Class

W Sep 3 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)

F Sep 5 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 10 (WLWC, 663-74);
Introduction to Plato (WLWC, 513-16); Plato, Allegory of the Cave (WLWC, 513-15, 534-39)

M Sep 8 Plato, "Apology" (WLWC, 516-32); Excerpt from "Phaedo" (WLWC, 532-34)

W Sep 10 Introduction to Aristotle (WLWC, 539-40); Aristotle, "The Nicomachean Ethics"
(The Doctrine of the Mean) (WLWC 542-43); (Sup 2-17)

F Sep 12 Hebrew Texts: Genesis (WLWC 678-86); Ecclesiastes (Sup, 37-41);
ESSAY 1 DUE

M Sep 15 Christian Text: Jesus, "Sermon on the Mount" (WLWC, 765-68);
Introduction to Confucius (WLWC 870-71); Confucious, Analects (WLWC, 871-74)

W Sep 17 Epicurus, "Letters to Herodotus and Menoeceus" (Sup, 18-26)

F Sep 19 EXAM 1

M Sep 22 Epictetus, Excerpts from the Discourses and the Enchiridion (Sup, 27-36)

PART II: MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE

W Sep 24 Introduction to the Middle Ages (WLWC, 888-900); "The Wanderer" (WLWC, 1114-16);
"The Wife's Lament" (WLWC, 1117-18)

F Sep 26 de France, Lais: "Chevrefoil," (WLWC, 1261-65);
Introduction to Cappelanus (WLWC 1505-06); Cappelanus, Excerpt from The Art of Courtly Love
(WLWC, 1514-15)

M Sep 29 Introduction to Dante (WLWC 960-67); Dante, The Inferno, Cantos 1-5, 34
(WLWC, 968-87, 1044-48)

W Oct 1 Introduction to Boccaccio (WLWC 1265-67); Boccaccio, The Decameron,
"Fourth Day, First Tale," "Conclusion" (WLWC, 1282-89)

F Oct 3 Introduction to Chaucer (WLWC 1304-09); Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "General Prologue"
WLWC, 1309-24)

M Oct 6 Chaucer, "Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale," "Wife of Bath's Tale" (WLWC, 1324-48)

W Oct 8 Chaucer, "Prologue to the Pardoner's Tale," "Pardoner's Tale" (WLWC, 1348-60);
Midterm Grades Due

F Oct 10 Fall Break: No Class

M Oct 13 Introduction to the Renaissance and Machiavelli; Machiavelli, Excerpts from The Prince
(WLWC, 1528-37, 1627-43)

W Oct 15 Introduction to Cervantes (WLWC, 1689-91); Cervantes, Excerpts from Don Quixote
(WLWC, 1692-1715, 1720-27, 1792-98)

F Oct 17 Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (Acts I-III)

M Oct 20 Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (Acts IV-V)

W Oct 22 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)

F Oct 24 Renaissance Poetry: Donne, "To His Mistress Going to Bed," "Holy Sonnet 14,"
"Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward" (WLWC 2056-58);
Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress," "The Garden" (WLWC 2062-65);
ESSAY 2 DUE

M Oct 27 Renaissance Poetry: Labé, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19 (WLWC 2067);
de la Cruz, "The Rhetoric of Tears," "To Her Portrait" (WLWC 2074-75)
                                  
W Oct 29 Introduction to Milton (WLWC, 1975-78);
Milton, Paradise Lost, Excerpts from Books 1, 4 (WLWC, 1979-2002)

F Oct 31 EXAM 2

M Nov 3 Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9 (WLWC 2002-26)

W Nov 5 Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9 (WLWC 2002-26)

PART III: THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND ROMANTIC PERIODS

F Nov 7 Hobbes, Leviathan (Sup, 59-69)

M Nov 10 Locke, Second Treatise of Government (Sup, 70-83)

W Nov 12 Jefferson, Declaration of Independence (Sup, 84-87)

F Nov 14 Hume, "Of Miracles" (Sup 88-96)

M Nov 17 Molière, Tartuffe, Acts I-III

W Nov 19 Molière, Tartuffe, Acts IV-V

F Nov 21 Behn, The Rover, or The Banished Cavalier, Acts 1-III (155-206)

M Nov 24 Behn, The Rover, or The Banished Cavalier, Acts 1V-V, (206-49

W Nov 26 Thanksgiving Break: No Class

F Nov 28 Thanksgiving Break: No Class

M Dec 1 Voltaire, Candide, Chapters 1-18 (1-40)

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

F Dec 5 Conclusion and Review
     

Teaching