Humanities I, Fall 2005
Dr. Kyoo Lee, Manget 205 (Phone 8198), Office Hrs: Tu/Th 4:20-5:50pm, LaGrange College
0. Introduction [WH xxii-xxxi]
09/08 Orientation: Introducing the Course; advance planning
09/13 General Introduction [WH xxii-xxxi] What is the Humanities and Why would one want to study it?
1. Learn the basic and background concepts. [Minimally Assumed Knowledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
Read: Emerson, "the American Scholar"
Recommended: Billinghurst, "Intro: Sizzle"-"the Original Bad Girls"-"Mythical Madens" [pdf download size: 35.9MB], Temptress
Recommended: Kurth, "Western Civilization, Our Tradition"
Recommended: MacMillan, "Telling a Critical Story: Alice Walker's In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens" [Login, ProQuest]
Recommended: McHale, "Telling Postmodernist Stories" [size: 2.50MB]
Recommended: Royal, "Who Put the West in Western Civilization?"
Recommended: Walker, "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: The Creativity of Black Women in the South," In Search of My Mothers' Gardens
[1:00] Presentation by [Justin + Kyle]
09/15 Introduction to the Period: the Mortal Eternity of the Imagination and the Invention of Writing
1. Learn the basic details about the period. [Minimally Assumed Knowledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
2.What are the speculated origins of art and what do they reveal about the nature of human imaginations? [cf. Altamira; Chauvet]
Recommended: Library of Congress Hebraic Collections : An Illustrated Guide see "Ch: In the Beginning..." [Login, Ebrary]
Recommended: Maier and Ghassemi, "Postmodernity and the Ancient near East," Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics [Login, JSTOR]
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
09/20 [R 21-4, Dispute] Melancholia as Ancient as Ancient Egypt
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knowledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
2. What is melancholia? And how is it linked to the artistic, philosophical and religious experience or sentiment of human beings? Analyse elements of melancholia in this story of a man "tired of himself" (another translation of Dispute) and how contemporary they are.
3. "Man fears time but time fears the pyramids." Curious to see is Dürer on melancholia that highlights its intellectualism; observe, in that regard, the geometric stillness and severity of Egyptian sense of beauty and eternity.
4. Explain the symbolism (or metaphorical values) of the Sun in Dispute, and discuss the connection between that and Egyptian theocracy.
Recommended: Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy [LC Lib, PR2223 .A2 F38 1989] [NB: very fat]
Recommended: Chronicle, Western Literature as a Psychic Battlefield; College Students and the "Culture of Neglect"" [Login, ProQuest]
Recommended: Derrida, "Uninterrupted Dialogue: Between Two Infinities, the Poem" [Login, EBSCO] [NB: advanced reading]
Recommended: Parker, "Melancholia," The American Journal of Psychiatry [Login, ProQuest]
Recommended: Ruiz, "Death and Immortality (Ch13, Part II)," The Spirit of Ancient Egypt [Login, Netlibrary]
Recommended: Ruiz, "Dreams and Divination (Ch21, Part II)," The Spirit of Ancient Egypt [Login, Netlibrary]
Recommended: Ruiz, "The Great Sphinx (Ch26, Part III)," The Spirit of Ancient Egypt [Login, Netlibrary]
Recommended: Ruiz, "Literature (Ch29, Part III)," The Spirit of Ancient Egypt [Login, Netlibrary]
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[1:00] Précis by [Dez+Luke]
[2:40] Presentation by [James]
09/22 [R 5-13, Gilgamesh] Gilgamesh as an Archetypal Coming-of-age Story
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
Identify Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Ishtar and Shamhat, and their roles and relationship.
Learn the plot of the Epic of Gilgamesh inscribed on stone/clay tablet, and its geographical setting.
3. Emerson, in the essay on "Friendship," emphasises equality and tenderness rather than, for example, cruelty and sadness.
How does the story of Gilgamesh fit in with the model Emerson proposes? What are the powers and limits of the Emersonian model?
Discuss, while introducing and analysing relevant narrative details, roles of friendship in the Gilgamesh-style coming of age story;
Think, for instance, of why and how the friends and lovers suffer together and why the friend had to die.
Recommended: Billinghurst, "Intro: Sizzle"-"the Original Bad Girls"-"Mythical Madens" [pdf download size: 35.9MB], Temptress
Recommended: Capps, ""A Little Sun in His Own Heart","Men, Religion, and Melancholia [Login, Netlibrary]
Recommended: Derrida, "Uninterrupted Dialogue: Between Two Infinities, the Poem" [Login, EBSCO] [NB: advanced reading]
Recommended: Harris, "Gilgamesh's Coming of Age," Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia [Login, Netlibrary]
Recommended: Harris, "Images of Women in the Gilgamesh Epic," Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia [Login, Netlibrary]
Recommended: Harris, "Inanna-Ishtar as Paradox and a Coincidence of Opposites," Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia [Login, Netlibrary]
Recommended: Emerson, "Friendship"
Recommended: Maier and Ghassemi, "Postmodernity and the Ancient near East," Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics [Login, JSTOR]
Recommended: Pangle, "Friends as Other Selves," Aristotle and the philosophy of friendship [Login, Netlibrary]
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Précis by [Jesse]
II. Aegean [WH 31-54]
09/27 Introduction to the Period: The Rise of Human Consciousness and Mythological Imagination
1. Learn the basic details about the period. [Minimally Assumed Knowledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
2. Discuss the symbolisms or psychic dimension of Minotaur (e.g., Picasso), focusing on its ambiguity: its immanence and transcendence.
3. What are the key cultural, dispositional or stylistic differences between Minoan and Mycenean civilisations?
4. How did both Minoan and Mycenean cultures influence the formation of the Greek imagination?
Recommended: Rich, "The Limits of War (Intro)," War and Society in the Greek World [Login, Netlibrary]
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[1:00] Précis by [Michael]
[2:40] Presentation by [Danielle]
09/29 Homer [R 43-5, Iliad]: Achilles the Hero (?)
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
2. Learn the basic plot of Iliad, esp. [R 43-5, selections in the textbook]:
Bk01 (re: Achilles vs. Agamemnon),
Bk06 (re: Hector vs. Andromache)
Bk22 (Hector vs. Achilles)
Bk24 (Achilles and King Priam of Troy)
3. Discuss (3.1) how and why the Trojan War became central to both the ancient Greek society and Homer the first national poet of the West. And (3.2) what it shows about contextual functions, productions and constraints of literature - why, quite simply, war and literature?
4. What is Epic, as Aristotle defines and explains it? What are the components and characteristics of its composition?
5. Homer is a blind poet who "sees": explain this paradox of blind bard and its thematic link to "beauty and transcendence".
Read: Aristotle, "Epic Poetry and the Principle of its Construction" in Cooper (ed/trans.), Aristotle on the Art of Poetry
Recommended: Freeman, "The Ascetic Odyssey (Ch16)," Closing of the Western Mind [Login, Ebrary]
Recommended: Freeman, "The Quest for Certainty (Ch2)," Closing of the Western Mind [Login, Ebrary]
Recommended: Harrison (film), Helen of Troy [LC Lib, DVD PN1997 .H455 2003]
Recommended: Rev. Walter, "The character of a Christian hero: A sermon, June 2d. 1746. " [Login, Early American Imprints Series]
Recommended: Rich, "The Limits of War (Intro)," War and Society in the Greek World [Login, Netlibrary]
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[1:00] Précis by [Jessica]
[2:40] Presentation by [Lauren]
[2:40] Précis by [Jesse]
10/04 Homer [R 46-53, Odyssey]: Odysseus the Wanderer (?)
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
3. Unlike, for instance, Biblical stories that follow one straight, genealogical line, time in Odyssey is convoluted and multi-dimensional: how so? For instance? Discuss the differences by comparing the narrative logic and time of Odyssey (Hellenic) and the Bible (Hebraic).
4. In many senses, Iliad and Odyssey are a twofold expression of one book penned by one person who possesses two opposing characters. It is as if they faced each other both temporally and spatially: what does that mean, more specifically?
5. Discuss a set of ethical concepts and values (e.g., arte and nosmos) embodied in some of the characters (esp. in Bk19 ) of Odyssey; how do they also compare to some of the key Biblical characters?
6. The beauty of the song of Sirens is fatal, nearly lethal: what happened? And what are the lasting symbolisms of this particular scene in the story? (e.g., femme fatale in the contemporary cinematic imagination)
Recommended: Bakker, "Mimesis as performance: Rereading Auerbach's first chapter," Poetics Today [Login, ProQuest]
Recommended: Billinghurst, "Intro: Sizzle"-"the Original Bad Girls"-"Mythical Madens" [pdf download size: 35.9MB], Temptress
Recommended: Bloom, Homer's Odyssey: Bloom's Notes [[Login, NetLibrary]
Recommended: Freeman, "The Ascetic Odyssey (Ch16)," Closing of the Western Mind [Login, Ebrary]
Recommended: Freeman, "The Quest for Certainty (Ch2)," Closing of the Western Mind [Login, Ebrary]
Recommended: González, Eduardo. "Odysseus' bed and Cleopatra's mattress," MLN (119:5) [Login, ProQuest]
Recommended: McHale, "Telling Postmodernist Stories" [size: 2.50MB]
Recommended: Russell, I Heart Huckabees (cf. Film: a postmodern epic) [LC Lib, DVD PN1997 .I116 2005]
Recommended: Rev. Walter, "The character of a Christian hero: A sermon, June 2d. 1746. " [Login, Early American Imprints Series]
[1:00] Presentation by [Ryan]
III. Hellenic [WH 55-86]
10/06 Introduction to the Period: Hellenism and the Platonic Idea of Beauty as Harmony and Transcendence
1. Learn the basic details about the period. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
2. How is the Greek idea of beauty different from ancient (pre-Historic) or Egyptian ideas? Discuss some of the key characteristics by analysing and comparing images of your choice: look for illustrations either in the textbook or on-line, at least a total of three. You must be able to cite concrete examples and explain the differences.
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[1:00] Précis by [Kiley]
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
10/11 Sophocles [Film: Antigone]: Logos vs. Ethos Seen Through the Looking-Glass of Gender and Generation
Recommended: Billinghurst, "Intro: Sizzle"-"the Original Bad Girls"-"Mythical Madens" [pdf download size: 35.9MB], Temptress
Recommended: Butler, Antigone's Claim [Login, NetLibrary]
Recommended: Harrison (film), Helen of Troy [LC Lib, DVD PN1997 .H455 2003]
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[1:00] Précis by [n/a]
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Précis by [n/a]
10/13 Fall Break: No Class
10/18-20 Sophocles [R 56-75, Oedipus Rex]: Mythos and Pathos: Fate and Dramatic Irony in the Sophoclean Tragedy
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
2. Learn the basic deatils of Aristotle's theory of Tragedy [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
3. "How terrible—to see the truth when the truth is only pain to him who sees!" Whose line is this?
What is the context or circumstance?
What kind of moral lessons does this remark convey?
Why, in what sense, is this character appropriate to the play as a whole?
What is cathartic about the line above? (Hint: what emotions does it evoke?)
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[1:00] Précis by [Jessica]
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Précis by [n/a]
10/25 Midterm: In-class Exam
10/27 Plato [R 81-6, Republic] AND [Republic (Agora Copy), Bks1-2]: Platonic Dualism: Same/Different; Real/Illusory
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[1:00] Précis by [n/a]
[2:40] Presentation by [Halley]
11/01 Aristotle [R 94-5, Politics]: "Man is a Political Animal."
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
2. Aristotle says, "Thence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal." [R 95]: What is the reasoning behind this statement? Reconstruct his argument: explain why he says what he claims.
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Presentation by [Robert]
[2:40] Précis by [n/a]
11/02 E-mail Humanities Paper #2 by 4:10pm [Ref: Reeeve, Women in the Academy - Freedom, Justice, Women]
IV. Hellenistic [WH 87-108]
11/03 Introduction to the Period: Mediterranean Cosmopolis and the Marketplace of Ideas
1. Learn the basic details about the period. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[1:00] Précis by [n/a]
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
11/08 Theocritus [R 96-8, Idylls]: The Emergence of Popular Writing as a Literary Genre and Its Urbanity
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
[1:00] Presentation by [Lisa]
[2:40] Presentation by [Danielle]
11/10 Epicurus [R 98-101, Letter]: Curious Affinities between Hedonism and Stoicism
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
[1:00] Presentation by [Jessica]
[1:00] Précis by [Shannah]
[2:40] Précis by [Robert]
V. Judaic [WH 145-168] and Islam [WH 203-226]
11/15 Judaism & The Holy Scriptures [R 141-6]: Hebraic Iconoclasm, Diaspora and the Promised Land
1. Learn the basic details about the period and the Text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
2. Learn the origin and basic details of this idea, Jews as God's "Chosen People"
Recommended: Film: Vol 7: Judaism: The Chosen People, The Long Search [DVD, BL 80.2 L644 2001 V.5-7]
Recommended (by Halley): Smith, The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Précis by [n/a]
11/17 Islam and the Qur’an [R 192-8]: Religion of Submission
1. Learn the basic details about the Period and the Text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
2. Learn the various meanings of Jihad: you should be able to introduce at least three meanings and cite the relevant passages from Qur'an.
Recommended: Film: Vol 5: Islam: There is no God but God, The Long Search [DVD, BL 80.2 L644 2001 V.5-7]
Recommended (by Halley): Smith, The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Précis by [Scott]
VI. Pre-Christian Roman [WH 109-144]
11/22 Introduction to the Period: Power & Glory [DVD, DG209 .R655 1999]: Order, Violence, Syncretism and Christianity
2. After class, read on your own Aurelius [R 132-8, a reading guide on page 4 of Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam], Meditations, focusing on the importance and techniques of self-discipline and social ethics. Then you will see why and how Aurelius, both as a ruler and a person, is a quintessential Roman: you must be able to answer that question, by specifically relating what you have learned from the textbook and DVD (Power & Glory) to Meditations.
Recommended: Film: Kubrick, Spartacus (esp. Ch1-7) [DVD PN1997 .S79 2001]
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[1:00] Précis by [n/a]
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Précis by [n/a]
11/24 Thanksgiving Break: No Class
11/29 Virgil [R 109-113] and Ovid [R 122-125]: Doomed Love in Early Roman Literature
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
[1:00] Presentation by [Ryan]
[1:00] Précis by [Patrick]
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Précis by [Daniel]
VII. Christian Roman [WH 169-189]
12/01 Introduction to the Period and St. Augustine [R 166-9]: Conversion
1. Learn the basic details about the period. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
[1:00] Presentation by [Jason]
[1:00] Précis by [n/a]
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Précis by [n/a]
Recommended (by Halley): Film: The Good Book of Love: Sex in the Bible
VIII. Medieval [WH 227-267]
12/06 Introduction to the Period, Aquinas [R 233-235] & Dante [R 236-246]: (In)visibility of Christian Logos & Mythos
1. Learn the basic details about the text. [Minimally Assumed Knwoledge: Prep for Exam/Class Discussion]
2. Why is Aquinas called a rational theologist? Compare his relationship with to God, to St. Augustine's.
3. Hell-Questions: After reading "Inferno," memorise at least three lines (or passages) of your choice and be ready to cite them: exam material. When you answer the following questions, you should be able to quote and incorporate those key phrases, which should be at least a total of three lines (literally) or three stanzas. For instance, if 3.1 and only 3.1 appears on the final, you should use all of your knowledge of three quotes in answering that question. Any answer containing no evidence of actual study/reading is hardly acceptable.
3.1 What are the key characteristics of, and key characters in, hell portrayed in the section on "Inferno," Divine Comedy?
3.2 How exactly, in the imagination of Dante (NB: forget yours, for a while), does the hell arise? In other words, show briefly the various stages of the appearance of the images of hell through Canto I and the rest. Focus on the circles.
3.3 Why does Christian mythos imagine and talk about hell? What are its powers and symbolisms? In other words, why hell? Focus on Dante's motivation, as related Christian logos and ethos, such as the Christian virtues that Thomist theology promotes.
[1:00] Presentation by [n/a]
[1:00] Précis by [n/a]
[2:40] Presentation by [n/a]
[2:40] Précis by [n/a]
12/08 Final: In-class Exam
