HU300: Art and Humanities: 20th
Century and Beyond
Unit 5
Kaplan University
Stuart Collins
Unit # and Topic
Unit 1: Thinking about the Human
Experience
Learning Activities
Reading
Discussion
Seminar
Final Project Information
Reading
Discussion
Seminar
Unit project
Assessments
Discussion
Unit 3: Myth and the Origin of the
Humanities
Reading
Discussion
Seminar
Discussion
Unit 4: Music
Reading
Discussion
Seminar
Unit project
Discussion
Reading
Discussion
Seminar
Reading
Discussion
Seminar
Reading
Discussion
Seminar
Unit project
Discussion
Reading
Discussion
Seminar
Discussion
Unit 2: Art and Architecture
Unit 5: Literature
Unit 6: Morality
Unit 7: Happiness
Unit 8: Cinema
Discussion
Unit project
CLA HU 300.1: Analyze selected examples of
human expression
Unit project
CLA HU 300-3: Relate forms of human expression
to our lives today
Discussion
Discussion
Unit project
CLA HU 300-2: Examine the impact of human
expressions on contemporary culture
CLA GEL 1.1: Demonstrate college-level
communication through the composition of original
materials
Any Questions
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Discussion Sections
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Unit Four Project
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Others?
Unit 5: Literature
Unit Outcomes
* Analyze the tools authors use when creating literature and what they communicate to
readers
* Investigate a range of poets and poetry
* Examine reading in 21st century America
Course Outcomes practiced in this unit:
HU300-1: Analyze selected examples of human expression
HU300-2: Examine the impact of human expressions on contemporary culture
HU300-3: Relate forms of human expression to our lives today
Unit 5: Literature
In this unit we will look into the world of literature.
As we learned in the unit on myth, narratives
can be an important part of culture and
communicating messages. Literature can
have a deep impact on our experience of the
world, or our vision of another time and place.
As an introduction to the unit, listen to former Poet
Laureate Billy Collins explaining the youthful
nature of poetry, our perceptions of poets, and
reading a few of his pieces:
Billy Collins on Poetry:
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlay
er.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=499032
0&m=4990411
Seminar: Unit 5
1. What might account for the change in
reading trends?
2. What does a decline or increase in reading of
literature say about a culture? Why is reading
literature important?
3. In our unit we discussed poetry, which is
rarely a best-seller. Why might poetry be less
popular than fiction? Where are some places
that poetry does exist and thrive in our culture?
What are some of the unique benefits poetry
can offer to the reader or listener? influences,
and circumstances that lead to these musical
expressions?
National Endowment for the Arts
Announces New Reading Study
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Americans are reading less

Americans are reading less well
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The declines in reading have civic, social, and economic
implications
http://www.nea.gov/news/news07/trnr.html
National Assessment of Educational
Progress

The National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) is the
largest nationally representative and
continuing assessment of what
America's students know and can do in
various subject areas. Assessments are
conducted periodically in mathematics,
reading, science, writing, the arts, civics,
economics, geography, and U.S.
History.

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/

Education & School Info by State

http://www.mydreamlocale.com/blog/stat
ic.php?page=static060922-210953
STUDYING THE “CULTURE OF READING”
A culture, broadly speaking, is an
integrated pattern of behavior,practices,
beliefs, and knowledge. These
constitute the operating rules by which
people organize themselves. Though all
members of a culture do not do exactly
the same things, play the same roles, or
understand their culture in precisely the
same ways, they do all participate and
thereby create and maintain the basic
rules of the culture.
http://www.penn.museum/documents/public
ations/expedition/PDFs/463/The%20Culture.pdf
In studying the culture of reading, our aim
was to describe the integrated pattern of
reading behavior, practices, beliefs, and
knowledge, and to understand how the
staff and students actively created and
maintained this pattern. To do this we
needed to examine the physical space,
the shared activities, and the individual
behaviors and beliefs of the participants
as they related to reading. Our goal was
to describe these features and examine
how they varied, and specifically to see
how gender operated as a variable.
The Best of the Best Books?
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110 best books: The perfect library:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/book
s/3672376/110-best-books-The-perfectlibrary.html
The 100 greatest novels of all time: The
list:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/o
ct/12/features.fiction
Ten Must-Read Classics of Great
Literature:
http://www.squidoo.com/ten-classics
Literary Classics You Should Read
Before You Turn 30
http://www.amazon.com/LiteraryClassics-Should-ReadBefore/lm/R2MJSV3VA319Y9
The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to
the Classical Education You Never Had
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From Publishers Weekly
Bauer's The Well-Trained Mind (which she co-wrote with Jessie
Wise) taught parents how to educate kids; her latest is designed
for adults seeking self-education in the classical tradition.
Reading-sustained, disciplined and structured-is her core
methodology, so she starts with tips on improving reading skills
and setting up a reading schedule (start with half-hour sessions
four mornings a week, with daily journal writing). Reading is a
discipline, like meditating or running, she says, and it needs
regular exercise. To grow through reading-to reach the "Great
Conversation" of ideas-Bauer outlines the three stages of the
classical tradition: first, read for facts; then evaluate them; finally,
form your own opinions. After explaining the mechanics of each
stage (e.g., what type of notes to take in the book itself, or in the
journal), Bauer begins the list section of the book, with separate
chapters for her five major genres: fiction, autobiography/memoir,
history/politics, drama and poetry. She introduces each category
with a concise discussion of its historical development and the
major scholarly debates, clearly defining all important terms (e.g.,
postmodernism, metafiction). And then, the piece de resistance:
lists, in chronological order, of some 30 major works in each
genre, complete with advice on choosing the edition and a onepage synopsis. Bauer has crafted a timeless, intelligent book.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Poetry?
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Best Poems?
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http://100.best-poems.net/
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The Best American Poetry
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http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/
Charles Darwin liked poetry? lolz
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. . . if I had to live my life again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and
listen to some music at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now
atrophied would thus have been kept active through use. The loss of these tastes is a
loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably
to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature. (Quoted from
Charles Darwin’s Autobiography, New York: Henry Schulman Inc., 1950, p. 67.)
http://charles-darwin.classic-literature.co.uk/the-autobiography-of-charlesdarwin/ebook-page-26.asp
Robert Browning's Porphyria's Lover

THE rain set early in to-night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,


It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
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And did its worst to vex the lake:
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I listen'd with heart fit to break.
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When glided in Porphyria; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm,
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And kneel'd and made the cheerless grate
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…
http://www.englishverse.com/poems/porphyrias_lover
Henry V's Valentine Poem
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO8k
yIafrz8
Allen Ginsberg
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Irwin Allen Ginsberg June 3, 1926 – April
5, 1997) was an American poet who
vigorously opposed militarism, materialism
and sexual repression. In the 1950s,
Ginsberg was a leading figure of the Beat
Generation, an anarchic group of young
men and women who combined poetry,
song, sex, wine and illicit drugs with
passionate political ideas that championed
personal freedoms.[1] Major literary works
of the Beat Generation include the novels
On The Road by Jack Kerouac and Naked
Lunch by William S. Burroughs, as well as
Ginsberg's epic poem Howl, in which he
celebrates his fellow "angelheaded
hipsters" and excoriates what he saw as the
destructive forces of capitalism and
conformity in the United States
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg
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http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/8
A Supermarket in California
by Allen Ginsberg
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What thoughts I have of you tonight Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with
a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of
your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives
in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!—and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the
watermelons?
I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and
eyeing the grocery boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my
Angel?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you, and followed in my imagination by
the store detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every
frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.
Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard point
tonight?
(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)
Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses,
we'll both be lonely.
Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our
silent cottage?
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit
poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black
waters of Lethe?
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http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=177128
Walt Whitman?
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Wikipedia: Walter Whitman (May
31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an
American poet, essayist, journalist,
and humanist. He was a part of the
transition between transcendentalism
and realism, incorporating both views
in his works. Whitman is among the
most influential poets in the
American canon, often called the
father of free verse.[1] His work was
very controversial in its time,
particularly his poetry collection
Leaves of Grass, which was
described as obscene for its overt
sexuality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whit
man
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPI
D/126
A selection of Poems by Walt Whitman
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O Captain! My Captain!:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1
5754
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/2
0006
I Hear America Singing:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1
5752
Langston Hughes
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James Mercer Langston Hughes,
(February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was
an American poet, novelist, playwright,
short story writer, and columnist. He
was one of the earliest innovators of the
new literary art form jazz poetry.
Hughes is best-known for his work
during the Harlem Renaissance. He
famously wrote about the Harlem
Renaissance saying that "Harlem was
in vogue.“
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_H
ughes
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/8
3
Again by Langston Hughes
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Let America be America again. Let it
be the dream it used to be. Let it be
the pioneer on the plain Seeking a
home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the
dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that
great strong land of love Where never
kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one
above.

(It never was America to me.)
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http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/
O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is
crowned with no false patriotic
wreath, But opportunity is real, and
life is free, Equality is in the air we
breathe.
(There's never been equality for me, Nor
freedom in this "homeland of the
free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the
dark? And who are you that draws
your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed
apart, I am the Negro bearing
slavery's scars. I am the red man
driven from the land, I am the
immigrant clutching the hope I seek-And finding only the same old stupid
plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush
the weak.
Scottsboro, An American Tragedy
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“In 1931, two white women stepped from
a box car in Paint Rock, Alabama to
make a shocking accusation: they had
been raped by nine black teenagers on
the train. So began one of the most
significant legal fights of the twentieth
century. The trial of the nine falsely
accused teens would draw North and
South into their sharpest conflict since
the Civil War, yield two momentous
Supreme Court decisions and give birth
to the Civil Rights Movement. In addition
to its historical significance, the
Scottsboro story is a riveting drama
about the struggles of nine innocent
young men for their lives and a
cautionary tale about using human
beings as fodder for political causes.”
Justice
That Justice is a blind goddess
Is a thing to which we black are wise.
Her bandage hides two festering
sores
That once perhaps were eyes.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsbor
o/filmmore/index.html
Most holy bastard
Of the bleeding mouth:
Nigger Christ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro_B
The Town of Scottsboro
Scottsboro's just a little place:
No shame is write across its face -Its courts too weak to stand against a
mob,
Its people's heart, too small to hold a
sob.
Christ in Alabama
Christ is a Nigger,
Beaten and black -O, bare your back...