Please note that this syllabus should be regarded as only a general guide to the course. The instructor may have changed
specific course content and requirements subsequent to posting this syllabus. Last Modified: 15:16:32 09/02/2013
Professor Alice Behnegar
behnegaa@bc.edu
Stokes South 247
Office hours: Tuesdays 4:30-6
& by appointment
HP133: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND THE TRADITION I
Fall 2013 -- Section 10, TTh 3-4:15
Why should this course be called "The Twentieth Century and the Tradition"? Does the "and" here
serve to join the twentieth century to the Tradition or to separate it from the Tradition? The fall
semester of third-year Honors will examine how questions like these oriented some of the most
innovative and far-reaching achievements in art and architecture, film and literature, science and
philosophy during the first half of the 20th century. This course will explore how artists, writers,
scientists, and philosophers pursued the challenge of re-evaluating the Tradition’s ideas of knowledge,
reason, morality, and progress within the often shadowy light cast by new types of social and
intellectual upheaval and revolution, world war, runaway economic speculation and failure, the rise of
political fascism and totalitarianism.
Our Angle: For nearly twenty-five hundred years Western thought and life were largely shaped by
a certain confidence that reason or revelation could show us how to live, coupled with a sober
appreciation of the limits to human knowledge and justice and of the necessarily imperfect character
of this-worldly happiness. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, this sense of things was
giving way to radical skepticism, on the one hand, and to radical hopes for the utter transformation
of the human condition, on the other. In our very limited time together we will try to get some
sense of how this change played out in thought and life in the first half of the twentieth century.
REQUIRED TEXTS (You MUST have PRINT editions – YOU MAY NOT USE ELECTRONIC TEXTS – and
the listed editions are required.)
Albert Camus, The Stranger (Vintage ISBN 0679720200)
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (Vintage ISBN 978-0679732242)
Sebastian Haffner, Defying Hitler (Picador ISBN 978-0312421137)
Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka (New Directions ISBN 978-0811219501
Primo Levi, Periodic Table (Schocken ISBN 978-0805210415)
Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz (Touchstone ISBN 978-0684826806)
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Advantage & Disadvantage of History for Life (Hackett ISBN 0915144948)
Jose Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses (Norton ISBN 0393310955)
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (NAL Trade ISBN 978-0451228147)
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (Mariner Books ISBN 0156628708)
Hand-outs:
Martin Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics ch. 1 and “The Question Concerning
Technology;” Winston Churchill “Mass Effects in Modern Life” and “The Next Fifty Years;” John
Maynard Keynes “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren;” Leo Strauss, “On German Nihilism;”
Jean-Paul Sartre, “Existentialism is a Humanism;” Franz Kafka, “Metamorphosis;” Virginia Woolf,
“Modern Fiction;” William Faulkner, Nobel Address; William Barrett, Irrational Man ch. 2 & 3
Films: The Shock of the New episodes 1-3, 5-7; The Petrified Forest
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
Preparation – Read, re-read, and think! What’s the point or the argument? What’s puzzling, or
unclear, or problematic? Take notes on the readings and films and use them in class and your papers.
Attendance – Presence and participation constitute a crucial part of the work of this course for
each student, and it is work that cannot be made up. You may be late once and absent from class
once without penalty (except for Thanksgiving week), subsequent latenesses or absences for any
reason will have an increasingly adverse effect on your grade and may even result in failing the
course. NOTE: The University requires that professors require attendance during Thanksgiving week,
so absence during that week cannot count as your one allowed absence.
Class work (worth approximately 1/3 of final grade) – This grade will reflect the quality of your
class work, including discussion points and responses. Regular and thoughtful contributions that
advance our conversations about the texts will raise your class work grade, while absence, lateness,
inattentiveness, lack of texts or otherwise poor participation will lower it (see attendance policy
above).
Punctual, prepared, engaged, and courteous attendance is required. Always bring the relevant
texts to class, and be prepared to talk about them. NO electronic devices (including computers) are
permitted in class, and you may not eat or leave during class unless you’ve cleared it with me
beforehand.
Also, you will be divided into five groups, with each group responsible for leading one class. For each
of those classes, the responsible group will provide written discussion points to the other students
before the class; and the other students will bring written responses to the class.
Written work (worth approximately 2/3 of final grade) – Two 3-page papers and two 6-page papers.
All papers are to be submitted by email.
Failure to complete any assignment will result in failing the course.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: Academic integrity is violated by any dishonest act committed in an academic
context, including but not limited to cheating, plagiarism (attempting to pass the work of others off as
your own, in any way in any part of an assignment), and submitting for credit in this class work done
for another class. The University’s policy on Academic Integrity may be found at
www.bc.edu/integrity. Ask me if you have any questions about academic integrity, and when you’re
working on assignments for this class, STAY OFF THE INTERNET! All suspected violations of academic
integrity will be reported to the Dean in accordance with University policy and a final grade of “F” for
the course will be given in the event of a violation.
The Boston College grading system: A is excellent; B is good; C is satisfactory; D is passing but
unsatisfactory; F is a failure.
ADA NOTE:
If you are a student with a documented disability seeking reasonable
accommodations in this course, please contact Kathy Duggan, (617) 552-8093, dugganka@bc.edu, at
the Connors Family Learning Center regarding learning disabilities and ADHD, or Paulette Durrett,
(617) 552-3470, paulette.durrett@bc.edu, in the Disability Services Office regarding all other types
of disabilities, including temporary disabilities. Advance notice and appropriate documentation are
required for accommodations.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS and FILMS (**discussion points classes)
PHILOSOPHICAL and CONTEXT – Radical Questions, New Conditions
Tuesday
Thursday
9/3
9/5
Tuesday
Thursday
9/10
9/12
Introduction
Nietzsche, Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life,
Preface, sections 1-4
short paper due 9/8
History, sections 5-7, 9-10
Heidegger, 1930s, Introduction to Metaphysics
Tuesday
Thursday
9/17
9/19
Heidegger; “The Question Concerning Technology”
same
SUNDAY 9/22
FILM:
SHOCK OF THE NEW, EP. 1 “THE MECHANICAL PARADISE (1870-1914)”
EP. 2 “THE POWERS THAT BE”
AND
POLITICAL LIFE
Tuesday
**Thursday
9/24
9/26
Churchill; Keynes; Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses, ch. 1-7
The Revolt of the Masses ch. 8-9, 11-13, 14 (pp. 125-37, 140-45,
181-86), 15
Tuesday
Thursday
10/1
10/3
Strauss, “On German Nihilism”
Sartre, 1946, “Existentialism is a Humanism”
SUNDAY 10/6
FILM: THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1936)
**Tuesday
Thursday
10/8
10/10
Strauss – Sartre – The Petrified Forest
Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
Tuesday
Thursday
10/15
10/17
Levi, Survival in Auschwitz: Haffner, Defying Hitler
Defying Hitler; Levi, The Periodic Table
Tuesday
Thursday
10/22
10/24
Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Ivan Denisovich
10/27 last day to submit long philosophy/politics paper
ART
SHOCK OF THE NEW, EP. 3 “THE LANDSCAPE
EP. 5 “THE THRESHOLD OF LIBERTY”
SUNDAY 10/27
FILM:
**Tuesday
Thursday
10/29
10/31
Kafka, 1915 “Metamorphosis”
“Metamorphosis”
Tuesday
Thursday
11/5
11/7
Woolf, “Modern Fiction;” Conversations with Kafka
Conversations with Kafka
OF
PLEASURE” AND
ART continued
Tuesday
**Thursday
11/12
11/14
Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Mrs. Dalloway
Tuesday
Thursday
11/19
11/21
Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
no class
Tuesday
**Thursday
11/26
11/28
The Sound and the Fury
The Sound and the Fury; Nobel Address
Tuesday
Thursday
12/3
12/5
Camus, The Stranger, Part One
The Stranger, Part Two
SUNDAY 12/8
FILM:
SHOCK OF THE NEW, EP. 6 “THE VIEW FROM
EP. 7 “CULTURE AS NATURE”
Tuesday
12/10
Barrett, Irrational Man ch. 2 & 3; discussion
Monday
12/16
last day to submit long fiction paper
THE
EDGE” AND
short paper due