OAKTONCOMMUNITYCOLLEGE
GENERICCOURSESYLLABUS
I.
II.
Course
Prefix
Course
Number
Course
Name
HUM
121
Western Culture and the Arts:
Beginnings through the Middle
Ages
Credit
Lecture
Lab
3
0
3
Prerequisites:
None
III. Course (Catalog) Description:
Course surveys the great artistic and intellectual accomplishments of Western civilization
from the Renaissance through the 20th Century. Content includes visual arts, literature,
drama, philosophy, architecture, and music studied in historical context. IAI HF 903
IV. Learning Objectives:
After completing this class, the student will be able to do the following:
A. Demonstrate basic knowledge of the major cultural eras covered
B. Define the basic vocabulary needed to discuss cultural achievements.
C. Recognize major works of art and identify the stylistic period within which
representative works of art were produced.
D. Discuss, compare, and evaluate representative works of literature and philosophy
produced within this period.
E. Restate and critique the values expressed in the religious, philosophical and
literary texts of this period, and discuss the current relevance of these values.
F. Demonstrate basic knowledge of the European encounter with Africa, the
Americas, and Asia, and evaluate the cultural effects both on Europe and the areas
colonized by Europe.
G. Demonstrate basic knowledge of the cultural and religious diversity within
Western civilization and the development of nationalism, ant-Semitism, and
racism within Western culture.
H. Present and debate conflicting cultural interpretations of the Western tradition.
I. Exhibit values related to teamwork and collaboration, fostered by the pedagogy of
shared inquiry and critical dialogue appropriate to the humanities and to
philosophy.
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HUM 121
V.
Academic Integrity
Students and employees at Oakton Community College are required to demonstrate
academic integrity and follow Oakton’s Code of Academic Conduct. This code prohibits:
 cheating,
 plagiarism (turning in work not written by you, or lacking proper citation),
 falsification and fabrication (lying or distorting the truth),
 helping others to cheat,
 unauthorized changes on official documents,
 pretending to be someone else or having someone else pretend to be you,
 making or accepting bribes, special favors, or threats, and
 any other behavior that violates academic integrity.
There are serious consequences to violations of the academic integrity policy. Oakton’s
policies and procedures provide students a fair hearing if a complaint is made against
you. If you are found to have violated the policy, the minimum penalty is failure on the
assignment and, a disciplinary record will be established and kept on file in the office of
the Vice President for Student Affairs for a period of 3 years.
Details of the Code of Academic Conduct can be found in the Student Handbook.
VI. Outline of Topics
(This is a sample outline of topics with suggested topics and influential figures. In this
section the instructor will present a similar outline that fulfills the learning objectives. This
outline will include the dates on which specific topics will be covered, when exams will be
given, and when papers and projects are due. This outline is not intended to suggest that one
class would cover all the figures listed.)
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
The Early Renaissance: Classical Roots and the Debt to the Islamic World,
1400-1494: Focus on Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Mirandola,
Josquin des Prez
The High Renaissance and the European Encounter with the “New World”:
1494-1564 : Focus on Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Machiavelli,
Thomas More, Columbus, Bartolomé de las Casas, Palestrina
The Northern Renaissance and the Reformation: 1500-1603: Focus on
Shakespeare, Luther, Durer, Bruegel, El Greco, Farmer
The Baroque Age: 1600-1715: Focus on Bernini, Caravaggio, Gentileschi,
Pozzo, Rembrandt, Aphra Behn, Bach, Handel, Monteverdi, Strozzi,
Vivaldi, Moliere, Milton
The Baroque Age: Scientific, Philosophical, and Political Thought: 16001715: Focus on Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke
The Enlightenment: 1700-1789: Focus on Watteau, Hogarth, Vigee-Lebrun,
David, Hayden, Mozart
Focus on Kant, Hume, Wollstonecraft, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Adam Smith
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HUM 121
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16
VII.
Revolution and Romanticism: 1760-1830: Turner, Friedrich, Goya,
Delacroix, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz
Focus on Jefferson, Goethe, Mary Shelley, Hegel
The Triumph of the Bourgeoisie and the Critical Response: 1830-1871:
Focus on Manet, Daumier, Millet, Verdi, Wagner, Brahms
Focus on Marx, Darwin, Flaubert, Henry Thoreau, Whitman, Dickens,
Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Zola
European Imperialism and its Cultural Legacies: Focus on Douglas and
Conrad
Early Modernism: 1871-1914: Focus on Nietzsche, Freud, Kafka, Ibsen,
Twain, Cassatt, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Sullivan, Debussy,
Stravinsky, Schoenburg, Puccini, Joplin
The Zenith of Modernism: 1914-1945: Focus on James Joyce, Elie Wiesel,
Virginia Woolf, Langston Hughes, Brecht, Wright, Proust, Sartre, Jacob
Lawrence, O’Keefe, Dali, Kahlo, Dorothea Lange, Gropius, Le Corbusier,
Eisenstein, Copland, Ives, Ellington, Berg, Bessie Smith, Katherine
Dunham, Merce Cunningham
The Contemporary Age: 1945-present: Focus on Foucault, Simone de
Beauvoir, Martin Luther King, Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing, Frantz Fanon,
Kiefer, Gehry, Koolhass, de Kooning, Ellison, Judy Chicago, Benjamin
Britten, John Cage, Ligeti, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Rolling Stones,
Beatles, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams,
Tony Kushner, Alice Walker, Frank Gehry
The meaning of Western culture in a post-colonial, globalized world: Focus
on James Baldwin, Orphan Pamuk, Salmon Rushdie, Derek Walcott,
Edward Said, Charles Mills, Oscar Hijuelos, Chandra Talpade Mohanty,
Gloria Anzaldua, Paula Gunn Allen, Anita Desai, Isabel Allende, Audre
Lorde
Methods of Instruction:
Course may be taught as a face-to-face, media-based, hybrid, or online course.
The course will involve lectures, as well as seminar style discussions and small group
activities. Student will listen to music, view slides, and when appropriate, view
sections of videos. Students will be expected to participate actively and to come
prepared for discussion.
VIII.
Course Practices Required:
(Please include information here about all expectations you have for your students
regarding behavior, work, etc. The following are sample topics you may wish to
cover. Please be aware that you must require students in this course to produce at least
15 pages of critical writing over the course of the semester. These may be assigned in
a variety of ways including essays, journals, response papers, etc.)
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Examples of requirements:
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IX.
Attendance and participation
Quizzes/Exams
Essays
Standards for written work
Final Project
Special policies about make-up exams, late papers, or other matters of concern
Instructional Materials:
Note: Current textbook information for each course and section is available on
Oakton’s Schedule of Classes.
The Western Humanities Volume I: Beginnings through the Renaissance. Matthews and
Platt. Current edition.
Readings in the Western Humanities Volume I. Matthews and Platt. Current edition.
Supplementary readings from other primary sources as well as selections presenting
debates on cultural interpretation.
X.
Methods of Evaluating Student Progress:
(In this section, please present the percentages or point breakdown for all the elements
of the final grade. Please note that at least forty percent of the grade must be based on
written work rather than exams, presentations, etc.)
For example:
Quizzes/Exams…..40 points
Journals/Essays…..40 points
Final Project………10 points
Attendance and Participation…..10 points
Grading Scale. 90% - 100% = A // 80% - 89% = B // 70% - 79% = C // 60% - 69% = D
// below 60 = F
XI.
Other Course Information:
A. Disabilities
If you have a documented learning, psychological, or physical disability you may
be entitled to reasonable academic accommodations or services. To request
accommodations or services contact the Access and Disability Resource Center at
the Des Plaines or Skokie campus. All students are expected to fulfill essential
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HUM 121
course requirements. The College will not waive any essential skill or requirement
of a course or degree program.
B. Discrimination
The Oakton Community College Catalog states:
Oakton Community College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color,
creed, religion, national origin, disability, age, sex, sexual orientation, or marital
status in admission to and participation in its educational programs, activities and
services, or employment practices. The College does not tolerate sexual
harassment or sexual assault by or of its students or employees.
In keeping with this policy of tolerance and non-discrimination, in this class all of
us (myself included) should strive to listen and give careful consideration to all
ideas expressed in class, especially those that are different from our own, without
attacking or demeaning the people who have those views. We should also strive to
avoid using insulting terms or telling offensive jokes when talking to or about
individuals or groups.
C. Instructor information
Office number and office hours:
Phone number:
Email and website:
Approval Dates:
(Faculty: Do not include the following information on your individual syllabi created for class
distribution.)
Effective beginning term:
Syllabus prepared by
Revised by:
Fall 2013
Hollace Graff
Hollace Graff
Ending term:
Date: March 2006
Date: June 2010
Reviewed by Chair:
Hollace Graff
Date: July 2010
Approval by Dean:
Linda Korbel
Date
June 2013