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English 297 Ref. #11720
Freshman Honors Intro to Humanities
TU 9:30-10:45 EH 227
Prof. M. L. Donnelly
Office: EH 23C
Office hours: TU 8:30-9:20 & 11:00-11:20 AM, TU 2:00-3:00 PM; and by
appointment.
Scope: A discussion-survey of some seminal works in the Western literary,
philosophical, and cultural tradition; enrollment generally limited to entering honors
freshmen. This class forms part of the Freshman Honors Humanities Program, along
with HIST 297, MLANG 297, and PHILO 297. All classes in the Freshman Honors
Humanities Program have a common reading list and will follow approximately the same
course format, but details of the schedule and assignments differ from course to course.
This syllabus is meant to apply only to ENGL 297. In this section, we will pay
particularly close attention to the ways language functions in representing and shaping
the individual’s values and relations to the divine, to nature, to society or culture, and to
other individuals.
PLEASE NOTE that at four times during the semester the entire Freshman Honors
Humanities Program will meet together. Since these evening meetings may cause
conflicts, but are a required portion of the course, you should note these dates and
reserve them for this class now.
Evening Session I—September 17
Evening Session II—October 15
Evening Session III—November 12
Evening Session IV—December 10
All four evening sessions will be held in the Hale Library Hemisphere Room (5th floor),
7:00-9:20 PM.
Required Texts:
Homer, The Iliad, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin Books).
Thucydides, On Justice, Power, and Human Nature (selections from History of
Peloponnesian War), trans. P. Woodruff (Hackett).
the
Plato, The Republic, 2nd ed., trans. G. M. A. Grube, rev. by C. D. C. Reeve (Hackett).
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. Luigi Ricci, rev. E. R. P. Vincent
(Viking/Penguin).
William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, ed. Maynard Mack (Penguin Books).
Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy (Hackett).
Goethe, Faust, trans. Walter Kaufmann (Doubleday-Anchor).
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Penguin Books).
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto (International
Publishers).
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The Darwin Reader, 2nd ed., ed. Mark Ridley (Norton).
Count LeoTolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, trans. Aylmer
Maude (Signet Classic/NAL Penguin, Inc.).
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, trans. J. Strachey (Norton).
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Bantam Doubleday Dell Anchor Books).
ALSO REQUIRED: “Honors Introduction to the Humanities”, a collection of
photocopied readings from Heloise and Abelard, Historia calamitatum and
Personal Letters, available at Claflin Books.
Course Requirements:
1) First paper, 4-6 pages, typed double-spaced, due Wednesday, September 17
at evening meeting (ca. 15% of course grade). Topics to be distributed by
Tuesday, September 9. (Explication de texte—close reading of a particular
passage and its function in the text; more information Sept. 4 or 9.)
(2) Second paper, 4-6 pages, typed double-spaced, due Wednesday, October 15
at evening meeting (ca. 20% of course grade). Topic—usually a comparison or
discussion on thematic or formal grounds—may be chosen by you and cleared
with me by Tuesday, September 30 at the latest; suggested topics to be
announced by September 23.
(3) Term paper, 6-9 pages, typed double-spaced, due Wednesday, December 10
at evening session (ca. 30% of course grade); you are responsible for generating
your own topic involving a broad overview of issues suggested by texts in the
course; your choice of topic to be cleared with me by Thursday, November 20
at latest (examples of the sort of thing you might undertake will be given
November 12).
TAKE-HOME FINAL—questions will be handed out at group evening session
December 10; due Thursday, December 18, by 4:00 PM in Denison 106; whole
set of three short papers (2-4 pp. each) worth about 25% of course grade.
All papers to be typed, or printed by word processor. Double space papers,
leaving one inch margins for comment and question; cite references for quotations
and ideas taken from either the texts for the course or any other books or articles
you might consult (or any other borrowed ideas or observations, as: “Observation
of J. Blow, my roommate; private communication, September 20, 2003.”). But
the point of these exercises is that they are to represent primarily your own best
efforts in thinking about and organizing your ideas and analysis of the topics, so
do not rely heavily on secondary sources or readings other than the assigned texts.
The remaining 10% of the course grade is based on class participation-participation, not merely "attendance." Having read the assigned text before
coming to class is a basic prerequisite for participation.
NOTE ESPECIALLY THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS, INCLUDED IN THIS
SYLLABUS PER RECOMMENDATION OF JANE D. ROWLETT, DIRECTOR OF
UNCLASSIFIED AFFAIRS AND UNIVERSITY COMPLIANCE:
University Honor System:
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Kansas State University has an Undergraduate Honor System
based on personal integrity which is presumed to be sufficient
assurance that in academic matters one's work is performed
honestly and without unauthorized assistance. Undergraduate
students, by registration, acknowledge the jurisdiction of the
Undergraduate Honor System. The policies and procedures of the
Undergraduate Honor System apply to all full and part-time
students enrolled in undergraduate courses on-campus, offcampus, and via distance learning.
A prominent part of the Honor System is the inclusion of the Honor
Pledge which applies to all assignments, examinations, or other
course work undertaken by undergraduate students. The Honor
Pledge is implied, whether or not it is stated: "On my honor, as a
student, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this
academic work."
A grade of XF can result from a breach of academic honesty. An
XF would be failure of the course with the X on the transcript
indicating failure as a result of a breach of academic honesty.
For more information, please visit the Honor System web page at:
http://www.ksu.edu/honor.
Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:
Any student with a disability who needs an accommodation or
other assistance in this course should make an appointment to
speak with me as soon as possible.
Notice of copyright for course syllabi and lectures:
Copyright 2003, M. L. Donnelly as to this syllabus and all
lectures. During this course students are prohibited from selling
notes to or being paid for taking notes by any person or
commercial firm without the express written permission of the
professor teaching this course.
I would be happy to discuss your papers with you outside of class, and to review drafts
and make comments on them as time permits. In any case, I expect to schedule at least
one and preferably more individual conferences with each of you during the semester.
Your grade for the course will be based primarily upon your written work. However, the
essence of the humanities is discourse articulating, appreciating, testing, and comparing
values. Consequently, these courses are intended to proceed chiefly through class
discussion, and your attendance and active participation in class discussion will have a
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significant bearing on your final grade (c. 10%). Active participation means more than
simply being there, occupying a seat. It means demonstrably engaging the issues
discussed in class, raising questions, making comments and connections, testing your
own and others’ interpretations and reactions. Intelligent questions about specific points
in the text and the ability to suggest passages that shed light on issues under discussion
are excellent ways of showing that you have read the material and are trying to come to
grips with it. There will be a 297 LISTSERVE again this semester; everyone enrolled in
the course is required to be a participant. If you are shy about speaking out in class, the
LISTSERVE can be an excellent medium through which you can enhance your own level
of participation in the thought and discussion of the course, test others’ reactions to your
reflections and analysis, and responsibly help others clarify, refine, and fill out their own
thoughts and reflections on the meaning of the texts we read, and the issues raised in our
readings. I will collect your e-mail addresses at the first meeting. If you do not yet know
your e-mail address at that time, let me know it as soon as possible within the first two
weeks of class. I will also make it a practice to ask you, at the end of each class period,
to write down and hand in to me (1) the most important thing you learned from that day's
discussion, and (2) the most important question remaining in your mind after the
discussion. I will write answers to these and hand them back at the beginning of the next
class, and we will take up questions of particular importance, or questions that several
people have raised, during the next class period.
Class schedule: This outline is not chiseled in stone; it represents a sketchy and
doubtless implausibly optimistic plan of what we shall be doing and when we should be
doing it. Paper due dates are inflexible, but otherwise expect discussion to expand or
contract according to the class’s interest and needs (but not contract much). If you fail to
attend class, you may have a hard time figuring out where we are—and that is not getting
your money’s worth (besides, you would be neglecting your duty to share your ideas and
insights with others, and to learn from their perspectives). Separate sheets may be
handed out from time to time suggesting topics to think about for class discussion. And,
again: this is a discussion course: do come prepared with questions and reflections on the
texts assigned, and do participate.
Other sections of the course:
HIST 297
MWF 9:30 EH201
MLANG 297 MWF 1:30 DE222
PHILO 297 TU 3:30-4:45 D 106
First Week (Week of August 18)
21 August: Introduction to the course, and to the idea and approaches of the humanities.
Read for second meeting: The Iliad, Books I complete, II, ll. 1-397, III complete, Book
IV, lines 1-80, 489-end; skim Book V complete, read carefully Book VI, lines 137-end.
Pay particular attention to repetition and formulaic language—are they functional and
artistic, or just an accident of the mode of composition (which we’ll discuss)? Note what
forms and/or personal qualities seem to constitute authority or to privilege appeals or
claims of one man upon another; reflect on the poem’s attitude toward warfare,
competition, and cooperation; begin to reflect on the nature and components of “the
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heroic ethos.” What are the essential values of this culture? what, for it, constitutes the
highest virtue? what are its highest goods? Other issues you might think about: Peculiar
qualities of Homer’s literary art: how do his similes work? what are they doing in the
poem and to the reader? observe instances of concreteness, particularity, “presence,”
lack of hierarchy in what is attended to or valued; consider Homer’s partisanship or lack
of it, and what factors contribute to our sense of this quality or its absence.
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Second Week:
26 August: Discussion of assignment in Iliad. Read for next meeting Iliad, Book IX
(this will be the central text for our discussion); skim X quickly, skim XI until line 706,
read carefully 706 to end of XI; XII, beginning-385. Read on about the deception of
Zeus by Hera, XIV, lines 187-429, and study closely Book XVI, the Patrocleia.
28 August: Reflect on the role of the gods and the nature of the divine in the poem;
consider human responsibility, particularly Achilles’s. Some critics argue that Achilles’s
response to the ambassage of Ajax, Odysseus, and Phoenix in Book IX makes the poem a
tragedy and Achilles a responsible moral agent. Why might they say this about this
episode? why would it not have been true before, within the limits of the heroic ethos?
Reflect further on the heroic ethos and the values that matter to this culture. Reflect on
Odysseus as heroic figure compared to what you have seen of Diomedes, Ajax,
Agamemnon, and Achilles. Assertions of titanic individualism and egoism are easily
found in the poem, but think also about the social, communal checks on unbridled
egoistic self-assertion.
Read for Tuesday Iliad, Book XVIII; skim XIX, attending especially to lines 1-281;
XXI; XXIII, esp. 1-726; study closely XXII and XXIV. Think about the following: What
is the function of the 180-odd lines at the end of Book XVIII describing the decoration of
the arms Hephaestus forges for Achilles (ekphrasis)? Look for symmetry in the
presentation of the public resolution of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon in
XIX, balancing its initiation in Book I, and Agamemnon’s peace offering in IX. What
purpose do the hyperbolically heightened events of XXI serve in the economy of the
poem? Reflect on the presentation of the “psychology” of Hektor and the choices he
makes in XXII; is he finally a sympathetic figure in the poem? The Iliad has been called
“the poem of force,” and its announced subject is “the wrath [menis] of Achilles,” which
results in strife [eris] and pain [algea] for the Achaeans. Evaluate the conclusion in Book
XXIV in terms of its relation to these dominant themes. Does the ending seem
appropriate, or unexpected (hence, unprepared-for)? Is it artistic? What is the effect
achieved? Does the poem seem to resolve itself dominated by the tragic tone discussed
earlier? What does it say about the human condition?
Begin reading in Thucydides: read Introduction (pp. ix-xxxiii) and chapters 1, 2, & 3 (pp.
1-58). Compare Thucydides and Homer as writers—what interests them or occupies
their attention? How do they present their material? Try to discern something about form
and structure in Thucydides. Look for thematic issues that may or may not represent
continuities with the heroic ethos; reflect on the place of virtue, intelligence, and fortune
in Thucydides’ narrative; consider the comparative weight given to the individual and the
community, the polis.
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Third Week:
2 September: Last discussions of Iliad. Begin discussion of Peloponnesian War. For
next Thursday, read chs. 4-8. Reflect on how Thucydides presents appeals to values and
appeals to expediency and power in the speeches he gives his historical figures. Is the
account of the Syracusan campaign “objective history,” or is it presented tendentiously?
What “lessons” do you discern in Thucydides? What is the role of the Melian Dialogue
in the economy of the book?
4 September: finish Thucydides. For next Thursday, read Plato, The Republic, Book I,
Book II.357-67 and Book II.368-Book IV.445b. Reflect on the reason for introducing an
anatomy of the ideal polis as a technique for getting at the definition of “justice.” Is the
argument concerning differing natures in men and the natural division of labor sound and
true? (What kind of assumptions about the fundamental true “nature” of a thing or
person lie behind this proposition?) Consider the role of censorship; the role and nature
of education. Happiness [eudaimonia] as an end; relation of the other cardinal virtues
(bravery, temperance or moderation, and wisdom) to justice. Reflect on the relation of
the product of Plato’s dialogue and analysis to the conventional notions conveyed by the
words he discusses. Why does he use the dialogue form? What advantages does it
possess? what are the liabilities? [Distribute topics for first paper?]
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Fourth Week:
9 September: Discussion of topics for Paper #1. Discussion of assigned readings,
concentrating on The Republic II.368-IV.445b. For next Tuesday, read Book V.471c-480, Book VI. 502c-VII.521b. If there is time, we’ll go on to look at Book VIII.543aIX.592b. Certainly look at Book IX, and at X [595a-608b], which returns to Plato’s
quarrel with the poets, and concludes with . . . (see assignment for next time)-11 September: (cont. from last session) . . . another famous Platonic myth concerning the
soul’s immortality. You might want to think about some of the following: evaluate the
idea of the “philosopher-king;” what it is to be a philosopher in Plato’s sense; the relation
of Truth to the realm of the sensible; Plato’s elitism. Reflect on Plato’s use of similes in
his argument: e.g. the simile of the sun (VI.507a-509c), the divided line (509d-511e), and
the Cave (VII.514a-517c). Books VIII and IX further clarify the nature and preeminence
of The Good, and its relation to Happiness, by analyzing the four other types of city and
of men deviating from the standard established by Plato’s Republic. Book X is the locus
classicus for the philosopher’s articulation of the conflict between the poets and
philosophers, which (perhaps under the guise of rhetorician vs. philosopher or sophist vs.
philosopher) can be seen as one of the fundamental conflicts in the history of the
European Mind (the fundamental clash?). What is at stake? How does it relate to
Plato’s epistemology and fundamental conception of reality? How would you answer
Plato? You might want to survey several of the Greek texts we have read (or all of them)
as they bear on some question of action, conduct, or values; or triangulate between their
values and those of our era on some problem or issue. [Anyone want to review Karl
Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, as a lever against Plato?]
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Fifth Week:
16 September : Finish discussion of Plato’s Republic. Our class will lead the first
group session in Leasure 013 Wednesday evening. We may want to use some of the
class time to firm up plans for how to conduct that session.
For next Tuesday, read the selection of the Historia calamitatem by Abelard and the
letters between Abelard and Heloise in the photocopied text from Claflin Books. Reflect
on how these voices are like or unlike the voices we have heard in the texts from classical
antiquity. Do you feel that tradition and authority or hierarchy are more important as
standards of judgment and guides to thought and action than they were, in general, in the
Greek texts we read? Do you feel a greater articulation of subjectivity in Heloise’s than in
Abelard’s correspondence? Is the Abelard of the Historia the same as the Abelard of the
letters? Reflect on eudaemonia vs. duty and obligation—to God, to the Church, to one’s
religious order, to Truth. (Have you found this conflict so sharply outlined in our earlier
readings?) What is the significance of citation of earlier texts in these two texts
(“intertextuality”)? Are earlier texts a standing quarry to be plundered for building
blocks, like the Roman Colosseum in the Middle Ages, a mass of clues and pieces hinting
at a gigantic puzzle to be assembled and solved, a collection of non-essential ornaments
and flourishes, an assemblage of truth-claims to be examined and interrogated, or what?
17 September: FIRST PAPER DUE at Evening session reviewing texts from the
Classical World: Hale Library Hemisphere Room, 7:00 PM-9:20 PM.
18 September: No class scheduled.
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Sixth Week:
23 September: Discussion of Historia calamitatem and “Personal Letters” of Heloise
and Abelard. For Thursday, read in Machiavelli’s The Prince, the Letter of Dedication to
Lorenzo the Magnificent, and chapters 1-3, 5-9, 15-17. Think about Machiavelli’s
presentation of the acquisition and use of power as a conscious work of art. Keywords:
virtù, fortuna, occasione, and necessitá. Purpose of the book; emphasis on knowledge
and experience; why does Machiavelli so often couple an example from ancient history
with one from recent Italian events? What is his view of the use of history? Method:
Regola generale, universal rules, and imitation of great models. What is M’s view of
human nature? Study and reflect on the example of Cesare Borgia’s career in Chapter 7.
How is Borgia’s career different from that of Agathocles of Syracuse (Chapter 8), in
order to justify M’s differing evaluations of them? Machiavelli’s work as literary,
“artful” manipulation of metaphor, theme, poetic justice—as mythopoesis. Suggested
topics for Paper #2 circulated.
25 September: Discussion of Machiavelli and the use of reason and authority in the
renaissance. The value of words as representations of self and the world; vitality of
language (preparation for Antony & Cleopatra). For next time, Machiavelli, Chapters 1819, 22-26, and start to read Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra.
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Seventh Week:
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30 September: Wrap up discussion of Machiavelli; segue to Shakespeare's Roman
history. For next time, think about the creation of two worlds in Antony & Cleopatra
and the delineation of the values, attitudes, ethos of each. Is it fair to characterize one as
sensual, exotic, “Eastern” or “Oriental,” the other rational, pragmatic, and “Western”?
One feminine, the other masculine? A “private world” vs. a “public” one? Is one
morally preferable to the other? Finish reading A & C over the weekend. Topic for
Paper #2 to be cleared with me by today.
2 October: Discussion of Antony & Cleopatra. For next time: Eudaemonia again? What
is the function in the play of that noblest of classical [masculine] virtues, amicitia,
friendship—and loyalty [Enobarbus and Antony’s veterans]? How do you respond to the
bogus “Egyptian bacchanals” in II.vii.? Especially Menas’s offer to Pompey? What do
you make of the fact that the climactic battle of Actium comes so early as III.x. with
comparatively little (?) dramatic emphasis, and Cleopatra has the whole last act to
herself, after Antony’s death? Think about Shakespeare’s dramatic economy in this
disposition of emphases (what would Octavius Caesar say?!). Go over the death scenes
of Antony and of Cleopatra; reflect on the imagery, the metaphors and hyperbole the poet
gives his characters and uses to characterize them; even the names of their servants [a
standard Renaissance iconographic motiv has Cupid (Eros) disarming Mars for erotic
dalliance with Venus: it was conventionally interpreted moralistically as emblematizing
the unmanning of the courageous, active, public man by the effeminate blandishments of
lust—and in the Renaissance, “effeminate” was the term applied to a man given over to
erotic desires.] Suicide was an acceptable Stoic act when confronted with a fortune that
left no scope for human dignity or great-souled transcendance—but are the deaths of
Antony and Cleopatra Stoic martyrdoms? And how do you think Shakespeare’s
Renaissance Christian audience could have been expected to respond to these pagan
politiques and sensualists?
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Eighth Week:
7 October: Discussion of remainder of A&C. For next session, read Descartes’
Discourse on Method, the text we shall examine after A&C. Concentrate for discussion
next time on Parts One through Four (to supplement your reflections on Descartes, you
may want to read ahead in Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditations One through
Three, which go over this same ground.) For next time: Be prepared to talk about the
use of skepticism by Descartes; the importance he gives to “method”; and the role of his
proof of the existence of God in his project. Compare how Descartes’ method of “doing
philosophy” (or at least how the way he presents his doing of philosophy) differs from
Plato’s (look particularly at the first Book of The Republic and the Second Part of the
Discourse). Can you find in the machinery of Descartes' thought relics of the
scholasticism Descartes would explode? Examine Descartes’ style: Stanley Fish has
characterized certain seventeenth-century English styles as “self-consuming artefacts,”
styles that turn in upon themselves, qualify, redirect the movement of thought through
piled up concessions, qualifications, and subordinate clauses, until they virtually
deconstruct themselves. Can you apply this analysis to Descartes’ style? or is he wholly
arrogant and self-confident in his pronouncements?
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9 October: Discussion of Descartes, Discourse One through Four with supplementary
reflections on Meditations One through Three. For next time, read the rest of the
Discourse, and think about the relation of Descartes’ project to the Baconian and Galilean
enterprise of experimental science. Note Descartes’ characterization of animals and the
animal “soul” in Part Five of the Discourse, and reflect on implications of this position.
Note especially the prefatory matter in the Meditations—the Letter of Dedication and the
Preface to the Reader. Reflect on Descartes and censorship, and Early Modern problems
of the author's "authority" as it relates to Authority over writing. Note his explanation of
why he writes the Discourse in French, not Latin. Descartes is famous for posing for the
Modern World the terms of the “mind-body problem.” What does this mean, do you
think, and how do these works contribute to the Problem? For next week, start reading
Goethe, Faust, Part 1.
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Ninth Week:
14 October: No class: Fall Break Holiday.
15 October: Second Evening Class, Hale Hemisphere Room, 7:00-9:20 PM; overview
of texts representing the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment.
Second Paper due at evening class session.
16 October: No class scheduled, unless further discussion of Descartes is required.
For next week, prepare to discuss Goethe, Faust, pp. 1-95. What is the function of the
prefatory matter—Dedication, Prelude in the Theatre, Prologue in Heaven? Is this a text
for reading or a play for acting? What kind of God does Goethe depict? what kind of
devil? Goethe’s alterations of the traditional Faust-story: what does this Faust really
want? what kind of man is he? what is his relation to Nature? (what does Goethe’s
“Natur” mean?); the “character” of Mephistopheles. Wagner as foil. Faust, Wagner, and
the burghers and peasants: what is this scene for? Reflect on lines 1064-1144, esp. 11001144.
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Tenth Week:
21 October: [Finish discussion of Descartes?] Discussion of Goethe's Faust. For next
session, read Goethe, Faust, pp. 207-end. Study carefully the scene, “Forest and
Cavern.” Is Goethe’s effect in the scene, “Cathedral,” like that in his account of the folk
customs tormenting and ostracizing the “fallen woman”, a criticism of life, or just
pathos? Is the satire in the Walpurgisnacht episode integrated into the play, or not?
Scholars tell us that “Gloomy D ay—Field” is the oldest layer of the text of Faust as we
have it. Can you do anything with this fact? Is it significant that this scene is introduced
at this precise point? (reconsider again the order of scenes and events in the whole
Margaret or Gretchen episode) Gretchen is responsible legally for the deaths of her
mother and baby, and is seen by her neighbors as morally responsible for the death of her
brother, yet Goethe’s Heaven saves her at the end. Why?
23 October: Discussion of Faust. For next week, read Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, (pp.
13-112 for Tuesday, pp. 113-215 for Thursday).
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Eleventh week:
28 October: Finish discussion of the end of Faust, Part II. Discussion of Frankenstein.
What difference (if any) would it make to have read the “Preface” signed “Marlow” but
actually by Mary Shelley’s husband, the Romantic poet and radical reformer, Percy
Bysshe Shelley, in 1818, rather than Mary Shelley’s own “Introduction” to the 1831
Standard Novels edition? Why do you suppose Shelley wrote that “Preface” for his wife?
What is the function of the Robert Walton frame for Frankenstein’s story? Have you
ever read any other stories that work with a framed narrative like this? Speculate about
ways that it may work. Is this original version of the story essentially the same as the
popular versions you may know from movies and cartoons? What differences do you
notice? Pay particular attention to Victor Frankenstein’s articulation of the values he
subscribed to in his dedication to experimental science (chapters 3 and 4; but note
particularly the language and tone used in pp. 53-55). Is the presentation of “science” in
the rest of the fiction always consistent with this chapter? Is this chapter consistent with
itself? Articulate as many different versions of the ethos of science as you can uncover
encoded in this text. [Baconian, exoteric, humble, cooperative, rational, slowly
accumulative addition of truth to truth, or esoteric, secret, lonely pursuit of magical and
stupendous power by genius essentially set apart from the rest of humankind—the “mad
scientist” of science fiction?] For next session, finish the novel. Think about possible
symbolic or even allegorical interpretations of the plot and characters; reflect on the
connections of the characters, themes, and atmosphere of this book with some of the
dominant traits of European Romanticism [consult a reference like Joseph Shipley, A
Dictionary of World Literature, or C. Hugh Holman, A Handbook to Literature, or an
encyclopedia of philosophy or history of ideas in the library if you’re not sure what
“Romanticism” as a historical movement means].
30 October: Frankenstein, concluded. For next session, read Marx and Engels, The
Communist Manifesto. Reflect on the language, tone, and attitude expressed in Engels’s
“Preface” to the English edition of 1888. Marx’s language and analysis: make a list of
what you think are key terms and concepts in this text. How does Marx view history?
What is the nature of humanity and human society in Marx’s view (human nature is
essentially good, but society corrupts? human nature is essentially evil, and society
redeems or controls? human nature fixed and unchanging, or not? social control a
necessary evil, or a force for reform and for good?) What is most fundamental in Marx’s
thought? What is the most revolutionary concept you find in this text? What does Marx
think is his most significant contribution? Also consider the following: Why does Marx
spend so much time denouncing and refuting heretical leftist docrines in Part III? Try to
establish continuities with other texts we have read. Marx has been called by Erich
Fromm “a humanist, for whom man’s freedom, dignity, and activity were the basic
premises of the ‘good society.’” Can you substantiate or support this view from the
Manifesto (another opportunity to consider the questions, what is The Good for Man?
what is the Good Life?)?
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Twelfth Week:
4 November: Discussion of The Communist Manifesto. Start reading in The Darwin
Reader, pp. 52-111. Consider the logic of argumentation and rhetoric of exposition in
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Darwin. How does Darwin work from particular cases to general conclusions or deduced
laws, compared to Machiavelli's movement from historical examples to regola generale?
How does Darwin's process of reasoning in natural science compare to Marx and Engels'
in constructing a "theory of historical progress"? [More questions on Darwin will be
posted on the course Bulletin Board or the Listserv.]
6 November: Finish discussion of The Communist Manifesto. Begin discussion of
Darwin's writings--issues in the assigned pages. For next time, read in Darwin Reader,
pp. 111-135, 175-204.
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Thirteenth Week:
11 November: Darwin: discussion of issues in the assigned reading.
12 November: Third Evening Class, Hale Hemisphere Room, 7:00-9:20 PM;
Romanticism and the Enlightenment Project continued; Grand Theory in the Nineteenth
Century. Examples of paper topics for Term paper distributed.
13 November: No class scheduled. Start reading Tolstoi, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, for
Thursday. Problems of technique: consider the point of view from which this story is
presented. Why use third person limited center of consciousness, keeping you largely
restricted to Ivan Ilyich’s perceptions and thoughts, instead of simply going to first
person narration, or a consistently external ominiscient narrator? Why does Tolstoi start
with Peter Ivanovich? Look for instances of intrusion of authorial judgment and evaluate
the calculated effect. Does it matter to our response to Ivan that we know authoritatively
what his wife and daughter think at various times? What is the significance of Gerasim?
Pacing of the story: note how Tolstoi manipulates narrative time, quickly covering years
of events in brief summary ("narrative treatment"), then drawing out the direct
presentation of certain scenes and incidents ("scenic treatment"). What is the purpose of
this manipulation of time and density of presented detail?
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Fourteenth Week:
18 November: Begin discussion of Death of Ivan Ilyich. Finish reading Ivan Ilyich for
Thursday. How does Tolstoy present society in this story: is the machinery for attaining
The Good social? is it simply individual self-gratification or “self-fulfilment”? “What
must I do to be saved?” according to Tolstoy?
20 November: CLEAR FINAL PAPER TOPIC WITH ME BY TODAY. Finish
discussion of The Death of Ivan Ilyich. For next session, Tuesday before Thanksgiving
break, read Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents. Is Freud a rationalist? Could you
call him (as Phillip Rieff does in a book title, a "moralist"? Is he a liberal, or “liberating”
thinker (think about what this label ought to mean, considering its etymology, before you
go off on a tangent--could you put him in any justifiable way in the same category with J.
S. Mill). Is he a realist? Or would you characterize him as a pessimist? Consider this
book, the product of the late ruminations of one of the genuine transformers of culture
and thought, an immensely and widely cultivated central European intellect at the end of
a distinguished and productive career, but reflecting on civilization in the shadow of the
Great War and the rise of fascism; what is your reaction to the prospects this text projects
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or implies for the future of the dialogue your have followed so far, and the civilization
that dialogue reflects, influences, and criticises? Over the Holiday, bring the ideas and the
methods of Marx, Darwin, and Freud into dialogue in your mind in preparing for our
final Wednesday evening meeting the second week after we return from break.
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THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY, 26-30 NOVEMBER
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Fifteenth Week:
2 December: Discussion of Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents. Attend
particularly to Freud's remarks concerning women and their role in culture. Are Marx,
Darwin, and Freud fulfilling the Enlightenment project, or subverting it? What do we
need to sustain us in this world? Get a head start reading Achebe’s Things Fall Apart for
next week).
4 December: Marx, Darwin, Freud, and the cumulative weight of the European
adventure in thought up to the twentieth century. For next week, finish Achebe.
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Sixteenth Week:
9 December: Discussion of questions raised by Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in terms of
themes of the course, complicated by the setting of the story in a non-European culture—
individual responsibility and will, education and socialization, the individual conscience
and authority (of the culture, or tradition, in this case), concentration on means and
concentration on ends; considerations of universals vs. social constructionist or relativist
perspectives. Is Achebe’s book formally clearly something outside the Western Tradition
as we have seen it? Or does it incorporate Western forms and practices with elements
native to Achebe’s Nigerian roots? Are the issues of moral action, desire, ambition, “the
good life” as they emerge in this book intelligible in terms of Plato’s analysis, or
Machiavelli’s, or Mill’s or Freud’s, or are wholly foreign criteria called for?
10 December: Evening meeting at 7:00-9:20 PM, Hale Hemisphere Room, for final
group discussion with all classes of 297. Achebe’s book and its place in the “great
conversation.” Overview. TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS HANDED OUT
AT THIS SESSION.
11 December: NO REGULAR CLASS MEETING (I will be available in the classroom
to discuss the latest readings or larger overviews of the texts and issues of the course with
anyone who wishes to confer.)
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TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAMINATION HANDED OUT IN CLASS
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 10, DUE IN ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OFFICE, DE 106
BY 4:00 PM, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18.