Western Civilization Syllabus

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HONORS 120: COLLOQUIUM IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION - Fall 2009

Required Texts
1. Lynn Hunt, et al., The Making of the West, a Concise History, Vol. 1 (2nd Ed., 2007)
2. Sarah Lawall, et al., Norton Anthology of Western Literature, Vol. 1 (8th Ed., 2006)
3. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, Revised Edition (Penguin, 2004)
4. William Shakespeare, Othello: Texts and Contexts, Kim Hall, Ed. (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006)
5. Readings on WebCT

Student Health Note – H1N1
With the expected return of the H1N1 flu to South Carolina this fall, you should visit Student Health Services if you have flu symptoms and a fever (and don't come to class!). You may return to class 24 hours after the fever has passed.

Course Description
By examining some of the most influential literary, philosophical, scientific and religious texts, together with art and music, from the Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation periods, we will explore the ways that people lived during each of these historical epochs, and the ways they thought about themselves and about their relations with one another, the gods, the state, and the physical world. The Hunt text will provide us with a general background for each period we cover, but most of the other texts consist of primary sources translated into modern English. The main focus of class discussions will be on the primary source readings, as these provide the most direct windows into the periods we will be studying, as well as an opportunity to develop your own skills of critical analysis, synthesis, and communication. Your active (and regular) participation in class discussions is expected. Students are responsible for all material presented in class, including changes in dates of examinations and papers. Students are expected to abide by the College's honor code, and any failure to do so may result in expulsion from the course with a failing grade.

Course Structure
Lectures and Discussion Sections: During the first class hour each morning, when the entire class convenes together, material will typically be presented in a lecture format, with opportunities for questions and brief discussion throughout. The second hour each day, during which only 20 students will meet together at a time, will be conducted as a discussion -- i.e. students are expected to help sustain the exploration of the assigned material through their own contributions in a more informal setting. Lecture and discussion sections will have distinct reading assignments, usually but not necessarily related.

Films: Over the course of the semester, three films will be shown outside of class. These are optional but recommended and will enable you to answer extra-credit questions on the exams. Times and places of showing will be announced early in the semester. When possible, the DVDs will also be made available for viewing in the Honors Center for a few days afterwards.
Student Group Presentations: Early in the semester you will be assigned (based on your own choices) to one of the Greek plays in the Norton text. As a member of a group of about ten students, you will read this text and devise a 15-20 minute group presentation. The texts will be paired, so that two groups will give presentations during the same class.

Quizzes: There will be roughly a dozen unannounced short quizzes interspersed throughout the course, devoted to the material assigned for the lecture for that day. There will be no make-up quizzes under any circumstances. We will, however, drop the two lowest quiz grades (or missed quizzes) in computing a semester quiz average.

Response Papers: You will be required to write four response papers throughout the semester. One must be handed in during each third of the semester (marked by the exams). These are short (approximately one page, typed and double spaced) papers on one of the readings for a particular day and due at 9am, before the start of the day's lecture. The goal of the response paper is to identify a pertinent issue that is raised by the reading or to ask questions about the reading that you think are worthy of further discussion. Papers will be graded on an A, B, NG scale. If you receive an NG, you must submit another paper. Response papers cannot be rewritten.

Examinations: There will be two (2) two-hour exams during the semester, plus a final exam. Although the individual exams will not be cumulative, some comparative questions will be included. All exams will be primarily essay questions, with matching, definition, or multiple choice questions comprising no more than a fourth of the total grade. A short handout on potential exam topics will be distributed a week in advance of each exam.

Paper: There will be a required analytical essay of approximately 8 pages (double-spaced and typed). This will be mainly an analysis of primary sources, drawing either on assigned readings, additional readings, or a combination of both. Suggested topics will be distributed during the semester. You are encouraged to suggest your own paper topics, but you must consult with one of the instructors about these before writing the paper. Papers are due at the beginning of discussion section on November 11.

Class Attendance and Participation: Active participation is expected. Regular and punctual attendance is required. Irregular attendance will detract from your class participation grade. A class roster may be used for keeping attendance records.

WebCT: The syllabus, all of the lecture outlines, PowerPoint presentations, and WebCT readings are available on the main WebCT site for HONS 120.  

Grading
Your course grade will be computed as follows:
Quizzes 10%
Exam 1 15%
Exam 2 15%
Group Presentation 10%
Paper 20%
Class Participation (Including Response Papers) 15%
Final Exam (Exam 3) 15%

Calendar of Reading Assignments

Abbreviations:
L: Lecture section
D: Discussion section
A&H: The Letters of Abelard and Heloise
HIST: Hunt, Making of the West
LIT: Lawall, Norton Anthology of Western Literature
Shakespeare: Othello
WEBCT: On-line readings

 8/26    Wednesday
1L:       Introduction: Physical Basis of Civilization:  Ancient Near East (JN)      
            HIST: xxxiv-xxxvi
D:         Meaning of Civilization

8/28    Friday
2L:       Cosmopolitan Bronze Age (BG)
            HIST 2-32
D:         Genesis & Gilgamesh
            LIT: 15-26, 34-46
            WEBCT: Gilgamesh

8/31     Monday
3L:       Homer and the Invention of the Alphabet (DP)
            HIST: 33-49
D:         Odyssey
            LIT: 100-106, 206-239, 287-301

9/2       Wednesday
4L:       Gender, Space, and Power in Epic (CT)
            HIST: 50-65
D:         Odyssey
            LIT: 301-365

9/4       Friday
5L:       Competition & Cooperation among Greek City-states(MM)
            HIST: 65-73
D:         Odyssey & Sappho
            LIT: 428-501

9/7       Monday
6L:       Socrates, Thucydides, & the Sophists (RN)
            HIST: 73-89
            LIT: 811-816 (Thucydides, “Melian Dialogue”)
D:         Trial of Socrates (Plato & Xenophon)
            LIT: 756-779 (Plato’s Apology)
            WEBCT: Xenophon’s Apology of Socrates

9/9    Wednesday
7L:       Plato & Aristotle on Physics and Cosmology (RN)
            HIST: 90-106
            WEBCT: Ancient Astronomy Chronology
D:         Philosophical Ideas of Plato & Aristotle
            WEBCT: Plato on Knowledge, Observation, & Nature
                        Aristotle on Nature & Science
           
9/11    Friday
8L:       Hellenistic Life, Thought, Religion (CD)
            HIST: 106-127
D:         WEBCT: Stoics & Epicureans

9/14    Monday
9L&D: Student Presentation of Greek Plays

9/16     Wednesday
10L&D: Student Presentations of Greek Plays

9/18    Friday
11L:     Captive Greece Captures Rome (DP)
            HIST: 128-156
D:         Aeneid
            LIT: 926-974

9/21    Monday
12L:     Marriage & Politics in the Roman Republic (MM)        
            HIST: 156-169
D:         Aeneid
            LIT: 974-995

9/23     Wednesday
13L:     How Rome Conquered the World (DP)
            HIST: 170-195
D:         Aeneid
            LIT: 95-1023
           
9/25    Friday
14L&D: EXAM ONE (Review, Review, Review)

9/28   Monday
15L:     Origins of Christianity (CD)
            HIST: 195-211
D:         Early Christian Accounts & Reactions
            LIT: 1082-1091
            WEBCT: Pliny, Gregory, Gospel of Mary

9/30    Wednesday
16L:     Neoplatonism & Augustine (MG)
            HIST: 222-235
            WEBCT: Plotinus, “On Beauty”           
D:         Augustine on Sex & Sin
            LIT: 1113-1123 (from Augustine’s Confessions)
            WEBCT: Augustine, Confessions, “Infancy”
                             City of God, Bk XIV

10/2     Friday
17L:     Fall of Rome or Birth of Medieval Europe? (JN)
            HIST: 212-222 & 235-257
D:         Barbarians at the Gates
            WEBCT: Tacitus

10/5    Monday
18L:     Muhammad & the Origins of Islam (MG)
            HIST: 258-275 & 303-309
D:         Koran
            LIT: 1148-1168

10/7    Wednesday
19L:     Ring-givers & Peace-weavers: Honor in Beowulf (CT)
            HIST: 275-296
D:         Beowulf
            LIT: 1174-1247

10/9    Friday
20L:     New Learning in the “Dark Ages” (MM)
            HIST: 309-337
D:         Carolingian Writings
            WEBCT: Dhouda, Einhard, Hrotsvit

10/12-10/13     FALL BREAK

10/14   Wednesday
21L:     Feudalism, the Church, and the Crusades (CD)
            HIST: 338-369
D:         Christian & Muslim Voices
            Song of Roland
            LIT: 1247-1260, 1270-1277, 1286-1305
            WEBCT: Usamah Ibn Munqidh, Book of Reflections  

10/16   Friday
22L:     Not in God’s Image? Women in Medieval Europe (BG)
            LIT: 1843-1868
D:         Abelard & Heloise
            A&H: 3-43

10/19   Monday
23L:     Monastic & Cathedral Schools (JN)
            HIST: 369-383
D:         Abelard & Heloise
            A&H: 47-89 & 211-223

10/21   Wednesday
24L:     Temptation and Temperance: Constructions of Desire in Chivalric Romance (CT)
            HIST: 367-369
D:         Marie De France & Chretien’s Perceval
            LIT: 1316-1355

10/23   Friday
25L:     Meanwhile Back in the East: Byzantium (DP)
            HIST: 245-267, 296-303
D:         Perceval and the Fisher King
            LIT: 1355-1374

10/26    Monday
26L:     Scholasticism (RN)
            HIST: 409-413
            WEBCT: Islamic Intellectual Renaissance
                            Condemnation of 1277
                            Doctrine of Double Truth
                            Medieval Critics of the Aristotelian Universe
D:         Aquinas’ Proof for the existence of God
            WEBCT:  Aquinas’ Proofs for the Existence of God

10/28   Wednesday
27L:     First European Revolution (JN)
            HIST: 384-411
D:         Dante
            LIT: 1456-1478

10/30    Friday
28L:     Courtly Love, Paolo, and Francesca (TBD)
            LIT: 1478-1481
D:         Dante
            LIT 1481-1506

11/2     Monday
29L:     Romanesque to Gothic (JN)
            HIST: 373-377, 413-423
D:         Dante
            LIT: 1546-1556 & 1566-1576

11/4    Wednesday
30L&D: EXAM TWO (Review, Review, Review)

11/6    Friday
31L:     Black Death and the Crises of the 14th Century (MG)
            HIST: 424-448
D:         Boccaccio & Marguerite de Navarre
            LIT: 1598-1630, 2101-2116

11/9   Monday
32L:     Gender, Family, and Society in Renaissance Italy (MM)
            HIST: 448-463
D:         Boccaccio & Petrarch
            LIT: 1634-1641
            WEBCT: Petrarch on Boccacio

11/11    Wednesday
33L:     Was there a Renaissance? (JN & DP)
D:         Chaucer (PAPER DUE)
            LIT: 1696-1732

11/13   Friday
34L:     Alternative Authorities: Medieval Women and Lay Piety (CT)
D:         Chaucer and Margery Kempe
            LIT: 1732-1756
            WEBCT: Margery Kempe

11/ 16   Monday
35L:     What Makes a Renaissance Prince? (BG)
D:         Machiavelli & Pico (Two Sides of the Renaissance)
            LIT: 1945-1961
            WEBCT: Pico

11/18   Wednesday
36L:     New Perspective in Renaissance Art (BG)
D:         Erasmus & Northern Humanism
            LIT: 1919-1945

11/20    Friday
37L:     Printing, Propaganda, & Protestants (CD)
            HIST: 472-479
D:         Everyman & Luther on Salvation
            LIT: 1821-1843
            WEBCT: Martin Luther: On the Bondage of thr Will

11/23   Monday
38L:     Spread of the Reformation (Team)
            HIST: 479-497
D:         (Panel discussion presenting views of Calvinists, Anglicans, Unitarians, Catholics, Anabaptists)   Struggles over Belief
            WEBCT

11/25-11/27 - THANKSGIVING BREAK

11/30    Monday
39L:     Race, Ethnicity, and Xenophobia in Early Modern Europe (CT)
D:         Othello: Acts 1-3

12/2    Wednesday
40L:     Post 1492: New Socioeconomic & Intellectual Realities (MG)
            HIST: 463-471, 567-577
D:         Othello: Acts 4 & 5 & pages 171-196

12/4    Friday
41L:     Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and the New World Order (RN)
            HIST: 498-521
            WEBCT: Gilbert Hernandez, “Space Case” (from Love and Rockets)
                          Copernicus, De Revolutionibus
D:        Galileo, the Church, and the Scientific Revolution
            WEBCT: Galileo & the Church
                          Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

12/7     Monday
42L:     Witches and Witch-hunting in Early Modern Europe (MM)
D:         Montaigne and Cervantes
            LIT: 2178-2181, 2190-2199, 2217-2260

***FINAL EXAMINATION: Friday, December 11, 8:00 a.m.***