Humanities III Information: Spring, 1997
KÄTHE KOLLWITZ (1867-1945)
The syllabus and schedule for Humanities III are below, along with the FAQ file (lots of inside tips!) and links to various sites with more on many of the writers, artists and events covered in the course.
Syllabus
HUM 213 Humanities III
Jim Satterwhite (Byers 208, ph. 3279)
Jeff Gundy (Old Ropp 202, ph. 3283)
DESCRIPTION Humanities III is the third of three team-taught, interdisciplinary courses in the humanities sequence of the Bluffton College Liberal Arts and Sciences program. This course will focus mainly on European history and culture of the twentieth century, with some discussion of non-western works. As with all three courses in the humanities sequence, we will draw on the disciplines of history, literature, religion, philosophy, art, and music. Most readings will be from primary texts. Specific goals of the course include:
Students will develop critical and analytical thinking -- as evident in ability to *handle historical, factual and textual evidence fairly; *analyze, synthesize, and thus produce reasoned arguments and original conclusions about the meaning of the evidence.
Students will gain historical consciousness -- as evident in ability to *identify the most critical issues that confronted particular periods and locations in western history; *recognize textual passages and artistic works as exhibiting characteristics of a given age, place, or culture; *identify stages in the development of Western European culture. *recognize and analyze the values and limitations of our own age through an awareness of the accomplishments and failures of the past.
Students will become aware of the aesthetic values of the arts and develop creativity, imagination and artistic expression of feelings--as evident in ability to *identify particular key works of art (literature, music, visual arts) from Western traditions; *identify major periods in Western art, in relation to other historical events; *identify ways in which individual artists and specific works of art reflect and critique the cultures from which they emerge.
Students will better understand themselves as persons whose identities are shaped through participation in a wider community and longer history -- as evident in ability to *recognize and analyze ways in which the inheritance of historical Western and non-Western cultures have shaped contemporary American culture; *recognize and analyze ways in which contemporary individualism, concepts of personal freedom, and affluence may have impoverished as well as enriched their own lives.
COURSE ACTIVITIES Two essays. Drafts of these essays will be read by tutors from the Writing Center, then returned for revision. Revised drafts (with first drafts attached) will be due later. More details about guidelines and topics will be distributed soon.
Midterm and final exams. The midterm will be a take-home exam; the final will be cumulative. Grading of both essays and exams will be shared by the instructors, across sections.
Active participation in discussion groups is required, as is regular attendance at all lectures and discussion sections. Because lectures will often deal with material not in our texts, attendance and careful note-taking will be crucial to success in the course. We reserve the right to lower grades for excessive absence. There may be occasional unannounced quizzes.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, which is defined in the Student Handbook as "presenting either the exact words or the ideas of someone else as though they are your own," is a serious breaking of the Honor System. Plagiarism includes: · quoting directly from sources without providing full, accurate citations; · paraphrasing or summarizing from sources without full, accurate citations; · quoting or (nearly quoting) from sources without using quotation marks, even if the source is cited. "Sources" include printed and electronic forms of material (including CD-ROM and Internet materials) and the work of classmates and others as well. Plagiarism is grounds for a zero on the assignment and/or failing the course, based on the judgment of the professors about the extent and seriousness of the plagiarism. Not understanding what plagiarism is will not be accepted as an excuse. If you don’t understand these guidelines, speak to one of the professors about it.
Academic Honesty: Bluffton College's Honor System
Bluffton College is a community of learners including both faculty and students. Students are on their honor not to give or receive aid during testing periods and will be asked to write and sign the following pledge on every examination paper: "I am unaware of any aid having been given or received during this examination." This honor system includes the responsibility of any individual who becomes aware of an offense to report it to the instructor. Sanctions for not upholding the honor of the learning community may include, but are not limited to, redoing the assignment, receiving a reduced or failing grade for the assignment, or failing the course, depending on the nature of the violation. (This paragraph and the one preceding are adapted/reprinted from material prepared by Loren Johns, with his permission.)
Grading
Final grades will be based on these factors:
Two essays (20% each) 40%
Midterm exam 20%
Final exam 30%
Attendance/quizzes 10%
Schedule and Location
The course will meet Mondays and Wednesdays in Ramseyer Hall. Discussion groups will meet on Fridays. Check your class schedule to see which group you are in.
Texts Greer and Lewis, A Brief History of the Western World (also used in Humanities I and II)
Davis et al., Western Literature in a World Context, vol. 2 (also used in Humanities II)
Havel, The Garden Party and Other Plays
A supplementary packet of readings, produced by the B.C. Bookstore with permission of the copyright holders. (Available soon.)
SCHEDULE Subject to change!
Date CLASS SESSION READING
Week One Europe around 1900: Empires, Nations, Colonies, and . . .
Mar. 10 Course introduction
12 Imperialism, Nationalism, Colonialism Greer 532-42
14 Discussion Kis, "On Nationalism"
NOTE: The reading for the first week is very light, but the second week is not. Read ahead!
Week Two Into "Darkest" Africa, and Darkest Europe
17 Conrad, Africa, imperialism Western Lit.: 1346-1421 (Heart of Darkness)
19 World War I: History and literature Greer 544-52, war poems: Marinetti, Brooke, Owen, Apollinaire; "Conflagration"
21 Discussion
Week Three Communism, Revolution, Modernism
24 Marx, Lenin, Russian Revolution Greer 508-16, 552-62
26 Modernism: literature Western Lit: Yeats 1504-18, Woolf 1570-82, Eliot 1614-30
28 Good Friday: No classes
Week Four Modern Art and Architecture
31 NO CLASSES
April 2 Art and Architecture (MAS) Greer 647-64, 562-79
PAPER DRAFT DUE
4 Discussion: Making Connections
Week Five Varieties of Craziness: Art and War
7 Surrealism/Dada (MAS and JGG) Tzara, Breton, "Language Events"
9 WW II/Holocaust (video) Essays by Steiner, Littell, Arendt, Bauman, Hilberg Poems: Brecht, Char, Oppen, Sachs
11 Discussion: WW II/ Holocaust
PAPER ONE DUE
MIDTERM EXAM DISTRIBUTED
Week Six Existentialism and Absurdism
14 Modern Music (SDJ) Greer 626-46
16 Existentialist/Absurdist Philosphy/Lit. Sartre "On Existentialism," Camus 1742-55
18 Discussion: Bugs and Beyond Kafka 1582-1614, Beckett, "Act Without Words"
MIDTERM EXAM DUE
Week Seven Nationalism, Modernization, and Post-Colonialism
21 Postwar Nationalism and the Three Worlds Greer 586-611
23 Another View of Africa Achebe 1421-1504
25 Discussion Neruda 1674-84
Week Eight Postmodernism and the Postmodern World
28 Social Themes in Art/Mod. Arch. (MAS) Duras 1770-93, Borges 1658-66
30 Postmodernism and Literature Svitak, essays
May 2 Discussion Calvino, Invisible Cities, Barthes, "The Death of the Author"
Week Nine Eastern Europe and the (ex)USSR
5 Post-modern Music and Art (SDJ, MAS) Havel, "The Memorandum"
7 History and Change Kundera, 1876-89
PAPER TWO DRAFT DUE
9 Discussion Akhamatova, 1630-41; Poems by Milosz, Szymborska, Herbert
Week Ten The Balkans; the Cold War's End
12 Literature and Politics
14 War in Balkans: What's it to us? Ali & Lifschutz, "Why Bosnia?"
What Next?
PAPER TWO DUE
16 Discussion and wrap-up
Week Eleven FINAL EXAM
The Humanities III FAQ: Answers to Some Frequently Asked Questions
Why is this course required?
The faculty at BC, overeducated dreamers that they are, believe that in return for all that tuition you pay you ought to get more from a BC education than mere job training, which can be acquired far more cheaply at technical colleges or right there at McDonalds. The particular focus of this course, European history and culture of the twentieth century, includes two world wars, massive changes in politics, technology, society, art, and economics. We could easily spend the next year, or the rest of our lives, studying the provocative and controversial events, ideas and artifacts of this period, and the ways in which they have shaped the world that we ourselves live in. Living an active, productive, and informed life in the contemporary world will be much easier if you have some sense of how things got to be the way they are.
What is the purpose of the course?
First off, to make you more aware of how we got where we are. The current moment didn't just happen; the conditions of our lives right now are the products of a very long and complicated chain of human and natural events. It's possible to survive in the physical sense in almost complete ignorance of those events, but the more aware you are of what has come before, the better able you will be to cope with the present and to prepare for the future.
Second, this course will put you in touch with some of the most important ideas and texts of the last century. Those materials continue to shape the human world, in ways that many people understand only dimly at best. Knowing more about T.S. Eliot and Chinua Achebe and Jean-Paul Sartre may not get you a better salary in your first job--but it will make you better prepared to think, talk, and work confidently and successfully with other intelligent and educated people. And that may not be such a bad thing.
Why is there so much reading?
The twentieth century has seen an explosion in all kinds of cultural production, from books and works of art to nuclear warheads and information technology. What we can read and view in one quarter is, of course, only a miniscule fraction of what has been thought and said during the period. But to do any justice to the period, it's necessary to explore as much of that production as possible. The reading list for the course has, believe it or not, been pared down considerably from what we would really like.
According to the Academic Affairs office, the standard rubric is that college students should expect to spend an average of two hours outside class for each class hour in order to get an average, passing grade. Reading and writing assignment for this course are based on those guidelines. High grades may, of course, require more work. If you have too many other commitments to spend that much time on this course, you may want to consider taking it at some other time.
Why is the reading so hard?
T.S. Eliot famously said that poetry in a difficult, complicated period had to be complicated and difficult itself. Whether he was right or not, it's true that many of the most famous and influential modern artists composed pieces that are challenging to read and understand. In large part, they were responding to a time that often seemed incredibly difficult, violent, almost chaotic, by creating art that both reflects and comments on those conditions. It's hard to be calm and placid in the middle of a hurricane.
What is the structure of the course?
The structure is mainly chronological. As the weekly headings below suggest, though, there are a number of important themes that run through the course. These include colonialism, imperialism, and nationalism in history; modernism and postmodernism in literature and art; marxism, fascism, war and the Holocaust; the rise and collapse of the Soviet empire and its effects. All of these themes and events are inter-related in ways that we will spend a good part of our time exploring.
What can I do to make sense of the reading and succeed in the course?
Good basic study habits will take you a long way. Read the materials as they're assigned, before the lectures/discussions on them; the class sessions will make a lot more sense that way. Read actively, with a pencil or marker in hand, and mark passages that seem important or confusing or striking. Read the introductions and editorial material in the Western Literature anthology and the study questions we distribute; they will give you a framework and handles on the readings. Keep up! If you fall behind, you'll find catching up a tough task.
What about those lectures?
All the research shows that if you sit passively during a lecture, you will remember very little of it even an hour later. Taking good notes during lectures will make an enormous difference in how much of them you retain. Writing down main points from overheads or the blackboard is a start, but don't expect every important point to be written down. Be alert for repeated points and elements the lecturer emphasizes. Write down definitions of terms, as well as the terms themselves, and explanations of categories and outline points. When in doubt, write more rather than less. Cultivate your ability to write fast, and use whatever shorthand works for you. You may not have much time to think and reflect during the lecture; concentrate on getting down as much information as you can, and then review your notes soon after the lecture. Discuss what went on with others in the class. One of the best ways to consolidate your own knowledge and prepare for exams is to explain things to others.
Links to Humanities Sites
Note: I found these links by searching the Internet, using a variety of search engines: Lycos, InfoSeek, Yahoo, and many others are useful and readily available just by clicking on the "Net Search" button. With a little patience you can find much more information than I've listed here. But these are good starting points; I've visited them all, and they have worthwhile material in them.
Joseph Conrad and Heart of Darkness
Resources on Heart of Darkness (on-line text and a search index)
Research Guide to Joseph Conrad (from Union College)
Joseph Conrad site (links to other sites, letters, etc.)
Comments on Heart of Darkness (student-faculty interchange at Lawrence U.) Also links to some lectures on Heart of Darkness.
Africa and African History
A History of Africa Brief, but includes a short quiz and "Africa A to Z"
Griot: Links to sites related to Africa and African history
Africa (Links to lots of sites related to Africa and African history)
The Importance of African History Today Surveys past and current ideas about "savage" Africa.
Marx, Lenin, and Russian History
The Marxism Leninism Project Lots of well-organized material on Marx, Lenin, and related subjects.
Karl Marx Writings of Marx and some secondary material.
World War I
World War I: Trenches on the Web An Internet History of the Great War
Isaac Rosenberg's 'Break of Day in the Trenches' (An Interactive Tutorial on World War I)
The War Poets (Informations on World War I poets and the war in general)
World War I Document Archive (Official Documents, Personal Memoirs, more)
More Links to photos, documents, and other sources on World War I
Art and Architecture
Art History Resources Organized by schools and periods, with lots of links.
WebMuseum Huge site with many famous paintings and painters. Includes material about the artists.
History of Architecture Lots of links.
Yahoo! Dada Index Links to Dada resources.
Dada Online Brief history of Dada and other information.
The Dada Server Somewhat flaky, fun page in the Dada tradition with link to The Surrealism Server.
Surrealism Server Lots of material and links on surrealism.
Other Poets and Artists