Course description:  This is an interdisciplinary study of cultural movements in art, architecture, literature, philosophy, and music, from the origins of human cultures through the middle ages.  The class will be a mixture of lecture and discussion, though I hope that discussion will predominate.  The first class meeting of the week will tend to include more lecturing while the second class meeting will be more focused on discussion of the primary texts.  The amount of time we cover is enormous—about 3,000 years:  one could easily spend a whole semester on any of several centuries we will pass over all too quickly.  The usefulness of the course (aside from the pleasure of the reading, viewing, and listening), will be to give you a broad—not a deep—background as a basis for further study and enjoyment of the humanities.

Student learning outcomes:  (1)  Students should complete the course with a much clearer understanding of the artistic and intellectual heritage which informs our own culture.  (2)  Students should gain experience reading, analyzing, discussing, and writing about complex texts.  (3)  Students’ skills in both oral and written communication should develop substantially through the course—don’t take this course if you do not wish to exercise these skills. Here is the formal statement of student SLOs:

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

·      Define key terms of artistic and intellectual movements from a culture-based perspective, providing a basis for their interpretation and evaluation

·      Identify the elements and movements in art, music, literature, and popular culture in each period being studied and describe how these movements relate to one another

·      Interpret and compare primary texts and examples of art and cultural artifacts from the time period or culture which produced them

·      Analyze recurring human problems across geographical and temporal boundaries and the peculiar problems unique to particular cultures and periods

·      Describe how the Western philosophical and cultural heritage acts as a continuing influence on the arts and ideas of the present

·      Demonstrate understanding of fundamental problems in Western thought through analytical and critical discussion of relevant arts and ideas

·      Demonstrate understanding of fundamental problems in Western thought through analytical and critical written assignments totaling a minimum of 3000 words per semester

Prerequisite & workload:  While there is no prerequisite for this course, all major requirements of this section require good writing skills, and eligibility for English 1A would be a distinct advantage—having completed English 1A would be even better.  As you will see, there is a fair amount of reading for this course.  College courses assume that students will spend two hours outside of class for each hour in class—thus students should expect to spend 7 hours preparing for class each week.  I have organized the reading and writing requirements of the course so that you should be able to remain within these boundaries.

What is “different” about this class?  I suspect many students are accustomed to courses in which you learn by memorizing definitions, concepts, and ideas from a textbook, and providing the right answer on exams.  The most important questions raised within the humanities are questions for which there are no agreed upon answers.  Learning in the humanities requires a two-part process:  you must learn the names of important people and their works or ideas, but you must also learn to think critically about their work and ideas.  The best way to learn this material is to talk about it, and I will feel free to call on people to discuss their reactions to what we read, see, and hear without waiting for students to volunteer.

Students with documented disabilities that might impact on their performance in this course should speak with me or contact Disabled Student Services at 222-8060.

course requirements & grading

Quizzes  We will begin each week with a quiz whose intent is to “encourage” you to keep up with the reading, so it is important that you arrive on time.  The quizzes will ask questions about broad themes from the week’s reading; it would be wise to start each week’s reading late the preceding week and not leave it all until the night before class.  Each quiz will have two short answer questions, which will be graded 0, 1, or 2, with the total averaged: you must average one point per quiz to pass the class.  There will be no make-ups for quizzes; if you can’t help missing a quiz and wish to make it up, I will have you write something in lieu of the quiz (for one point) if you inform me ahead of time (contacting me via email or voicemail is acceptable).  The two students with the highest quiz totals at the end of the semester earn an “A” in the class without needing to take the final exam provided they have met all other course requirements.  I will drop all students who miss the first two quizzes.  Leaving before the end of class may result in your not receiving credit for that day’s quiz.

Students will write two five-page essays.  The first essay, on The Iliad, will be due Sept. 29.  The second essay, on Augustine’s Confessions, will be due Nov. 17.  In the case of each essay, it is not important what position you argue:  it does matter how carefully you compose your argument in light of the information you have available to you from our reading.

The first essay:  Is the Iliad a pro- or anti-war poem?  Does reading the poem glorify warfare in a way that would make its hearers approve of warfare, or does it depict the results of fighting in a way that would make its hearers seek to avoid conflict?  You must submit the first essay on time or make arrangements for an extension to remain in the class thereafter.

The second essay:  What aspect of Christianity most attracted Augustine to convert?  What did Christianity offer that Roman culture did not?  Was Augustine most attracted to Christian philosophy?  to Christian ethics?  to a Christian “lifestyle”?  What aspects of Roman culture were the hardest for Augustine to leave behind?  How relevant is Augustine’s process of conversion to the attractions of religious conversion in our society?

Essays should be five (or more) numbered pages, typed (double-space), spell-checked, proofread. If you use quotations you must cite them properly (I am not fussy about which academic convention you use).  You must submit the first essay to remain in the class thereafter.  Failure to number pages, cite quotes, or spell-check will result in the reduction of your score.

Exams:  There will be a midterm and a final, due October 20 and during the final exam time slot.  The format for both exams will be a take-home essay.  In both cases, I will ask students a single question which will require that they be able to interrelate the art, literature, and philosophy we have studied.  Since the exams are to be completed at home, students will have access to all books and their notes.  Both must follow proper writing conventions.  To earn full credit both must range between 5 & 7 pages.  Both essays and both exams are worth 100 points each.   End of term grades are assigned as follows:  ≥ 90%, A; ≥ 80% B; ≥ 70% C; ≥ 60% D; < 60% F.  Include an email address at the beginning of your final exam essay if you wish final comments & score/grade to be sent to you.

Midterm exam topics:  Your essay should compare and contrast at least three different cultural periods and discuss both a primary literary text and a visual object for each culture.  The cultures we have studied include (1) ancient Mesopotamia; (2) Egypt; (3) early Greece (the Cyclades, Minoan & Mycenean Greece); (4) classical Greece (including the archaic, classical and Hellenistic periods); (5) Rome (including the Republic and the Empire).  Choose one of the following:

•   Discuss different visions of the Gods.  What do/es god/s expect of human beings?  How are they related to human beings?  Do they act as positive or negative role models for human behavior?  How are they visualized or symbolized by the cultures which have acknowledged them?  Does worship of these god/s make people “better”?  In what way?

•   Discuss different versions of human excellence.  What attributes should human beings emulate—courage? intelligence? reverence? humility? public service?  How do ideas about what is “heroic” shape the ideas and arts of the cultures we’ve studied?  Can an intellectual or a saint be “heroic”?  Can an artist be heroic?

Final exam topics:  Whichever question you select, your essay should compare and contrast at least three different cultures and discuss in detail both a primary literary text and a visual object for each culture.  The cultures we have studied include those listed above plus, (6) Islamic culture (7) the middle ages.

•   Where/when would you choose to live and why?  Where would you not wish to live?  Sumer, Egypt, Troy, Athens, Rome, the medieval monastery, the late medieval city?  What qualities of life do you value and why do you see those qualities highlighted in the communities you respect?  What qualities of life do you particularly not respect, and where do you see those qualities emphasized?  How do the arts & ideas of a culture make it more or less attractive to live in?

•   Describe the life of women.  How have the opportunities available to women varied across the cultures we’ve studied?   Are women considered subordinate to men in a consistent way or are there important variations among different cultures?  Are the sources that survive reliable in terms of depicting the life of ordinary women’s lives?

seven suggestions for your success:

(1)       DON’T PROCRASTINATE.  Make a point of keeping up with the reading.

(2)       ASK QUESTIONS:  no other habit will contribute more to you and your classmates’ success.

(3)       Expect that you will need to read primary texts (and possibly the textbook) more than once, in order to wind up with a clear understanding of the material.

(4)       Take notes on both the reading and class discussions.  (Your notes will help you with exams.)  In particular, write down interpretive questions which intrigue you but you aren’t sure how you would answer. 

(5)       Whenever possible, discuss the readings with another person and think about what you’ve read.  The more actively you engage the course material, the higher your prospects for excellence in the course.

(6)       PLEASE contact me (in class, during office hours, by phone, or email) when problems arise about what you are seeing, hearing, or reading.

(7)       Read the calendar section of a good newspaper (the LA TIMES) and compare what you’re learning with the daily pageant of American culture.  If you spend any time making use of the Internet, do some directed browsing to learn more about what we are seeing, reading, and listening to.

seven hints for writing a better interpretive essay:

(1)       Take a stand; a successful interpretive essay requires a point of view; it requires more than the ability to summarize what you’ve read; there is no wrong argument, but the right argument requires that you be able to explain and support your point of view.

(2)       Don’t wait until the last minute to write the essay.  Because you are making an argument, you will need time for your argument to settle in your mind and to see if you really believe the argument you are going to convey.

(3)       Make sure your essay has a structure that conveys your point.  No single structure is right for every essay, but you should be able to tell that the organization of your essay carries your reader from your introduction, through the body of the essay which supports or illustrates your argument, to the conclusion where you draw the threads of the essay together and indicate to your reader why he or she should share or at least respect your point of view.

(4)       Make sure you have given credit where credit’s due; all quotations should be cited and any additional works that helped you should be identified on a work cited page.

(5)       Give your essay a creative title that attracts and focuses your reader’s attention and prepares him or her for the argument you are going to present.

(6)       Make the essay the best you are capable of writing:  spell-check before you print the final copy.  Add page numbers by hand if you don’t know how to get your word processor to do this for you.  Staple the pages together and proofread your work before you submit it.  Better yet, have a friend proofread and point out any details that are unclear or passages that could be more clearly written.

(7)       Don’t be discouraged if the grade isn’t what you’d hoped for.  Read through the instructor’s criticisms carefully to see which ones help you understand how the essay could have been better.  Speak to your instructor (during office hours is better than following class) to understand any criticisms that you didn’t understand.  Most instructors do not like to be asked how a piece of work could have gotten a higher grade; most instructors do like to be asked how a piece of work could have been of higher quality (and would have earned a higher grade).

Finally, a note on plagiarism:  I wish it were unnecessary to point this out, but. . . The Internet makes it very easy to find information to submit as though it were your own work. This is called plagiarism, a form of cheating. The Internet also makes it easy to locate the source of text that doesn't quite sound like it was written by a student in an introductory course. Plagiarism on any course assignment will result in you forfeiting all credit for the assignment. Feel free to use the Internet as a resource but remember to always acknowledge work which is not your own. I refer cases of plagiarism on to the Dean of Instruction for appropriate action.

The reading schedule usually asks you to read a narrative chapter from the Cunningham & Reich book, and specific readings from the C&R chapters, and chapters from the other four books on the reading list.  You do not need to read the primary texts in the C&R book that aren’t listed.  This is a fair amount of reading though you should find it manageable if you break it up over a few days.