|
|
|
COURSE
DESCRIPTION
|
This course will
investigate the main currents of Western thought and culture from the ancient
world since the seventeenth century. While addressing social and political
themes, we will more carefully consider responses to these issues by leaders
in intellectual and cultural life. Using literary, philosophical and
political texts, as well as visual arts and music, we will study the major
intellectual trends of the Western tradition and attempt to determine their
influence on society.
Below,
please find links to the required course materials.
|
|
|
|
ONLINE
COURSE MATERIALS
|
First, print this
syllabus in full. [Right-click>print.]
Then, obtain the course materials available below.
The texts, images, and music examples listed there constitute our textbook.
The texts are in Adobe Reader format, so that format and pagination can be
retained. In total they amount to around 200 printed pages.
You are required to print the texts and bring them to consult during class.
You may, of course, print them as the course progresses - but I recommend
that you do so as soon as possible, and then put them in a three-ring binder.
Because of their large size, I ask you to study the images and listen to the
music files while online. You can, of course, print the music list and
“thumbnail” sheets of the images for off-line reference.
Assignments must be studied before coming to each session. Additional required
sources may be added.
|
|
|
|
LECTURES,
PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS
|
This course will consist of lectures and discussion. After introductions to each section of the course, I will ask two or three of you to each introduce a primary source for discussion, explaining how it represents basic themes of their "context." In doing so, you must follow an outline based on the Essay/Presentation Guidelines. (Click this link and print.) After giving your introduction, you must turn in the outline that you used, so that I can help assess the structure of your argument.These introductions will be prearranged during the second session of the semester. Depending on course enrollment, you will be asked to initiate discussion in this way numerous times during the semester. Performance on these introductions will constitute part of your class participation grade.Those not introducing materials are still responsible for reading, looking at, or listening to them. You are always expected to contribute to discussion, in response to the initial statements. General involvement in class discussions will also determine your class participation grade. |
|
|
|
COURSE SCHEDULE
|
{To be adjusted.]
We will follow this schedule as closely
as possible; but in order to cover this material thoroughly, some flexibility
is necessary. We will maintain the order of discussion outlined here, so pay
attention to where we are in the sequence, regardless of the specified date.
Some omissions may be necessary. If you have any questions about this, be
sure to ask me!
- M, May 3
Introduction to Course> Reformation & Baroque
- Tu, May 4
Absolutism & Rococo
- R, May 6
Enlightenment & Neo-Classicism
- F, May 7 Music
and History & Romanticism
- M, May 10
Realism & Impressionism
- T, May 11
Symbolism
- [W, May 12
Visit to Art Institute ]
- R, May 13 Post
Impressionism & Expressionism
- F, May 14 Mid-Term
Exam
- M, May 17
Nietzsche & Freud
- T, May 18
Cubism & Abstraction
- R, May 20 War
Fever & Futurism
- F, May 21 WWI
Poetry & Dada
- M, May 24
Inter-War (Weimar)
& Surrealism
- T, May 25 Totalitarianism
- [W, May 26
Visit to Art Institute ]
- R, May 27
Existentialism (Satre > Camus)
- F, May 28 Final
Exam
|
|
|
|
COURSE ACTIVITIES
|
[To be adjusted.]
Attendance at
major cultural events may be required:
For example,
-a concert of the Chicago Chamber Musicians
-a tour of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection of the Art
Institute of Chicago
Details about these events will be forthcoming. Attendance will be factored
into your class participation grade.
|
|
|
|
WRITING
|
The primary activity involved in the study of History is
expository writing. The discipline of History is therefore an excellent field
for developing research and writing skills. This course will pay serious
attention to the organization and composition of critical essays. All essays
- whether for presentations (given orally) or written exams and term projects
- must be structured thematically, with clear introductions, bodies, and
conclusions according to the course Outline
Guidelines.
Proper style and good grammar are also essential elements of expository
writing - not to mention academic and professional success. All essays -
whether for presentations (given orally) or written exams and term projects -
must be produced with the course Style Guidelines in
mind.
I suggest that you also purchase a college dictionary, a thesaurus, and an
English style handbook. If you have questions about formatting, see guides by
Kate Turabian on sale at any bookstore.
All students should make use of the resources at the university Writing Centers.
|
|
|
|
EXAMINATIONS
|
There will be a mid-term and a final
examination. The examinations will consist of identification and essay
sections.
|
|
|
|
TERM PROJECT
|
[To be adjusted.]
You will write a
typed, double-spaced paper, with foot- or end-notes. Your paper must
analyze at least one primary source represented in our reading (or elsewhere,
in consultation with me) and the assigned reading for that section of the
course. Your paper should demonstrate how your primary source communicates or
signifies the major themes of its cultural/historical context.
In
addition to written works, you may also utilize examples of painting,
sculpture, architecture, or music as your primary sources. Instead of a play
or poem, for instance, you might choose a painting from the collection of the
Art Institute of Chicago, a composition from your CD or record collection, an
architectural structure, etc. I require only that the source be related to
the broader themes and subjects of the course.
You are to complete this project in four stages: {To be adjusted.]
1. By class time Thursday, February 19, you must select your
context and primary source. Please submit a brief, written
committment to your topic.
2. On Thursday, March 14, you will turn in a one-page statement
of purpose (typed). It should summarize of the subject matter of your
work, review the primary source you are studying, announce the general aims
of your study, and list the sources you will use (in bibliographical format).
3. On Tuesday, April 2, you will turn in a three-page thematic
outline of your paper (typed). This must be more than a
"topical" outline. It should include a fully developed thesis
statement and subsequent entries should be in the form of full sentences. See
the Outline Guidelines.
4. At the beginning of class on Thursday, April 18, the finished
paper (typed) is due without fail. It must be written with the course
Style Guidelines in
mind.
|
|
|
|
QUIZZES
|
Short, unannounced quizzes may be given. Results
will be computed into your class participation grade.
|
|
|
|
GRADING POLICY
|
Grades
will be determined according to the following scheme: [To be adjusted.]
Grades
will be determined strictly according to the following scheme (x.9 is not
rolled up).
Attendance is required and will be recorded. Percentage of attendance will be
the basis for your "class participation" grade.
Substantial penalties (one half of a grade per day) will accrue on late
assignments.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated: be sure to carefully note all sources of
information, both primary and secondary.
Extra credit can be earned through active participation in discussion, and by
attending extra-curricular cultural events (to be announced).
Grade Reports will be provided via Email.
|
|
|
|
GENERAL MATERIALS
|
[Actual course files are available only to
enrolled class members, via Blackboard site.]
 To open
all ".pdf" files. [Install>Reboot>Open files.]
- All_Required_Readings.zip: Click to
save all the required texts at once as a "zip" file.
Then use WinZip
to extract the documents into a directory on your hard disk. Open and
print with Adobe Reader.
- MUSIC FILES Open and print
listing as a reference. You will have to listen to the actual links
on-line.
- ESSAY AND PRESENTATION
GUIDELINES Open and print. These are very important!
- COURSE STYLE GUIDE
Open and print. These are very important!
- MODEL EXAM [pdf]:
Open and print.
- VISUALS: Because of their
large size, you should just print the "thumbnail" pages of the
images. You will have to study
specific images in color while online.
|
|
|
|
TEXTS  AND IMAGES  ARRANGED BY CONTEXT.
|
[Actual course files are available only to enrolled class
members, via Blackboard site.]
[Left-Click to view and print. Right-Click to "save
target" to your computer, then print.]
To open
all ".pdf" files.
[Install>Reboot>Open files.]
MUSIC FILES are aligned with the following
contexts. See listing.
Required: 001_Reformation.pdf
*Reformation Images
Required: 003_Baroque.pdf
*Baroque Images
Required: 002_Absolutism.pdf
Bossuet: On the
Nature and the Properties of Royal Authority
Hobbes: The Leviathan
*Absolutist
Images
Required: 004_Rococo.pdf
*Rococo Images
Required: 005_Enlightenment.pdf
Rousseau: On the Origin of Inequality
Smith: The Wealth of Nations
Required: 006_Neo-Classicism.pdf
*Neo-Classical
Images
Required: 007_Music.pdf
Required: 008_Romanticism.pdf
Wordsworth, Various Poems
Brentano, Letter to Goethe
Beethoven, Letter to Brentano
Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
Selections from German Romantic Stories
Goethe, Faust, Part I
*Romantic
Images
Required: 009_Realism.pdf
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: The German Ideology
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Champfleury, Letter to Madame Sand, concerning M. Courbet
Zola: The Experimental Novel
Emile Zola: Germinal
*Realist Images
Required: 010_Impressionism.pdf
Zola, The Realists of the Salon of 1866
Zola, Naturalism in the Salon
*Impressionist
Images
Required: 011_Symbolism.pdf
Baudelaire, Various Poems
*Symbolist
Images
Required: 012_Post-Impressionism-Expressionism.pdf
Van Gogh, Letters
Background: Eugen Weber, Expressionism
Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art
Bahr, Expressionism
*Post-Impressionist Images
*Expressionist Images
Required: 013_Nihilism.pdf
Nietzsche, Various Aphorisms
Required: 014_Freud.pdf
Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
Required: 015_Cubism_Abstraction.pdf
Apollinaire, On Painting
Apollinaire, Various Poems
Background: Magdalena Dabrowski, "Kandinsky: Compositions"
Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art
Background: Serial Music
*Cubist Images
*Abstract Images
Required: 016_War-Fever_Futurism.pdf
Various "voices" of 1914
Various poems
Background: Eugen Weber, Futurism
Marinetti, The Foundation of Futurism
Marinetti, Futurist Manifesto
*Futurist Images
Required: 017_War-Poetry_Dada.pdf
Various war poems
Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
Background: Eugen Weber, Dada
Tzara, Dada Manifesto
*First World War
Images
*Dada Images
Required: 018_Inter-War.pdf
Yeats, The Second Comin
Alfred Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz
Readings on George Grosz
*Inter-war (Weimar)
Images
Required: 019_Surrealism.pdf
A Surrealist Manifesto
Andre Breton, What Is Surrealism
*Surrealist Images
Required: 020_Totalitarianism.pdf
Lenin, State and Revolution
Mussolini, What is Fascism
Hitler, Mein Kampf
Koestler, An Intellectual's Conversion
*Totalitarian Images
Required: 021_Existentialism-Sartre.pdf
Thomas Mann, Doktor Faustus
Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
*Abstract
Expressionism
Required: 022_Existentialism-Camus.pdf
Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
*Abstract
Expressionism
|
|
|
|
RECOMMENDED READINGS
|
[Actual course files are available only to enrolled class
members, via Blackboard site.]
The
social, political, and military history of Western
Europe will be the backdrop for our discussion of aesthetic and
intellectual responses to it. We will discuss the impact of major events like
The Reformation, The French Revolution, The Industrial Revolution, the First
World War, etc., but we will not have time to review them in detail. To gain familiarity with these basics (for
the "background sections" of your essays, for instance) you can
consult these files. This is not "required" reading, but background
information. Alternatively, you could look through a basic Western
Civilization textbook, such as the sections included below. These files are
protected against printing, so, you can read them either on-line or
on-computer. Alternatively, you could substitute any basic "Western
Civilization" textbook.
Recommended: 13-Reformation
Recommended: 14-Discov-Crisis
Recommended: 15-Absolutism
Recommended: 16-Scientific-Rev
Recommended: 17-Enlightenment
Recommended: 18-18th-C-Politics
Recommended: 19-French-Rev
Recommended: 20-Industrial-Rev
Recommended:
21-Reaction-Romanticism
Recommended: 22-Natlism-Realism
Recommended: 23-Progress
Recommended: 24-Fin-de-Siecle
Recommended: 25-WWI
Recommended: 26-Inter-War
Recommended: 27-WWII
Recommended: 28-Cold-War
|
|
|
|
RECOMMENDED FILMS AND OTHER LINKS
|
While rarely historically
"accurate," period films can give a lively sense of atmosphere -
and help you to better imagine the people behind the events/creations. At the
least, they might motivate you to investigate "what really
happened." Many of these links include "trailers."
Baroque
Farinelli
Restoration
The Last King
Rococo
Vatel
Dangerous
Liaisons
Valmont
Ridicule
Quills
Amadeus
Enlightenment-Neo
Classicism
Amadeus
Romanticism
Immortal
Beloved
Impromptu
Realism
Germinal
Symbolism
Total
Eclipse
Post-Impressionism
Vincent
and Theo
Lust
for Life
WWI
Gallipoli
Paths
of Glory
All
Quiet on the Western Front
Weimar Film:
Nosferatu
Caligari
M
The Blue Angel
Surrealist
Film:
Un Chien Andalou
Totalitarian
film:
Triumph of the Will
Abstract
Expressionism:
Pollock
|
|
|
|
|
