1/10:Read "Slave Narratives" (494-498) and Douglass (520-543); Write response 1
2. Freedom and Security
1/13: Read Jacobs (499-520); a timeline of Jacobs's life until 1861. As a woman and as a mother, Jacobs's experience of slavery and escape to freedom is very different from Douglass's. What do we learn about slavery that we did not learn from Douglass? What does freedom mean to Jacobs? Notice how she addresses white women readers, whom she hopes will identify with her, but whom she hopes will not judge her by their own codes, which prescribed chastity.
1/15: Read Whitman "Song of Myself" (845-859). What does freedom mean to Whitman? From what does he want to liberate himself? With whom does he identify?
1/17: Read Dostoyevsky, "The Grand Inquisitor" (963-982);
We will probably start our discussion by talking about the Inquisitor's analysis of the three temptations of Christ. If you're not familiar with this story, you can read it in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, which you can find at biblegateway.com in your choice of translations. Write response2
3. Romanticism and the Quest for Freedom
1/20: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
1/22: Read Faust (553-585) Resources: Faust Reading Guide, Faust Study Guide What deal does Mephistopheles make with God? Why is Faust troubled? What drives him to contemplate suicide? What does Faust believe is the value of knowledge? What impulse does he describe feeling on p. 583?
1/24: Read Faust (585-609); Write response 3
What inner conflict torments and drives Faust? What deal does he make with Mephistopheles? What passages are most important to understanding this deal?
4. Faust and the Romantic Hero
1/27: Read Faust (609-643)
1/29: Read Faust (643-677)
1/31: Read Faust and the Romantic Hero (710-732); Write response 4
5. Romantic Music, Poetry, and Art
2/3: Romantic Music: Read this introduction to Romanticism. Read "Isn't It Romantic? The Music of the Nineteenth Century" by Robert Greenberg (pdf below). Explore Romantic music.
2/7:Romantic Lyric Poetry:Read "The Romantic Lyric" (754-759). Read Wordsworth, "The world is too much with us" (747); Smith, "The Sea View" (761); de Lamartine, "The Lake" (776-77); von Droste-Hulshoff, "In the Grass" (785-86); Leopardi, "The Solitary Thrush" (793-94); Castro, "I Tend a Beautiful Plant" (795-96); Read "Some notes about the Romantic lyric"; Write Response 5
6. Science and Creation 2/10: Romantic Painting: Presentation (Jessica and Kathleen)
2/12: Darwin, excerpts from Origin of the Species; Presentation (Jeremy and Nick)
2/17: Read "Society and Its Discontents" (1031-1048)
2/19: Read Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych (983-1010)
2/21: Read Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych (1010-1030); Write response 6; Presentation (Madi and Danielle)
Consider: What is an epiphany? What is Ivan's epiphany? What does it mean and why is it important? Compare Ivan's epiphany with the speaker's epiphany (or failure to experience an epiphany) in Emily Dickinson's poem, "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--" (1149); Write Response 6
8. Realistic Heroines and the Situation of Women
2/24: Sick day
2/26:Read Ibsen, A Doll's House, Acts 1 and 2 (1058-1101); Presentation (Alex and Tanner)
2/28: Read Ibsen, A Doll's House, Act 3 (1101-1116); Presentation (Alycia and Rachel); Write Response 7
3/7: Read The Declaration of Sentiments; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Woman's Bible (excerpt); Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, "Adam and Eve"; Write Response 8
3/31: Read Henk de Berg, "How to Gain Access to the Unconscious" (17-30) (pdf) and Kafka "A Country Doctor" (pdf) and "The Judgment" (pdf); We will interpret "A Country Doctor" as a dream and "The Judgment" in terms of the Oedipus complex. Important concepts: dream work, symbolism, dramatization, condensation, displacement Questions for "A Country Doctor":
Make a list of motifs, characters, or events that appear in pairs, as doubles, or happen twice.
Can you find examples of things being replaced by their opposite?
Which visual images seem to have meaning (even if you don't know what the meaning is)?
Can you think of how this story might express a wish of the doctor's? Freud said that fantasy wishes fall into two categories: ambitious or erotic wishes. Can you find evidence of either type of wish here?
4/2: Read Kafka, The Metamorphosis, Parts 1 and 2 (1386-1412); Presentation (Kaitlyn and Chris)
4/4: Read Kafka, The Metamorphosis, Part 3 (1412-1423); No response due this week
13. Modernism in the Arts
4/7: Modern painting; Presentation (Rebekah and Andy); Essay due
4/9: Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1433-1437); Presentation (Blake and Huy)
4/14: Read Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 1-8 (1597-1636); Presentation (Casey and Maggie)
4/16: Read Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 9-15 1636-1666)
4/18: Read Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 16-25 (1666-1693); Write response 12
15. Postcolonial Reconsiderations
4/21: Screening: Chocolat
4/23: Screening: Chocolat
4/25: Chocolat discussion; Write response 13 In class we will discuss 1) questions you have about the movie, 2) repeated patterns and motifs, 3) issues the movie raises in comparison with Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart.
16. Exam Week
4/28: Wrapping up; In class course evaluations (bring a laptop or tablet)
Schedule of Readings and Assignments
1. Slave Narratives and Emancipation
1/6: Snow day!1/8: Introductions
1/10:Read "Slave Narratives" (494-498) and Douglass (520-543); Write response 1
2. Freedom and Security
1/13: Read Jacobs (499-520); a timeline of Jacobs's life until 1861. As a woman and as a mother, Jacobs's experience of slavery and escape to freedom is very different from Douglass's. What do we learn about slavery that we did not learn from Douglass? What does freedom mean to Jacobs? Notice how she addresses white women readers, whom she hopes will identify with her, but whom she hopes will not judge her by their own codes, which prescribed chastity.1/15: Read Whitman "Song of Myself" (845-859). What does freedom mean to Whitman? From what does he want to liberate himself? With whom does he identify?
1/17: Read Dostoyevsky, "The Grand Inquisitor" (963-982);
We will probably start our discussion by talking about the Inquisitor's analysis of the three temptations of Christ. If you're not familiar with this story, you can read it in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, which you can find at biblegateway.com in your choice of translations.
Write response 2
3. Romanticism and the Quest for Freedom
1/20: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day1/22: Read Faust (553-585)
Resources: Faust Reading Guide, Faust Study Guide
What deal does Mephistopheles make with God? Why is Faust troubled? What drives him to contemplate suicide? What does Faust believe is the value of knowledge? What impulse does he describe feeling on p. 583?
1/24: Read Faust (585-609); Write response 3
What inner conflict torments and drives Faust? What deal does he make with Mephistopheles? What passages are most important to understanding this deal?
4. Faust and the Romantic Hero
1/27: Read Faust (609-643)1/29: Read Faust (643-677)
1/31: Read Faust and the Romantic Hero (710-732); Write response 4
5. Romantic Music, Poetry, and Art
2/3: Romantic Music: Read this introduction to Romanticism. Read "Isn't It Romantic? The Music of the Nineteenth Century" by Robert Greenberg (pdf below). Explore Romantic music.2/5: SNOW
2/7: Romantic Lyric Poetry: Read "The Romantic Lyric" (754-759). Read Wordsworth, "The world is too much with us" (747); Smith, "The Sea View" (761); de Lamartine, "The Lake" (776-77); von Droste-Hulshoff, "In the Grass" (785-86); Leopardi, "The Solitary Thrush" (793-94); Castro, "I Tend a Beautiful Plant" (795-96); Read "Some notes about the Romantic lyric"; Write Response 5
6. Science and Creation
2/10: Romantic Painting: Presentation (Jessica and Kathleen)
2/12: Darwin, excerpts from Origin of the Species; Presentation (Jeremy and Nick)
2/14: Darwin, excerpts from Descent of Man and responses to Darwin; Essay due
7. Materialism and the Bourgeosie
2/17: Read "Society and Its Discontents" (1031-1048)2/19: Read Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych (983-1010)
2/21: Read Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych (1010-1030); Write response 6; Presentation (Madi and Danielle)
Consider: What is an epiphany? What is Ivan's epiphany? What does it mean and why is it important? Compare Ivan's epiphany with the speaker's epiphany (or failure to experience an epiphany) in Emily Dickinson's poem, "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--" (1149); Write Response 6
8. Realistic Heroines and the Situation of Women
2/24: Sick day2/26: Read Ibsen, A Doll's House, Acts 1 and 2 (1058-1101); Presentation (Alex and Tanner)
2/28: Read Ibsen, A Doll's House, Act 3 (1101-1116); Presentation (Alycia and Rachel); Write Response 7
9. Realistic Heroines and Feminist Revisions
3/3: Read Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper." Presentation (Brittni and Evan)3/5: Read Chopin, "The Story of an Hour," and Bazan, "The Revolver" (1117-1124); Presentation (Mike and Peter)
3/7: Read The Declaration of Sentiments; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Woman's Bible (excerpt); Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, "Adam and Eve"; Write Response 8
SPRING BREAK
10. A European Perspective on Colonialism
3/21: Read Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1182-1201); Write response 9
11. The Modern Self
3/24: Read Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1201-1219)3/26: Read Freud, //An Autobiographical Study//, Ch. 1-4 (1-14) (pdf)
Important concepts: Repression, the unconscious, Oedipus complex, libido, transference
What is hysteria?
3/28: Read Freud, "The Interpretation of Dreams," Ch. 3-4 (pdf); Write response 10
Important concepts: manifest content, latent content, distortion
12. Modern Discontent
3/31: Read Henk de Berg, "How to Gain Access to the Unconscious" (17-30) (pdf) and Kafka "A Country Doctor" (pdf) and "The Judgment" (pdf); We will interpret "A Country Doctor" as a dream and "The Judgment" in terms of the Oedipus complex.Important concepts: dream work, symbolism, dramatization, condensation, displacement
Questions for "A Country Doctor":
4/2: Read Kafka, The Metamorphosis, Parts 1 and 2 (1386-1412); Presentation (Kaitlyn and Chris)
4/4: Read Kafka, The Metamorphosis, Part 3 (1412-1423); No response due this week
13. Modernism in the Arts
4/7: Modern painting; Presentation (Rebekah and Andy); Essay due4/9: Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1433-1437); Presentation (Blake and Huy)
4/11: Meet in the art museum (in the exhibition gallery) for a discussion with artist Dafna Kaffeman, whose work is on exhibit in the David Owsley Museum of Art throughout the summer; Write response 11
14. An African Response to Colonialism
4/14: Read Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 1-8 (1597-1636); Presentation (Casey and Maggie)4/16: Read Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 9-15 1636-1666)
4/18: Read Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 16-25 (1666-1693); Write response 12
15. Postcolonial Reconsiderations
4/21: Screening: Chocolat4/23: Screening: Chocolat
4/25: Chocolat discussion; Write response 13
In class we will discuss 1) questions you have about the movie, 2) repeated patterns and motifs, 3) issues the movie raises in comparison with Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart.
16. Exam Week
4/28: Wrapping up; In class course evaluations (bring a laptop or tablet)5/2: Final Project presentations, Fri., 7:30 - 9:30 am