Seton Hall University Honors ProgramHONS 2105 AAColloquium on Contemporary CivilizationsSpring 2009Fahy Hall, Room 131 January 20, 2009 version This syllabus is subject to change; readings for discussion may be added or deleted during the course of the semester. |
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| Expectations and Assignments | Course schedule | Art Gallery | Reading List | Class Discussions |
Professors:
Dr. Petra t.D. Chu
Dr. Marian Glenn
office: McNulty 308
office hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 3-4
office phone: 973-761-9052
email: glennmar@shu.edu
Dr. Cherubim Quizon
office: JH 512
office hours: Tuesday, Thursday 4-5:30
office phone: 973-275-5892
email: quizonch@shu.edu
Dr. Judith C. Stark
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1/13 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Introduction
b.
c.
Discussion: Baudelaire, “Spleen”
(http://fleursdumal.org/poem/161) and
“Invitation to the voyage” (http://fleursdumal.org/poem/148)--Read
the William Aggeler translations.
d.
Discussion: Victor Hugo, First chapter,
Hunchback of Notre Dame
(Electronic Reserves; henceforth “ER”). |
1/15 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Romanticism
and Nature
a.
Nature
in art (lecture)
b.
Discussion: William Cullen Bryant,
Thanatopsis (http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/thanatopsis.html)
and three Wordsworth’s poems (Electronic Reserves henceforth ER).
c.
Discussion:
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, Recapitulation and
Conclusion (ER); and “
d.
|
1/20 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Romanticism:
God, Society, and the Individual
a.
The limits of reason;
questions about God and religious faith; epistemological revolutions:
empiricism, rationalism, and Kant's "Copernican Revolution.” (lecture).
b. Discussion: Thomas Malthus,
Essays on Population,
selection(http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/malthus/malthus.0.html) |
1/22 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Consequences
of the Industrial Revolution a. The
British textile industry: mass production, mass markets, slavery, and
colonialism (lecture) b.
Discussion: Lin Zexu
C. William
Wilberforce’s Abolition Speech of 1789, delivered in the House of
Commons
(http://www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/wilberforce2.htm).
|
1/27 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
The Media:
Social Impact and Political Power
a. Rise
of the media (lecture) b. Discussion:
Karl Marx, The Communist
Manifesto (bookstore) c.
Discussion: J.S. Mill, On |
1/29 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Realism in
Art: Artistic Responses to Social Inequity
b. Discussion:
Rebecca Harding Davis, Life in
the Iron Mills (bookstore) |
2/3 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Social
Inequity (and Attempts to End it)
in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Women and Slaves
http://www.closeup.org/sentimnt.htm#sentiments b. Discussion:
Speeches of
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/stanton_ny_legislature.html
c.
Discussion: William Lloyd Garrison, “The Governing Passion of my Soul”
(http://afgen.com/garrison.html) d.
Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” (http://www.uoregon.edu/~mjdennis/courses/hst456_douglass.htm) e.
Discussion: Sojourner Truth:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.html |
2/5 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
1870-1900: The
Golden Age of Bourgeois Culture
a.
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: artists’ responses to
high-bourgeois culture (lecture)
b.
Discussion: Emile Zola,
The Ladies'
c.
Discussion: Gauguin,
Noa Noa, selection (ER)
a.
For
“climate change day”:
Discussion: Bill McKibben, “Carbon’s New Math”
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/10/carbon-crisis/carbon-crisis-text |
2/10 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Reactions to
bourgeois culture
a. Discussion:
Thorstein Veblen,
The Theory of the Leisure
Class, chs. 2-4.
(ER) (http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/veblen/leisure/index.html) b. Discussion:
Dostoyevsky, Notes from
Underground, part 1 (http://eserver.org/books/dostoevsky-underground) c.
Nietzsche, Gay Science
(Gai Savoir), also
translated as Joyful Wisdom
(ER) |
2/12 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Imperialism
and Colonization
b.
Imperialism, the world fairs, and the ethnography museum (lecture)
c.
Discussion:
Leo Frobenius, The Childhood
of Man, 1909 selection (ER) |
2/17 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Imperialism and Colonization,
cont. a.
Discussion of Joseph Conrad,
Heart of Darkness
(bookstore)
b. Chinua Achebe:
selections from his essays (ER)
c. Film clip
d. Review for the midterm |
2/19 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
The
Birth of Modernism and the Collapse of
Traditions
a. The
birth of Modernism in art (lecture) b.
Discussion: Apollinaire, selected poems (ER) c. The
birth of Modernism in music (guest lecture, Robert Waters) |
2/24 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Midterm and
Freud a.
Midterm |
2/26 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
World War I
b. Film
clip:
The Great War c.
Dadaism (lecture) |
3/3 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
The Interwar
Period: Surrealism a. . Film clip:
selection of “Un
chien andalou” (Dali and Buñuel) b. . Discussion:
André Breton, Surrealist
Manifesto and poetry (ER) c.
Discussion: Kafka,
The Trial (bookstore) |
3/5 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
World War II
a.
Discussion: Hitler,
Mein Kampf
(ER)
b.
Film clip:
"Degenerate Art"
c.
Hannah Arendt,
Eichmann in Jerusalem,
selection (ER)
d.
Ruth Benedict,
The Chrysanthemum and the
Sword, chs. 1 and 2 (Blackboard-Course documents, henceforth
BB-CD) |
3/10 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Spring Break - No Class |
3/12 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Spring Break - No Class |
3/17 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Responses to WW II:
a. The European Exodus to
b. Einstein (film clip)
c.
Discussion: Steven Hawking, A Brief History of Time, ch. 2
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3/19 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
The Communist
Revolution and Russian Totalitarianism a. Discussion of A. Solzhenitsyn,
The Gulag Archipelago b. Discussion:
Anna Akhmatova,
Requiem
and other poems c. The
Russian avant-garde and social realism (lecture) |
3/24 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Cultural
Revolution in a. Discussion: Selected readings from Chairman Mao b. Discussion: Anchee Min, Red Azalea |
3/26 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Postcolonialism
a.
Discussion: Mahatma Gandhi, writings on Satyagraha (selection) ER
b.
Discussion: Frantz Fanon,
The Wretched of the Earth,
Preface (by J.P. Sartre) and ch. 1, “Concerning Violence” (ER)
c.
Discussion of
Edward W. Said,
Orientalism, Introduction (ER) |
3/31 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
The
a.
Discussion: Selected readings from Martin Luther
King and Malcolm X
http://ctah.binghamton.edu/Horton/Horton4.html
b.
Discussion: Barack Obama’s speech on race (
c.
Vine Deloria, Custer died
for your sins, chaps. 1,3,4, 11 (ER) |
4/2 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Environmental
Movement
a.
Discussion: Rachel Carson,
Silent Spring
(excerpt)(ER)
b.
Thomas L.
Friedman, “The Power of Green”
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/15/opinion/web-0415edgreen-full.php?page=2 |
4/7 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Second Wave of
the Women’s Movemen
|
4/9 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Holy Thursday - No Class |
4/14 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Postmodernism
a.
Postmodernism: Definition
b.
Discussion: Lyotard, “Universal History and
Cultural Difference (ER)
c.
Discussion: Foucault,
Discipline and Punish,
chapter on “Panopticism.”(http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html)
d.
Postmodernism in architecture and art (lecture) |
4/16 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Globalization
|
4/21 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Globalization, continued a. Discussion:
Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest, selection, chs. 1, 6, and 7 (ER) b.
Discussion: Reading TBD Review
for final exam |
4/23 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Contemporary
Islam a.
Discussion: Osama Bin Laden, “Letter to the American People.” November
2002.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6537.htm b. Discussion:
Fatima Mernissi, Dreams of
Trespass, selection (ER)
c. Discussion: Feisal Abdul Rauf, Intro and ch. 6 (ER) |
4/28 Chu Glenn Quizon Stark |
Current Issues
a.
Review
for the final exam
b.
Special
assignment (to be discussed in class) |
5/1 10:45 a.m. |
Final Exam |
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All students are required to read all assigned texts (see
syllabus). The following texts must be purchased for use in class in the
editions given below.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of
Darkness.
Davis, Rebecca Harding.
Life in the Iron Mills.
Feminist Press.
Findley, Timothy.
The Wars.
Penguin/Canada.
Freud, Sigmund.
Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis.
Norton.
Kafka, Franz.
The Trial.
Norton.
Marx, Karl.
The Communist Manifesto.
Bantam Classics.
Min, Anchee.
Red Azalea.
Mass Marketing Reprint.
Background
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Regular and punctual attendance is required. Since one class period is equivalent to a weeks work in a three-credit course, absence from class is tolerated only for the most serious reasons. If an absence from class is unavoidable, please notify us as soon as possible. Also, please plan ahead for attendance at any scheduled extra-curricular events and trips. Your presence on these occasions is expected and essential.
Assignments
Other than the discussion (see syllabus and below), students in this course will write a term paper and a series of short reviews of New York Times articles (4), movies (4), and on-campus events (lectures, exhibitions, concerts, plays; 3). Each student will also lead at least one group discussion. Finally, to better prepare for the midterm and the final, students should do background readings in Albert Craig, William A. Graham, Donald Kagan. Steven Ozment, and Frank M. Turner, World Civilizations (Prentice Hall, 8th edition). The book is on reserve in the library.
Academic Integrity
Any instance of cheating, plagiarism, or otherwise representing the words or work of others as your own is a violation of honesty and academic integrity and will render the student liable to serious penalties.
Term Paper
You may choose any topic (event, person, texts, ideas, art works, themes, questions, social movements) directly related to the course. Length 12-15 pages.
Dates for submission:
January 29: submission of topic and preliminary bibliography
February 19: outline and thesis statement
March 19: draft (at least one major section of your paper)
April 16: final paper with abstract
Sunday New York Times Reports
Each student will report on an article s/he has read in
the most recent Sunday
New York Times
once a month during the semester. Articles, preferably, should be relevant to
the material discussed in class. Reports should be 1 double-spaced page long and
must be posted on Blackboard (Discussion Board).
Movie Reviews
Attached to the syllabus is a list of films that are connected to various parts of the course. You will be required to write four film reviews chosen from this list (one each month). Due dates: Jan. 22, Feb. 17, March 31 and April 14. You are also urged to take advantage of the films that are offered as part of the Multicultural Film Series that runs every semester. You may use any of these films for your reviews as long as they are connected to some aspect of the course. We will keep you posted about the schedule of these films
Reviews of Lectures/Exhibitions/Concerts/Performances
Three reviews are required: one of an exhibition (in Walsh Library Gallery or an exhibition of 19th and/or 20th-century art in a museum in New York City or elsewhere); and a total of two more of a concert, lecture, or performance on or off-campus. Students will receive regular updates of events for this purpose. All reviews are due before or by April 28.
Grading Procedures
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All texts are discussed in class. Each discussion will be led by one or two discussion leaders.
Discussion Leader: Before leading the discussion in class, you should post five or six discussion questions on Blackboard. For the Tuesday discussion, post your questions by Sunday night and for Thursday, please post them by Tuesday night.
1.
Malthus, Essay on
Population
2.
Lin Zexu, Letter to
Queen Victoria and Wilberforce speech, British Parliament
3.
Marx, The Communist Manifesto
4.
J.S. Mill, On
5.
7.
10. Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground (part I)
12.
Conrad, J.
The Heart of Darkness
13.
Achebe, Chinua,
Hopes and
Impediments
14.
Freud, Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis
15.
Findley, T. The
Wars
16.
Discussion: T.S. Eliott, Kurt Schwitters, e.e. cummings (ER)
17.
André Breton,
Surrealist Manifesto
18.
Kafka,
The Trial
19.
Hitler, Mein Kampf
20.
Arendt, H. Eichmann in
22.
Steven Hawking, A Brief
History of Time
23.
Solzhenitsyn, A.
The Gulag Archipelago
24.
Anna Akhamatova, Requiem
25.
Anchee Min,
Red Azalea
26.
Mao Tse-tung, Sayings of Chairman Mao;
various speeches and writings
27.
Gandhi, writings on
Satyagraha
28.
Frantz Fanon,
The Wretched of the Earth,
preface and chapter 1
29.
Edward Said,
Orientalism
30.
Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Barack Obama,
writings and speeches
31.
Vine Deloria,
Custer Died for your Sins
32.
Rachel Carson,
Silent Spring
33.
Tom Friedman, “The
Power of Green”
34.
Susan Brownmiller,
Against our Will
and other feminist writings
35.
Lyotard, “Universal
History and Cultural Difference”
36.
Foucault,
Discipline and Punish,
chapter on “Panopticism
37.
Thomas Friedman, “It’s
a Flat World after All” and critique by Angelique Haugerud
38.
Vandana Shiva,
Stolen Harvest
39.
Osama Bin Laden, “Letter to the American People.” November 2002.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6537.htm
40. Fatima Mernissi,
Dreams of Trespass, selection (ER)
41. Feisal Abdul Rauf, Intro and ch. 6 (ER)
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Image at top of page: Joseph Stella, Panel from Voice of the City of New York Interpreted. The Newark Museum.
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