Honors Quest for Meaning and Values I

English 1218-001 / Philosophy 1218-001

Dr. Michael Cody                                                                                                 

Office: 211 Burleson Hall                                                                                      

Office Telephone: 439-6678                                                                                  

Office Hours: TR 8:00-9:30 a.m., TR 1:30-3:00 p.m., & other times by appt.

Email: codym@etsu.edu

http://faculty.etsu.edu/codym/

English Department: 439-4339

Description: This course is intended to provide students in the Honors Scholars Program with composition experience based on thoughtful examination of literature and philosophy. It is a rigorous course in the humanities that aims at deepening skills of critical reading and writing and at cultivating a broad cultural literacy. More specifically, this course is intended to foster exploration into the shaping of our values and the meanings of the self, other, and community as ideas about these appear in selected literature from the ancient through the early modern world. We will read plays from ancient Greece and Renaissance England, ancient and early modern philosophical and political essays, scripture and poetry.

Required Text: The Bedford Anthology of World Literature: Beginnings-1650. Ed. Paul Davis et al. Boston: Bedford, 2004. This title is also known as "Package A" and is made up of Books 1, 2, and 3. (ISBN: 0-312-40502-2)

Suggested Texts: A writer's handbook such as Strunk and White's The Elements of Style or the Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook; a good college dictionary.

Attendance: You are expected to attend every class meeting. Attendance affects your ability to perform on class work done for credit; it also affects your class participation grade. For this class, you may miss up to two (2) classes with little or no affect on your final participation grade; each absence beyond two lowers this portion of your grade.  IMPORTANT: No absences are identified as either "excused" or "unexcused"; therefore, absences should be conserved for necessity. REALLY IMPORTANT: More than six (6) absences—again, there are no excused/unexcused distinctions—results in automatic failure of the course.

Evaluation:  Course requirements include four to five essays of approximately 1250 words each in response to assigned topics (due periodically throughout the semester), regular reading quizzes in varying formats, class participation, and a final exam.

Late papers will be accepted in extreme circumstances, but a penalty of ½ letter grade will be assessed for each class period a given paper is late. Missed quizzes may be made up by e-mailing me; these make-up quizzes will be in a format different from the ones administered in class.

The grading scale is as follows: A = 92.6-100%; A- = 90-92.5%; B+ = 87.5-89%; B = 82.6-87.4%; B- = 80-82.5%; C+ = 77.5-79%; C = 72.6-77.4%; C- = 70-72.5%; D+ = 67.5-69%; D = 60-67.4%; and all others = F. I will grade individual essays from A to F, with varying degrees of - and +.

Opportunities for extra credit will be offered through out-of-class experiences such as attendance at any content-related events that might take place locally during the semester.

Scholarship note: Should you be receiving a Tennessee lottery scholarship, know what the GPA requirements are for maintaining eligibility, and work to earn that grade or better in the class. You will not receive special consideration because you find yourself in danger of losing your scholarship. I don't anticipate this being much of a problem with University Honors Scholars

Rules:

·    Plagiarism will not be tolerated. A single instance of proven willful plagiarism will result in automatic failure of the course. See your student handbook for other possible penalties. Whenever you're in doubt about whether or not something you're doing in an essay constitutes plagiarism, ask me.

·    Come to class on time, and bring your book, paper, and writing utensils.

·    Do not talk among yourselves when I have the floor.

·    Do not talk among yourselves when one of your classmates has the floor.

·    Do not ridicule or attack a classmate who voices an opinion with which you disagree. Let's be civil, even in our disagreements.

·    Be adults. Whenever we discuss topics in class that may offer varying degrees of religious, racial, and sexual material, I expect you to join in our conversations in a mature fashion. Be able to distinguish between the ideas of a character or narrative voice in a work and those of the author and your instructor.  If you have any problems with certain materials, please feel free to come talk to me in conference.

·    Although I discourage bringing children to class, well children are allowed if the child's presence has been cleared with me beforehand.

·    Absolutely no cell phones, beepers, and alarm watches should sing out in class. Turn off cell phones before class; either set beepers to vibrate or turn them off before class. If you're expecting a call/contact you simply can't miss, take an absence. What's the point in a watch alarm that sounds in the middle of class?

Perhaps the most important thing you can do to perform your best in this class—outside of working hard—is to stay in touch with me.  I can't help you if I don't know what problems you're having with meeting course requirements.  I'm available to you through e-mail, telephone, and personal conference.

Tentative Reading Schedule

I reserve the right to make any changes I deem necessary to the following schedule, but I'll do my best to give you at least two weeks' notice if any changes are made.

8/30—Meet & greet; introduction to the course: syllabus, handouts, some discussion of themes and reading materials for the semester

Reading material from Book 1

9/2—Creating the World and Defeating Apophis, 109-11; Hymn to Aten, 114-17; selections from Genesis, 140-61

9/7—The Descent of Inanna, 28-39; The Epic of Gilgamesh, 62-91

9/9—Hesiod, 263-77; Homer, The Odyssey, Books 1-9, 421-544 (read Books 1, 3, 4, 5, and 9 most carefully)

9/14—Homer, The Odyssey, Books 10-16, 544-654 (read Books 10, 11, and 12 most carefully); Paper One Assigned

9/16—Homer, The Odyssey, Books 17-24, 654-768 (read Books 19, 21, 22, and 23 most carefully)

9/21—from Job, 169-203

9/23—Sophocles, Antigone, 952-98

9/28—Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 1049-82

9/30—Plato, 1089-1116; Aristotle, 1151-55

10/5—from The Rig Veda and The Upanishads, 1338-51; from Bhagavad Gita, 1492-1514; from Ashvaghosha and Buddhist Texts, 1549-61; Paper One Due

10/7—The Book of Songs, 1576-1590; Confucius, 1594-1601; Laozi (Lao Tzu), 1605-10; Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), 1613-21

Reading material from Book 2

10/12—New Testament, 28-63; St. Augustine, 70-96; Paper Two Assigned

10/14—The Qur'an (Koran), 106-29; the Life of Muhammad, 134-57

10/19—Fall Break

10/21—TBA

10/26—Śakuntalā and the Ring of Recollection, 230-93

10/28—Man'yoshu poetry, 1018-44; the Pillow Book, 1063-86

11/2—Election Day: Vote if you're able!; from the Thousand and One Nights, 435-67; Paper Two Due

11/4—Boccaccio, 853-77; Paper Three Assigned

11/9—Chaucer, 885-932

Reading material from Book 3

11/11—Petrarch & European Love Lyrics, 67-119

11/16—Marlow, Doctor Faustus, 389-451

11/18—Machiavelli, The Prince, 124-37; Paper Four Assigned

11/23—Montaigne, "Of Cannibals," 214-24; Paper Three Due

11/25—Thanksgiving!

11/30—Shakespeare, The Tempest, 495-564

12/2—Shakespeare, The Tempest

12/7—"Challenging Orthodoxy," 661-94

12/9—Last Day of Class!

"Final" Interviews by Appointment; Paper Four Due