ALHN 196 – Honors Seminar
Course Description
In the second part of this year-long course we will read and discuss
important works of literature, drama, philosophy, and political thought from
the 17th century to the present. As in the first part of this
course, the guiding questions in the background of our discussions will be what
it is to be human, and how we should conduct ourselves in order to live up to
our potential as human beings, and to live a good or happy life. The selected
readings, more or less explicitly, provide various (partial) answers to these
questions, highlighting different aspects of human nature and the human
condition.
Berthold Brecht, The Life of Galilei; Jean-Jacque
Rousseau, Emile; Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe, Faust I; Oscar
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray; Henry David Thoreau, Walden and
Civil Disobedience; Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto; Sigmund
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents; Henrik Ibsen, A DollÕs
House; Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych; James
Joyce, The Dead; Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy; Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; Primo Levi,
Survival in Auschwitz; Italo Calvino, If on a WinterÕs Night a
Traveler; John Coetzee, The Lives of Animals; Tom
Stoppard, Arcadia
Berthold Brecht, The Life of Galilei; Moli?re, Tartuffe,
Immanuel Kant, ÔAn answer to the question: what is enlightenment?Õ; Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust I; Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, The Communist
Manifesto; Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents; Oscar Wilde, The
Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest; Henry James, The Turn
of the Screw, Henrik Ibsen, A DollÕs House; Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan
Ilych; Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion; Thomas Mann, The Death in Venice; James Joyce,
The Dead; Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus; Jorge Louis Borges, Selected
Short Stories; Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz; Italo Calvino, If on a
WinterÕs Night a Traveler; John Coetzee, The Lives of Animals; Tom Stoppard,
Travesties
Films
Leni Riefenstahl, The Triumph of the Will; Alain
Resnais, Night and Fog; Woody Allen, Crimes and Misdemeanors
Special Events
A trip to
Policies, requirements
Requirements and grading
There will be four short papers (about 4-6 pages each, 15%
each), an oral exam (20%), and your participation in class and through email
(see below) will be taken into account as well (20%).
Extensions
If you are unable to hand in your work on time for a legitimate
reason, we can arrange for you to submit your work at a later time. If you
donÕt have a good excuse there will be an automatic late-penalty of 0.333 on
the usual grading scale for every begun 3 hours of being late. (Example: if you
were supposed to hand in your essay in class, and you hand it in at 5 PM, and
you would have gotten an A, you will get a B+).
Attendance
This isnÕt kindergarten, so I wonÕt take attendance. But if you
arenÕt there you canÕt participate, and if you donÕt participate your
participation grade will be bad, and you wonÕt have any fun.
Plagiarism
Honor Code, see your academic handbook.
Please respect the honor code. Not doing so will cause a lot of
unpleasantness for all parties concerned. If there is a violation, the case
will be reported to the honesty committee. Detecting violations is easier than
you might think. So, please, stay out of trouble.
Preparation
The required readings vary in lengths, depending on the nature
of the material. Since our classes will mainly consist in discussing the
materials covered in the readings, it is expected of you to have done the
readings ahead of time. Each one of you will be asked to formulate one
question, objection, or problem for each reading assignment and to e-mail it to
me by 9 PM on the day before class.
Syllabus - Version I
Week I
Brecht, The Life of Galilei
Rousseau, Emile, book I
Week II
Emile, selections from books 2-3, TBA
Emile, Book 4 (all up to the "Profession of Faith of the
Savoyard Vicar"), Book 5 (opening pages on men and women, summary of the
argument of the Social Contract); topics for first paper will be distributed in
class
Week III
Goethe, Faust I
Faust continued; topics for first paper will be distributed in
class
Week IV
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, chapters 1-10
Dorian Gray, chapters 11-20
Week V
Thoreau, Walden, chapters 1-3
Walden, chapters 4-5, 11, 18, and On the Duty of Civil
Disobedience
Week VI
Marx, Engels, The Communist Manifesto; first paper due in class
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, sections I-IV; topics
for second paper will be distributed in class
Week VII
Civilization and its Discontents, sections V-VIII
Ibsen, A DollÕs House
Week VIII
Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych; second paper due in class
Leftovers, or Joyce, The Dead (photocopies will be distributed
in class)
Week IX
Spring Break
Week X
Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, preface, sections 1-11
The Birth of Tragedy, sections 12-25, topics for third paper
will be distributed in class
Special Events
Visit of the Art Institute,
and of the Lyric Opera in
Chicago. We will be seeing Richard WagnerÕs Goetterdaemmerung.
Week XI
Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, pp. 1-104
Denisovich, pp. 104-203
Week XII
Film: Leni Riefenstahl, The Triumph of the Will; and Alains
Resnais, Night and Fog
Levi, Survival in Auschwitz, chapters 1-8
Week XIII
Survival in Auschwitz, chapters 9-16, topics for fourth paper
will be distributed in class
Calvino, If on a WinterÕs Night a Traveler, chapters 1-6 (pp. 3-139)
Week XIV
If on a WinterÕs Night, chapters 7-12 (pp. 140-260)
Coetzee, The Lives of Animals
Week XV
The Lives of Animals continued, and Reflections on The Lives of
Animals; fourth paper due in class
Stoppard, Arcadia; topics for fifth paper will be
distributed in class
Week XVI
Arcadia continued, wrap-up
SYLLABUS VERSION II
Week I
Brecht, The Life of Galilei
Moli?re, Tartuffe
Week II
Immanuel Kant, ÔAn Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?Õ
(photocopies will be distributed in the previous class)
Goethe, Faust I, pp. 64-257
Week III
Faust continued, pp. 257-421
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, chapters 1-10; topics for
first paper will be distributed in class
Week IV
Dorian Gray, chapters 11-20
Marx, Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Week V
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, sections I-IV; first
paper due in class
Civilization and its Discontents, sections V-VIII
Week VI
James, The Turn of the Screw
Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilytch; topics for second paper will
be distributed in class
Week VII
Ibsen, A DollÕs House
Shaw, Pygmalion
Week VIII
Mann, The Death in Venice; second paper due in class
Death in Venice continued, and leftovers
Week IX
Spring Break
Week X
Joyce, The Dead (photocopies will be distributed in class)
Films: Leni Riefenstahl, The Triumph of the Will; and Alain
Resnais, Night and Fog
Week XI
Levi, Survival in Auschwitz, chapters 1-8
Survival in Auschwitz, chapters 9-16; topics for third paper
will be distributed in class
Week XII
Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, An Absurd Reasoning
Sisyphus continued, The Absurd Man, Absurd Creation, The Myth of
Sisyphus
Week XIII
Borges, Selected short stories; third paper due in class
Calvino, If on a WinterÕs Night a Traveler, chapters 1-6 (pp.
3-139)
Week XIV
If on a WinterÕs Night, chapters 7-12 (pp. 140-260)
Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Week XV
Stoppard, Travesties
Coetzee, The Lives of Animals
Week XVI
Film: Woody Allen, Crimes and Misdemeanors
Leftovers, Wrap-up; topics for fourth paper will be distributed
in class