HRS 105 Approaches to the Humanities

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1 HRS 105 Approaches to the Humanities Tuesday/Thursday 3:00-4:15 MND 1020 Professor V. Shinbrot Office: 2014 Mendocino Hall Office Hours: Tues 4:25-6:25, Thurs 4:30-5:20 Please Note: I will send updates, essay prompts, etc. to you via your saclink . Please be sure that the address you provided when you registered is current and active. Course Description: An advanced study of interdisciplinary methods applied to the contemporary arts (literature, music, and other modes of humanistic expression). General Education Area C2 (for students with catalog rights before Fall 2002) Course Objectives: This course aims to develop a clear understanding and vocabulary of basic stylistic principles and ideas across the disciplines (literature, art, music, history and philosophy) and to enable the student to conduct cross-disciplinary research and analysis. We will focus our study on the idea of transformation and more specifically how notions about the function of art and the role of the artist change throughout Western culture. Additional objectives include: Developing keen analytical skills through close and careful readings of the texts, thoughtful, well-written essays and class discussion. Demonstrating the ability to use and apply a basic vocabulary of terms and principles that refer to the visual arts, literature and philosophy. Identifying and explaining key terms like Romanticism and Expressionism and comparing how these terms apply to the different branches of the arts and humanities and how they vary across national boundaries and historical contexts. Conducting thorough research using the library s vast resources and other media such as slides, power point, recordings etc. to assist in oral and written presentations. Required Texts: The Tempest, Aesthetics English Romantic Poetry The Basic Kafka Art Theory The Real Thing Reader, Available at University Copy and Print, 446 Howe Ave (Behind Tokyo Fro s on Fair Oaks Blvd., ). Please purchase by the second class meeting. Grading and Assignments: Class attendance and participation are essential requirements of the course. Students are expected to come to class prepared with their

2 own questions, ideas, comments and creative input to discuss in an open-minded and stimulating environment. Failure to prepare for or attend class will seriously lower your grade. Departmental Policy states that more than one week of absences from class will result in the lowering of the student s grade one-half step per each additional absence. Please do not schedule appointments that conflict or coincide with the scheduled meeting time of this class. Leaving early for an appointment will count as an unexcused absence. At the start of class please be sure to turn off all electronic devices including laptops and cell phones. Laptops are not permitted due to the frequency of student misconduct. Sending text messages, answering cell phones, doing other work in class, chatting with neighbors, falling asleep or behaving or speaking in an uncivil or aggressive manner to any member of the class including the instructor, will automatically lower your participation grade by one full grade each time you do so. Engaging in the afore mentioned activities, especially text messaging, will also result in your immediate dismissal from the classroom. Note: If you have a disability and require accommodations, you need to provide disability documentation to SSWD, Lassen Hall 1008; Course Requirements: Essay One: 20% Midterm: 20% Essay Two: 25% Reader Responses/Class Participation: 15% Final: 20 % NB: No make-up exams will be given. Failure to attend class will result in an F for the exam barring exemptions made by the instructor. NB: I will not accept assignments sent to me as attachments. You must turn in hard copies. Reader Response Papers: 1-2 paragraphs of analysis of a specific passage of the assigned reading or an outline of an assigned chapter of Art Theory when relevant. See syllabus for due dates. Absolutely no late papers accepted. Plagiarism: Should you plagiarize intentionally or unintentionally regulations require that the assignment receive the grade of F and that the matter be referred to Student Affairs for further disciplinary action. Please bring relevant books to each class meeting. Assignments must be completed by the date listed on the syllabus. This syllabus may be subject to change as the semester proceeds. Week One: Introduction to the Course Tuesday, August 30th Thursday, Sept.1st Read Chapter One in Art Theory. Week Two: Tuesday, Sept. 6th Read excerpts from Hesiod s Theogony and Ovid s Orpheus and Pygmalion in

3 Reader. Thursday, Sept. 8th Week Three: Tuesday, Sept. 13th Thursday, Sept. 15th Week Four: Tuesday, Sept.20th Thursday, Sept. 22nd Week Five: Tuesday, Sept. 27th Thursday, Sept. 29th In Aesthetics read excerpts from Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus. Reader Response 1 Due The Renaissance/Reformation. Read Chapter 2 in Art Theory and Selected Readings in Reader. Read The Tempest Acts I-II Response Two Due. Read The Tempest Acts III-V. Conclude the Tempest and Read Selected Readings in Reader. Response 3 Due Week Six: Tuesday, Oct. 4th Thursday, Oct. 6th Week Seven: Tuesday, Oct. 11th Thursday, Oct. 13th In Art Theory read Chapter 3. In Aesthetics read selections from Longinus. In Reader, read selections from Kant, Schlegel and Schiller and excerpts from Kleist, Hoffman and Beethoven. In English Romantic Poetry please read Blake s The Tyger, and Shelley s Hymn to Intellectual Beauty and other poems. Drafting Workshop and David/Beethoven Response 4 Due In Reader please read excerpts of Wordsworth s Preface to the Lyrical Ballads and In English Romantic Poetry read: Wordsworth s The Solitary Reaper, Keats s Ode to a Nightingale, Essay One Due In Reader please read Shelley s Defense of Poetry (pp , ), and Orpheus, Coleridge s Kubla Khan. and Byron s Prometheus

4 Week Eight Tuesday, Oct. 18th Thursday, Oct.20th The Transcendental Imagination. Read Selections from Emerson and Hawthorne s Artist of the Beautiful in Reader Read Hawthorne;s Drowne s Wooden Image in Reader. Response 5 Due. Week Nine: Tuesday, Oct. 25th Thursday, Oct. 27th Week Ten: Tuesday, Nov. 1st Thursday, Nov. 3rd Week Eleven: Tuesday, Nov. 8th Thursday, Nov. 10th MIDTERM Please Read Chapter 4 in Art Theory. TBA The Mid-Nineteenth-Century. In Reader please read Baudelaire s The Poet and Modern Life and poems and Wilde s Preface and poems as well as selections from Nietzsche in Aesthetics In Aesthetics please read Benjamin s Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In reader please read James s The Real Thing. Response 6 Due In The Basic Kafka read A Hunger Artist. In Reader please read selections from Freud and others. In Reader please read Woolf s Professions for Women and poems by H.D and other Selected Readings From Tzara etc. Response 7 Due. I Week Twelve: Tuesday, Nov. 15th Thursday, Nov. 17th Week Thirteen: Tuesday, Nov.22nd Please read Art Theory Chp. 5. In Reader please read selections from Langston Hughes and others. In Reader please read selections from Carter and others. Response 8 TBA

5 Thursday, Nov. 24th Week Fourteen: Tuesday, November 29th Thursday, December 1st Thanksgiving In Reader please read selections from David Foster Wallace, Baudrillard and others. Response 9 Week Fifteen: Tuesday, Dec. 6th Thursday, Dec.8th Final: Tuesday December 13 th 3:00-5:00 Draft Workshop: Please be sure to bring 3 copies of the first two pages of your essay to class. Draft Workshop Essay Due

HRS 105 Approaches to the Humanities

HRS 105 Approaches to the Humanities Tuesday/Thursday 3:00-4:15 MND 1024 Professor V. Shinbrot Office: 2014 Mendocino Hall Office Hours: Tues.4:20-6:20, Thurs. 4:20-5:20 Email: vshinbrot@csus.edu Please