Here you'll find a copy of our course syllabus, as well as required primary source readings assigned to complement the chapters assigned in our official course textbook. :D Be sure to bookmark this site and come back regularly! I usually update the excerpts on Fridays or Sundays. Always make sure to refresh the page when you visit.

Please note that the assignments on this page may differ from those provided on the preliminary syllabus linked below. Go by the assignments on this page, please, as the syllabus schedule is tentative. :) If you read ahead, be aware that the assignments may be tweaked during the week for which they have been assigned. See the schedule below for precise assignments. Remember - website readings are REQUIRED.

Administrative Stuff:

* Course Syllabus - includes course policies and general information on all assignments/exams, so MAKE SURE YOU READ AND UNDERSTAND IT. This is a copy of the syllabus I pass out at the beginning of the semester, so be aware that the schedule listed on it may change. It's important that you check the detailed assignment list below, and stay tuned in class, for precise, updated assignments. Remember - website readings are REQUIRED.

Assigments:
(assignments are to be read by the date under which they're listed)

Week 1 - January 18- Class Intro/Prehistory and the Near East (Ch. 1 in text; Gilgamesh excerpts on website)

* Gilgamesh Excerpts and Summary- For those who did not get a paper syllabus in class, the Gilgamesh and Odyssey study questions that were included on the last page are also located here. You don't need to turn in answers to these questions.

* Gilgamesh Full Text (Just for Fun)

Week 2 - January 25- Aegean Civilizations & Archaic Greece (Ch. 2 in text; Sappho and Odyssey excerpts on website)

* Sappho - Lyric Poetry

* Homer - The Odyssey - For those who did not get a paper syllabus in class, the Gilgamesh and Odyssey study questions that were included on the last page are also located here. You don't need to turn in answers to these questions.

* For reference: The Homeric Hymns - Includes poetic summaries of the Gods' and Goddess' lives and deeds.

Week 3 - February 1- Classical Greece: The Hellenic Age/FILM (Ch. 3 in text; Sophocles, Plato, and Aristotle excerpts on website)

* Photos from Ancient Greece - Bronze Age and Beyond!

Week 4 - February 8- Continue with Classical Greece 1: The Hellenic Age/FILM: Greek Theatre (Ch. 3 in text; Sophocles, Plato, and Aristotle excerpts on website)
- ALSO: Classical Greece 2: The Hellenistic Age (Ch. 4 in text; Epicurus on website)
- PAPER ONE ASSIGNED

*Paper One assigned; based on Greek tragedy/Oedipus film watched in class AND our the play text itself .

* Epicurus - Letter to Menoeceus

Week 5 - February 15 - NO CLASS!

Week 6 - February 22 - Pre-Christian Rome (Ch. 5 in text; Vergil and Ovid excerpts on website) - PAPER ONE DUE!

*Paper One DUE; based on Greek tragedy/Oedipus film watched in class AND our the play text itself .

* Vergil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphosis

Week 7 - February 29- Christian Rome and Judaism (Ch. 6 in text; Tertullian)

* Tertullian - On the Apparel of Women, Books ONE and TWO.

Week 8 - March 7- Late Rome and Byzantium/Early Midaeval West (Ch. 7 in text; Augustine ≥Confessions≤ and Beowulf excerpts on website)

* St. Augustine, Confessions - Book 8, Chapters 10-12 - Searching for/finding faith. St. Augustine lived at a time when the old era was dying, and a new, Christian order was beginning in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

* Beowulf - Chapters 11 & 12 (Grendel's death; the Epic Tradition in Anglo-Saxon literature). An epic poem of early Christian Britain, originating around the 8th c. AD. Like several of the other epics we've dealt with, it was first transmitted through oral tradition. The poem evidences a turning point in western civilization, in combining Christian values and the old pagan fascination with good vs. evil, as well as the exploration of heroic fragility (remember, for example, Gilgamesh's eventual failure to ultimately triumph over death; it could be argued that the eponymous hero, Beowulf, suffers the same kind of anticlimactic fate). For background on the full story of Beowulf, see this Wiki summary.

Week 9 - March 14 - Late Rome and Byzantium/Early Midaeval West (Ch. 7 in text; Augustine ≥Confessions≤ and Beowulf excerpts on website)
- March 14- Islam (Ch. 8 in text; Rumi and Arabian Nights excerpts on website)

* Catch up with previous week's material

* Introduction to the Arabian Nights plus Rumi's poem “The Arab and His Wife,” or “A Man and a Woman Arguing”

* Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, from the Arabian Nights - Translation provided by the ELF at arabiannights.org. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of each page to progress through each section of the story.

* Photos of 20th century "Moorish" revival: Cairo's Mosque of Ibn Tulun vs. I House: http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ & http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=334

Week 10 - March 21 - NO CLASS!

Week 11 - March 28 - High Middle Ages (Ch. 9 in text; Lancelot and Hildegard von Bingen on website)

* Selections from Lancelot and Hildegard's poetry here.

* Hildegard von Bingen: Quia ergo femina mortem instruxit (a modern interpretation from Canticles of Ecstasy, by Sequentia). This .mp3 file works for some and not others; try downloading it to disk. If it still won't work, don't worry about it. :)

Week 12 - April 4 - Late Middle Ages/Early Renaissance (Chs. 10 & 11 in text; Chaucer and Alberti excerpts on website)

* Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: General Prologue and Modern English Text of The Wife of Bath. More resources on the story available here.

* Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting: Book 2

Week 13 - April 11- High Renaissance/Northern Renaissance (Ch. 12 & 13 in text; Machiavelli, Castiglione, More excerpts on website) - MIDTERM

* Midterm exam in class!

* Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, Books 1 & III.

* Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapters 15, 16, 17.

* Sir Thomas More, Utopia. Read three sections of Book II - The sections headed "Of Their Trades, and Manner of Life," "Of Their Military Discipline," and the section on religion that follows.

* Optional: William Shakespeare, Sonnets. Read Sonnets 60 and 116, including the commentary. Good site, just watch the popup ad.

*Weelkes, "As Vesta was from Latmos hill descending."

*View DaVinci's Last Supper in excrutiating detail! ;D

Week 14 - April 18- Baroque Age (Ch. 14 & 15 in text; De la Cruz, Hobbes, and Locke excerpts on website)

* Sor Juana de la Cruz ~ Poem excerpt

* Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan - Part One, Chapter 13 (it's not very long :) )

* John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government - Chapters 9 and 19

* Vivaldi - Spring from The Four Seasons

Week 15 - April 25 - The Age of Reason/Revolution (Chs. 16 & 17 in text; Wollstonecraft, Austen, Jefferson, Madison excerpts on website)

* Mary Wollstonecraft, Introduction from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Full text here.

* Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice Chapters 1-3.

* Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence (linked from main page)

* James Madison, The Federalist Papers, Federalist No.s 10 & 51

* Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - Allegro

* Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique - March to the Scaffold

Weeks 16 & 17 - May 2 and 9 - The Triumph of the Bourgeoisie/Early Modernism/FILM: Metropolis (Chs. 18 & 19 in text; my companion piece to the textbook chapters 17/18, Shelley excerpts, and Marx & Engels excerpts on website)

* Paper Two assigned on May 9 and due on May 16, based on viewing of Fritz Lang's Metropolis in class.

* Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Ch. 4 and 5 here.

* Marx & Engels - The Communist Manifesto

Week 18 - May 16 - Modernism and Beyond/FILM: Disneyland Goes to the World's Fair (Chs. 20 & 21 in text; Lawrence, Orwell, Imperial Letters, and World’s Fair excerpts on website) - PAPER TWO DUE

* Paper Two due!

* Imperial Russian Letters, photos, and Olga's & Tatiana's "stories" at livadia.org: Grand Duchess Olga | Grand Duchess Tatiana---- Please note that the above "life stories" were not actually written by Tsar Nikolai II's daughters; they were written by me in first person using facts gleaned from my research. The letters included in the "works" and "letters" sections, however, are authentic, and of their own hands. See also alexanderpalace.org for more information about the last tsar of Russia and his family.

* D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Chapter 1. A story about adjusting to life after the Great War (understatement! understatement!). ;)

* George Orwell, Animal Farm, Chapters 1 & 2 . Written in 1945, Animal Farm is an...interesting...allegory for the Russian revolution. The "Marx" figure and all the key Bolshevik figures are...you guessed it...pigs!

* 20th century America and the New York World's Fair (1964-65)

Week 19/20 - Thursday, May 29 from 8am-9:50am.

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