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 - February 11- Course Intro.

Week 2 - February 18

The Near East (Ch. 1 in text; Gilgamesh excerpts on website)

* Gilgamesh Excerpts and Summary- Please also review the first portion of these Gilgamesh and Odyssey study questions. You don't need to turn in answers to these questions, but be prepared to discuss them in class.

* Gilgamesh Full Text (For fun/reference)

Week 3 - February 25

Aegean Civilizations & Archaic Greece (Ch. 2 in text; Odyssey excerpts on website)

* Homer - The Odyssey - Please also review the second portion of these Gilgamesh and Odyssey study questions. You don't need to turn in answers to these questions, but be prepared to discuss them in class.

* Sappho - Lyric Poetry - Not required, but an interesting comparison to the Homeric, epic poetry. How are they different? What do you think accounts for these differences?

* For reference: The Homeric Hymns - Includes poetic summaries of the Gods' and Goddess' lives and deeds. This will help you "get to know" some of the divinities alluded to in the Odyssey.

Week 4 - March 4 - Paper One Assigned (click link for prompt)

Classical Greece: The Hellenic Age/FILM: Greek Theatre/Oedipus Rex (Ch. 3 in text; Sophocles full text & Plato excerpts on website)

* Republic, Oedipus Rex, Poetics (Poetics is not required)

* Photos from Ancient Greece - Bronze Age and Beyond!

Week 5 - March 11 - Paper One Due

Classical Greece 2: The Hellenistic Age (Ch. 4 in text; Epicurus on website)

* Epicurus - Letter to Menoeceus

Week 6 - March 18

Pre-Christian Rome (Ch. 5 in text; Vergil and Ovid excerpts on website).

* Vergil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphosis

Week 7 - March 25

Christian Rome and Judaism (Ch. 6 in text; Tertullian)

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

Week 8 - April 1 - SPRING BREAK - NO CLASS

Week 9 - April 8

Late Rome and Romeπs "Heir Civilizations:"  The Byzantine Empire, Early Medieval West, and the Old Islamic Empire (Chs. 7 & 8 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).

* Rumi's poem “The Arab and His Wife,” or “A Man and a Woman Arguing”

* 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 - April 15

High Middle Ages (Ch. 9 in text; Lancelot excerpts on website)

* Selections from Lancelot (and Hildegard's poetry, which is optional) 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. :)

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 11 - April 22

Late Middle Ages/Early Renaissance, Continued (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 12 - April 29 - MIDTERM EXAM

High Renaissance/Northern Renaissance (Ch. 12 & 13 in text; Machiavelli & Castiglione excerpts on website)

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

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

* Optional: 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.

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

Week 13 - May 6

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

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

Week 14 - May 13 - Paper Two Assigned

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)

* The Industrial Revolution and the Limits of Rationalism: Roots and Early Reactions

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

* Marx & Engels - The Communist Manifesto

Week 15 - May 20 - Paper Two Due

Modernism and Beyond (Chs. 20 & 21 in text; Lawrence, Orwell, Imperial Letters, and World’s Fair excerpts on website)

* 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 16 - FINAL EXAM: Thursday, May 27, 6-7:50 pm.

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