World Humanities 101

“What it is like to be alive”

Description

Among many other things, literature tells us about what it is like to be alive. Reading the literature of the past can help us see that question in a historical sense: “What was it like to be alive then?” But it also makes possible another question that readers ask themselves as they try to relate to literature today: “Is this still what it is like to be alive?”

This class reflects on these questions by reading epics, tragedies, religious texts, narrative poems, and novels about people struggling to understand their world and themselves. We occasion this practice of reading by thinking about different answers to the question of why we should read literature, reflecting on what good a practice of reading does for ourselves and others. Throughout this course, we will develop an understanding of the relationship literature cultivates between an individual and their society, and how different literary forms attempt to represent the particular and the universal.

Goals

In this course, students will…

• Address the question of why we study literature

• Read major works of world literature

• Attend to the historical, cultural, and literary contexts of these texts

• Learn about the structural analysis of narrative

• Learn about the critical practice of close reading

• Learn about the genres and forms we encounter in this course

• Write and revise essays that analyze the central texts of this class

Required Texts

You must obtain copies of the texts listed below to read both inside and outside of class. Shorter texts and excerpts will be provided to you.

The ISBN-13 numbers (e.g. 978-0393089059) below reference the specific editions of the texts we will be using in this course. You can use them at any bookseller to find a copy of the correct edition for our course. They are also listed at CCNYbooks.com. It is essential that you have the course editions of each of the works we are reading in translation.

• Homer, The Odyssey¹

• Sophocles, Oedipus the King²

• Dante, Inferno³

• Shakespeare, Macbeth⁴

• The English Bible⁵

• Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain⁶

Course Schedule

Academic calendar: https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/registrar/fall-2018-academic-calendar

Watching film versions of the dramas can be useful, but is not required. If you are going to watch Oedipus on film, I recommend the 1967 Oedipus the King starring Christopher Plummer. For Macbeth, I recommend the recording of the 2010 production starring Patrick Stewart.

Assignments

Reading is your most important assignment in this course. The quality of your reading will be assessed through three written responses, which will be as follows:

Assignment One: Structure

750 words. Due by 9 AM on October 1

Select one aspect of The Odyssey and reflect on how it affects the poem’s narrative structure. You may choose any aspect of the poem: a character (e.g. Phemius), an object (e.g. Odysseus’s bow), a social practice (e.g. ritual sacrifice), a poetic device (e.g. Homeric epithets), a place (e.g. Troy), an idea (e.g. loyalty to a spouse), a narrative device (e.g. “meanwhile”), etc. Your essay must analyze this aspect over its full arc within The Odyssey, from beginning to end. What impact does it have on the world of the poem? How would the narrative be different without it? Because this is a short essay, it would be wise to choose a small aspect of the text.

Assignment Two: Synecdoche

750 words. Due by 9 AM on October 22

In this assignment, you will be practicing a method of literary criticism known as close reading. To do this, we attend to a very small section of a work, reading it many times over in order to understand not only what it is saying, but how it says it. This process often reveals more about not only the passage in question, but also the work as a whole.

Select a passage of no more than 100 words from either Oedipus or Genesis. Read it closely. What does it say? How does it make you feel? Which linguistic features cause those feelings, or advance its ideas? What role does it play within the larger work of which it is a part? Is it essential to understanding that work? If not, why is it there?

Whatever passage you choose, you must focus most of your analysis on specific aspects of the text: its words, their etymologies, syntaxes, discourses, etc. Less is, very often, more. It would certainly be possible to write your whole essay about one well-chosen word.

Assignment Three: Synthesis

2,000 words. Draft of introduction due Nov. 19. Due Dec. 23.

Your final essay synthesizes the approaches of the first two assignments in one longer piece. Here, you will analyze one work from this course by paying close attention to a few small pieces of it. You will reflect on how the part or parts of the text you have chosen represent its world, and the ways in which the people who live there relate to the world (or its representations). Your analysis might be comparative (e.g. How do the older and younger generations understand race in Go Tell It on The Mountain?) and/or critical (e.g. Why is this particular passage significant for understanding fate in The Inferno?) If you wish, you may expand on your ideas, topic, or arguments from assignment one or two. This prompt is deliberately broad: You may choose a text and topic that are of interest to you. We will refine our topics as a class through a drafting process.

To help you produce your best work, we will have three writing workshops throughout the semester, one for each paper. During each workshop, you will share work in progress with your peers. We will ask questions and provide feedback for one another. Each of the workshops will run differently depending on the requirements of the essay. For example, during the first workshop on The Odyssey, students will share the aspect of the poem they intend to write about, as well as what they have learned about it through their initial reading and research.

Grading

Miscellaneous

Email

• During the work week, I almost always respond to email within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me after that time, feel free to write again.

Office hours and appointments

• If you are unable to make the times listed for office hours, I would be happy to schedule a meeting outside of regular office hours. Please email me your availabilities to schedule.

Assignments

• Submit written assignments to me by email using MLA formatting.

• Late work carries a -10% grading penalty per day.

• To discuss writing in progress, please send me your text two days before we meet.

• Take advantage of CCNY’s Writing Center, located on the third floor of the NAC. You can make appointments, or attend a walk-in session: ccny.cuny.edu/writing

• Plagiarism is “the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own” (New Oxford American Dictionary). It is also a serious form of academic dishonesty prohibited under the CUNY policy on academic integrity. Failure to quote or cite an external source is a form of plagiarism, as is presenting one of your classmates’ ideas as your own. Copying text directly from sources is only permissible if four criteria are met: first, that the writer attributes the source by using both quotation marks and an appropriate citation; second, that the source is of a suitable caliber for academic use; third, that it is quoted at reasonable length; and, fourth, that the citation is used to advance the writer’s own argument.

Attendance

• Each student is allowed three unexcused absences per semester.

• Additional unexcused absences give zeroes for participation.

• If you know you will have to miss a class at any point during the semester, please let me know as far in advance as possible.

Accommodations

• The AccessAbility Center/Student Disability Services ensures equal access and full participation to all of City College’s Programs, services, and activities by coordinating and implementing appropriate accommodations. If you are a student with a disability who requires accommodations and services, please visit the office in NAC1/218, or contact AAC/SDS via email (disabilityservices@ccny.cuny.edu), or phone (212-650-5913 or TTY/TTD 212-650-8441).

• Please let me know about any accommodations you require as soon as possible.

Computers in class

• No computers in class, unless your accommodations require otherwise.

Mental and physical health

• Mental and physical health are essential for you to do your best work. If you are feeling unwell at any point during the semester, please let me know.

• CCNY’s Health and Wellness Services office is in room J-15 of Marshak, and can be reached by telephone at 212-650-8222. More information is available on their website: https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/health-wellness

• CCNY’s Counseling Center provides mental health services for students: https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/counseling