Western Red Cedar: Reed Humanities, Writers, Remarkable Conceptions, Loving Bliss

Reed Humanities' authors (and 1998 syllabus from the syllabi archive - academic.reed.edu/Humanities/Hum110/syllabiarchive.html) ...

These are all remarkable conceptions:


Aeschylus, The Oresteia, trans. Lattimore (Chicago)
Aristophanes, Lysistrata, trans. Henderson (Focus)
Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Ross (Oxford)
Essays on Ancient Greece (Pamphlet / Bookstore)
Euripides, Euripides V: Electra, The Phoenician Women, The Bacchae, ed. Grene and Lattimore (Chicago)
Herodotus, The History, trans. de Selincourt (Penguin)
Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, and Shield, trans. Athanassakis (Johns Hopkins)
Homer, The Iliad, trans. Lattimore (Chicago)
Miller, Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (Hackett)
Murray, Oswyn, Early Greece, 2nd ed. (Harvard)
Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates, trans. Grube (Hackett)
Plato, Plato's Republic, trans. Grube/Reeve (Hackett)
Pollitt, Art and Experience in Classical Greece (Cambridge)
Sophocles, Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, ed. Grene and Lattimore (Chicago)
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, trans. Warner (Penguin)
Vernant, The Origins of Greek Thought (Cornell)

Recommended Texts:
Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Fitzgerald (Doubleday)
Marius, A Writer's Companion, 3rd ed. (McGraw)
J.A.C.T., The World of Athens (Cambridge)
Hacker, A Writer's Reference, 3rd ed. (Bedford)
Williams, Style: Toward Style and Grace (Chicago)

All texts may be purchased at the Reed College Bookstore; a limited number of each are on reserve in the Library. Also on reserve (and very useful): Oxford Classical Dictionary; Oxford Companion to Classical Literature; Penguin Atlas of Ancient History; Richard Lanham, Revising Prose.


CONFERENCE ASSIGNMENTS:
The Registrar makes initial assignments to conferences in the course. Students who subsequently find it necessary to change conferences must petition the Humanities staff (forms for this purpose may be obtained from the Registrar or from Karen Bondaruk, CC 308). Turn completed forms into Nathalia King, Hum 110 Chair, in CC 305. No conference changes will be permitted after the second week of the semester.


PAPERS, WRITING ASSIGNMENTS, AND EXAMINATIONS:
Four course-wide papers will be assigned, due at the times designated below on the schedule of readings and lectures. A mid-term examination will be given on Friday, October 16 from 9:00 to 9:50 a.m. in Vollum Lecture Hall. A final examination for the fall term will be given Thursday, December 17th from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. in Vollum Lecture Hall. Rescheduling of the mid-term or final exam will be allowed only for medical reasons.


ELECTRONIC ACCESS:
An archive of course materials for Humanities 110 is available on the course's web page. It includes the syllabus, paper topics, schedule of videos, and many of the lecture handouts from this year and last year, as well as some new pages designed to help students to tap Internet resources on course-related subjects. The web page may be reached through Reed's main page via Academic Life and Course Materials, or directly at this address: . Many of the course materials are also archived in Microsoft Word format on the Courses Server (via the Chooser in the zone Academic Servers).


Schedule of Readings and Lectures
Week 1

Mon 31 Aug

Homer, The Iliad
Lecture: Introduction to Greece, Homer, and the Humanities / Walter Englert

Wed 2 Sept

Homer, The Iliad; Murray, Early Greece, chs. 1 and 3
Lecture: Homer and the Oral Tradition / Nathalia King

Fri 4 Sept

Homer, The Iliad; Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural System" in Essays on Ancient Greece
Lecture: The Religion of the Iliad / Michael Foat

Week 2

Mon 7 Sept LABOR DAY--No School

Wed 9 Sept

Homer, The Iliad
Lecture: The Shield of Achilles / William Diebold

Fri 11 Sept

Homer, The Iliad
Lecture: The Ending of the Iliad / Walter Englert

Week 3

Mon 14 Sept

Hesiod, Theogony; Murray, Early Greece, ch. 6; Vernant, "Feminine Figures of Death in Greece" in Essays on Ancient Greece
Lecture: Hesiod's Theogony / Nathalia King

Wed 16 Sept

Hesiod, Works and Days; Murray, Early Greece, chs. 4 & 7; Miller, Greek Lyric, Tyrtaeus, pp. 13-19
Lecture: The Emergence of the Polis / Ray Kierstead

Fri 18 Sept

"Early Greek Philosophy" and "Fragments from Heraclitus" (Sections IV and V) in Essays; Vernant, The Origins of Greek Thought, pp. 69-132
Lecture: The Origins of Greek Thought / Nathalia King

FIRST PAPER DUE


Week 4

Mon 21 Sept

Miller, Greek Lyric , Archilochus, Semonides, Alcman, Solon, Xenophanes, pp. 1-12, 22-26, 31-37, 64-76, 107-111; Murray, Early Greece, chs. 8 & 9
Lecture: The Lyric "I" / Nigel Nicholson

Wed 23 Sept

Miller, Greek Lyric, Alcaeus, Sappho, Theognis, Anacreon, pp. 38-63, 82-94, 99-103; Murray, Early Greece, ch. 12; Judith Hallett, "Sappho in Her Social Context: Sense and Sensuality" in Essays
Lecture: The Unspeakable Vice of the Greeks / Jay Dickson/

Fri 25 Sept

Gombrich, "Reflections on the Greek Revolution" in Essays; Pollitt, Art and Experience in Classical Greece, 3-14
Lecture: Death in Archaic Art / William Diebold

Week 5

Mon 28 Sept

Herodotus, The Histories, Bk/Ch. 1.1-1.216
Lecture: Herodotus and the Invention of History / Ray Kierstead

Wed 30 Sept

Herodotus, The Histories, Bk/Ch. 2. 1-64, 113-120, 164-182
Lecture: The Structure of a World and a Story / Michael Foat

Thu 1 Oct

Video and Discussion: "Black Athena," VLH, 7:00 p.m.

Fri 2 Oct

Herodotus, The Histories, Bk/Ch. 3.61-3.97, 5.55-7.171; Bernal and Lefkowitz in Essays
Lecture: Black Athena / Pancho Savery

Week 6

Mon 5 Oct

Herodotus, The Histories, Bk/Ch. 7.172-8.103, 9.114-9.122; Finley, "Was Greek Civilization Based on Slavery?" in Essays
Lecture: The Problem of Greek Slavery / Ray Kierstead

Wed 7 Oct

Aeschylus, The Oresteia
Lecture: The Beginnings of Tragedy / Jay Dickson

Fri 9 Oct

Aeschylus, The Oresteia
Lecture: Ethical Work in The Libation Bearers / Carl Anderson

SECOND PAPER DUE


Week 7

Mon 12 Oct

Aeschylus, The Oresteia; Gould, "Law, Custom and Myth: Aspects of the Social Position of Women in Classical Athens" in Essays
Lecture: Justice and Gender in the Oresteia / Gail Sherman

Wed 14 Oct

Sophocles, Antigone
Lecture: Tragedy, Conflicts, Dust / Jan Mieszkowski

Fri 16 Oct MID-TERM EXAM: 9:00-9:50 a.m. in VLH

17-25 OCTOBER: FALL BREAK


Week 8

Mon 26 Oct

Robert F. Sutton, "Pornography and Persuasion in Attic Pottery"; Sarah Pomeroy, "The Family in Classical Greece and in the Oeconomicus" and "The Domestic Economy"; all in Essays
Lecture: Representation and Gender in Athenian Vase Painting / Ellen Stauder

Wed 28 Oct

Pollitt, Art and Experience in Classical Greece, pp. 1-2; 15-135
Lecture: The Parthenon / Peter Parshall

Fri 30 Oct

Pollitt, Art and Experience in Classical Greece, pp. 1-2; 15-135
No lecture

Week 9

Mon 2 Nov

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Intro., Bk/Ch. 1.1-1.146
Lecture: Thucydides and the Purpose of History / Walter Englert

Wed 4 Nov

Thucydides, Bk/Ch. 2.1-2.65; Jones, "Athenian Democracy and its Critics" in Essays
Lecture: Pericles and Athenian Democracy / Ray Kierstead

Fri 6 Nov

Thucydides, Bk/Ch 3.1-3.85, 5.13-5.24; Davies, Democracy and Classical Greece, ch. 6 in Essays
Lecture: Thucydides on Human Nature / C.D.C. Reeve

Week 10

Mon 9 Nov

Thucydides, Ch/Bk 5.83-6.41, 6.105-7.87
Lecture: Tragedy and Democracy / Thomas Gillcrist

Wed 11 Nov

Euripides, The Bacchae
Lecture: God and Theatre in The Bacchae / Thomas Gillcrist

Fri 13 Nov

Plato, Euthyphro, Apology and Crito in The Trial and Death of Socrates
Lecture: Why Was Socrates Put to Death? / Carl Anderson

THIRD PAPER DUE


Week 11

Mon 16 Nov

Plato, The Republic
Lecture: On the Virtues of Socratic Aporia: Book 1 of The Republic / Ellen Stauder

Wed 18 Nov

Plato, The Republic
Lecture: Was Plato a Communist? / William Peck

Fri 20 Nov

Plato, The Republic
Lecture: Plato's Metaphysics / C.D.C. Reeve

Week 12

Mon 23 Nov

Plato, The Republic

Lecture: Art and Subversion / Peter Parshall
Special Evening Lecture: Thomas Martin on "The Nature of Athenian Democracy", Vollum Lounge, 7:30 p.m.

Wed 25 Nov

Aristophanes, Lysistrata
Lecture: The Comic City / Nigel Nicholson

NOVEMBER 26-29: THANKSGIVING VACATION


Week 13

Mon 30 Nov

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Lecture: Aristotle on How to Live / C.D.C. Reeve

Wed 2 Dec

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Lecture: The Doctrine of the Mean / Nigel Nicholson

Fri 4 Dec

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
No lecture

FOURTH PAPER DUE


Week 14

Mon 7 Dec

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Lecture: The Contemplative Life / Bill Peck

Wed 9 Dec

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Lecture: Aristotle's God / David Reeve

Thu 17 Dec FINAL EXAM: 8 a.m. to noon in VLH



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Let's further Reed Humanities and its conference style approach to idea exchange in World University and School - worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University - via Second Life. Each of the above books is a kind of trip, which can take one far afield.


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I asked some professors (a Shakespearean scholar, and a classicist) today at a Reed Alumni gathering where they could think of any references to, or explorations of, loving bliss, naturally, in Shakespeare or the classics. One professor referred to someone close by who suggested I look at affect theory (Tompkins, in particular).


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Thuja plicata - http://www.eol.org/pages/1034889 - Western red cedar