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Great Conversation 218C: The Tradition in Crisis: Dissenters and Defenders
Spring, 2003, Ed Langerak, H601C, 3494, <langerak>
Mondays (except March 17): Natalie Arndt, Nicole Bohme, Chris Clark, Lewis Colburn, Megan Cook, and Brandon Crase.
Wednesdays: Liz Foght, Majda Haznadar, Carl Holmquist, Christopher Klaus, Ben Mackenzie, Nik Maier, and Brigit McGuire.
Fridays (plus March 17): Sarah Podenski, Kathryn Polyack, Anne Samuelson, Lars Schlereth, Laurna Strikwerda, Valerie Veo, and Justin Vonstroh.
(Note
that May 7 and 12 are make-up and volunteer days)
F Feb. 7 Introduction
M Feb. 10 Burke, Reflections on the Revolution
in
W Feb. 12 Paine, Rights of Man, 1-83
Wednesday
night dinner (
F Feb. 14 Romantic poetry: Wordsworth (handout)
Plenary lecture (Steensland): Jonathan Hill
M Feb. 17 Romantic poetry: Coleridge, Byron, Keats (handouts).
Readers: Natalie, Nicole, and Chris
W Feb. 19 Romantic art (Géricault, Delacroix)
Plenary lecture (Viking Theater): Jonathan Hill
F Feb. 21 Romantic art: discussion; response paper #1 due
M Feb. 24 Whitman (“Introduction,” “Song of Myself,” “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” “As I Ebbed with the Ocean of
Life,” “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed,” “The Sleepers,” “Emerson to Whitman”)
Readers: Lewis,
Meghan, Brandon, and Liz
W Feb. 26 Melchert, pp. 497-515; Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, pp.41-95
(Note: there are two sections in Melchert on Hegel, which are very useful as background to Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche: pp.468-70 and 477-
81; the latter explains the famous “master-slave” dialectic.)
F Feb. 28 Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, pp.96-147.
M Mar. 3 Melchert, pp. 515-522; Marx, handout on “Alienated Labor.”
W Mar. 5 Marx, The Communist Manifesto: Engel’s preface to the English Edition, sections I, II, and IV (sec. III recommended).
Wednesday night dinner (Valhalla), 5:45-7:00 p.m.
F Mar. 7 Melchert, pp. 524-534; Mill, On Liberty, chapters I & II
M Mar. 10 Mill, On Liberty, chapters III-V
W Mar. 12 Melchert, pp. 534-540; Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman, author’s preface and dedication, chaps 1-4, section I of chap. 5
(Rousseau’s Emile handout recommended), 9, and section VI of chap. 13.
F Mar. 14 Darwin, On the Origin of Species, pp. 25-78.
Plenary lecture (Steensland): John Giannini, Dept. of Biology
[Recommended: St. Olaf student performance of Plautus' Rudens (“The Rope”) on Fri. & Sat., Mar. 14-15, 7:30-8:45 p.m., Rm. 233 CHM]
M Mar. 17 Darwin, On the Origin of Species, pp. 79-123.
W Mar. 19 Catch-up day; review for midterm (plenary discussion in Steensland)
F Mar. 21 Midterm
Sat. Mar. 22-Sun., Mar. 30 Spring Break
M Mar. 31 Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, pp. 3-131
Plenary lecture (Steensland): Ed Santurri, Depts. of Phil. and Religion
W Apr. 2 Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, pp. 131-278
Wednesday night dinner (Valhalla), 5:45-6:45 p.m.; film: Woody Allen's
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Viking Theater, 7:00-8:30 p.m. (repeated on Thursday, Viking Theater, 8:30-11:00 p.m.)
F Apr. 4 Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, pp. 278-422
Readers: Ben and Nik
M Apr. 7 Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, pp. 422-551
W Apr. 9 Ibsen, A Doll House
F Apr. 11 Ibsen, Hedda Gabler; response paper #2 due
M Apr. 14 Melchert,
pp. 542-63 (564-75 recommended); Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, pp.2-56, and handout from Geneology
of Morals.
Reader: Valerie (or later)
W Apr. 16 Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, pp.59-76, 97-141 plus sections 257-61, 272-74, 284, 290, 292.
Reader: Justin (or later)
F Apr. 18 Woolf, A Room of One's Own
Sat. Apr. 19-Mon., Apr. 21 Easter Break
[Recommended: performance of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters at Guthrie Theater, Apr. 19-May 24]
W Apr. 23 Woolf, To the Lighthouse, pp. 3-124
F Apr. 25 Woolf, To the Lighthouse, pp. 124-209
M Apr. 28 Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent, pp.3-63.
W Apr. 30 Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent, pp.64-112.
F May 2 Picasso
Plenary lecture (Viking Theater): Anne Groton & Jonathan Hill
M May 5 Picasso: discussion; response paper #3 due
W May 7 Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham County Jail”;
recommended is “Civil Disobedience” by Henry Thoreau, see website
http://eserver.org/thoreau/thoreau.html
(and many other websites).
F May 9 Malouf, An Imaginary Life. Read some of Ovid’s Art of Love at
http://www.tkline.freeserve.co.uk/Webworks/Website/ArtofLoveBkI.htm
(just look at the section headings of books I-III and read whatever you
always
wanted to know but were afraid to ask)
M May 12 Malouf, An Imaginary Life
W May 14 Conclusion; second version of essay #2 due
S May 17 Final Exam, 9am
Class and course participation = 10%; 3 response papers = 15%; 2 essays = 30% (15% each); midterm exam = 20%; final exam = 25%
Texts
Burke, Edmund, Reflections on the Revolution in France, edited by J. G. A. Pocock (Hackett, 1987) 0-87220-020-5
Darwin, Charles, The Origin of Species, abridged ed. (Norton, 1975) 0-393-09219-4
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Crime and Punishment, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Vintage, 1993) 0-679-73450-3
Freud, Sigmund, Civilization and Its Discontents, translated by James Strachey (Norton, ) 0-393-30158-3
Ibsen, Henrik, Four Major Plays, Vol. I, translated by Rolf Fjelde (NAL-Signet Classics, 1965) 0-451-52406-3
Kierkegaard, Søren, Fear and Trembling, translated by Alastair Hannay (Penguin Classic, 1986) 0-14-044449-1
Malouf, David, An Imaginary Life (Random House, 1996) 0-679-76793-2
Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich, The Communist Manifesto, translated by Samuel Moore, edited by Joseph Katz (Simon & Schuster, 1964) 0-671-67881-7
Mill, John Stuart, On Liberty, edited by Elizabeth Rapaport (Hackett, 1978) 0-91514-443-3
Nietzsche, Friedrich, Beyond Good and Evil, translated by Walter Kaufmann (Vintage, 1989) 0-679-72465-6
Paine, Thomas, The Rights of Man, edited by Gregory Claeys (Hackett, 1992) 0-87220-147-3
Whitman, Walt, Leaves of Grass, edited by Jerome Loving (Oxford, 1998) 0-19-283409-6
Woolf, Virginia, A Room of One's Own (Harcourt, 1989) 0-15-678733-4
Woolf, Virginia, To the Lighthouse (Harcourt, 1989) 0-15-690739-9
Melchert, Norman, The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy (Mayfield Publishing, 4th ed., 2002) 0-7674-2038-1
Romanticism, by David Blanyney Brown (Phaidon Press, 2001) 0-7148-3443-2
Picasso, by Roland Penrose (Phaidon Press, 1994) 0-7148-2708-8
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