Syllabus for Classes Meeting on Wednesday

Hum 2123: General Humanities 1, “The Poetry of Time and Space”

Section 1: Meeting on Wednesday (M/F on the blog)

Fall 2020 / Dr. Joshua Grasso

 

Hours: W 10:00-10:50

Office: Horace Mann 348

Office Hours: After class or by appointment

E-mail: jgrasso@ecok.edu        (Phone: X430)

Course Blog: Be sure to bookmark our class blog, “ecuhum1.blogspot.com” for future reference. I’ll post all your daily readings, questions, and assignments here (we don’t use Blackboard).

Course Description: This course is designed to explore five important works of poetry that have profoundly shaped the modern world—not just in terms of literature, but in our thoughts, ideas, expressions, and ideals. Though you might not be familiar with all (or any) of these works, they exist inside your cultural DNA, providing many of the characters and situations that we continue to find meaningful and ‘new.’ As we read each work, we’ll try to understand who wrote it and where the poet came from, and why ancient cultures responded so strongly to these works. Are they for the same reasons we find them compelling today? Or can we see new things in them that eluded their ancient audiences? Likewise, what do we miss in our own cultural blindness that only the skeleton key of literature can unlock? Hopefully, too, these works can offer you a little comfort and consolation from the outside world, as many of these poets were writing against plagues and catastrophes themselves (COVID would be very familiar to Shakespeare and his audiences).

Syllabus for Classes Meeting on Friday

Hum 2123: General Humanities 1, “The Poetry of Time and Space”

Section 1: Meeting on Friday (M/W on the blog)

Fall 2020 / Dr. Joshua Grasso

Hours: F 10:00-10:50

Office: Horace Mann 348

Office Hours: After class or by appointment

E-mail: jgrasso@ecok.edu        (Phone: X430)

Course Blog: Be sure to bookmark our class blog, “ecuhum1.blogspot.com” for future reference. I’ll post all your daily readings, questions, and assignments here (we don’t use Blackboard).

Course Description: This course is designed to explore five important works of poetry that have profoundly shaped the modern world—not just in terms of literature, but in our thoughts, ideas, expressions, and ideals. Though you might not be familiar with all (or any) of these works, they exist inside your cultural DNA, providing many of the characters and situations that we continue to find meaningful and ‘new.’ As we read each work, we’ll try to understand who wrote it and where the poet came from, and why ancient cultures responded so strongly to these works. Are they for the same reasons we find them compelling today? Or can we see new things in them that eluded their ancient audiences? Likewise, what do we miss in our own cultural blindness that only the skeleton key of literature can unlock? Hopefully, too, these works can offer you a little comfort and consolation from the outside world, as many of these poets were writing against plagues and catastrophes themselves (COVID would be very familiar to Shakespeare and his audiences).

General Humanities I: Final Exam Assignment

On the first day of class, I asked you “what do you think is the oldest theme in ancient literature?” The options were:

·        “I love you, why don’t you love me?”

·        “I hate you, why don’t you die?”

·        “I can’t believe you’re dead! (sob)”

·        “Damn, that’s a pretty rainbow.”

While these were meant to be silly and simplistic, they still represent many of the core themes we encountered in this class, which were about the beauty and complications of love, the drive for conquest and revenge, the pain of death and loss, and the symbolic power of Nature. All the works in class contribute to one or more of the themes, and reveals how different times and cultures grappled with often contradictory ideas and emotions.

For your final exam paper, I want you to choose ONE of the themes above and explain how 2 or 3 works challenged how you see and understand this concept. Imagine you’re writing this to someone who hasn’t taken the class yet, so they know nothing about the books. Briefly introduce each one as you discuss it, and then help us understand how Sappho (for example) examines the meaning of loss in her poems. The goal of this paper is to show off what you’ve learned, and to play “connect the dots” with your readings, to show how each one builds on and responds to the one before.

Quote like this: In Act 4, scene 3 of Hamlet,  Hamlet tells Polonius that “A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a kind and eat of the fish that hath fed of the worm” (197). [cite the page number of the edition you have]

REQUIREMENTS

·        No set page limit; do what you think is sensible and adequate

·        Quote from at least 2 works in class, but you can do up to 3

·        Write for someone outside of class; don’t write to me and say, “It’s like that one ghost story said, you know, the one about the lady with the egg face…”

·        DUE Friday December 13^th by 5pm: hard copy preferred, but e-mail accepted

For Monday: Finish Hamlet, Act V (no questions--but exam in class)

Be sure to finish Hamlet for Monday's class, where we'll have our final Comprehension Exam over Act V of the play. Bring your book as usual and as long as you've read it you shouldn't have much trouble.

This will be our LAST official class. I'll also assign the Final Exam assignment which won't be due until the date of our exam on Finals Week. So be sure to come to class to learn all about this! 

See you then! 

For Friday: Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act Four

NOTE: No class on Wednesday, since I won't be back in the office until around 10:30. So read Act Four and do the questions below for Friday.

ALSO: All Three Groups have answered, so this is a BONUS set of questions. If you know you've missed questions this round or in the past, answer these and they can help you. Otherwise, you don't have to answer them--but consider them for class on Thursday.

Q1: By the end of Act Four, Laertes becomes a second Hamlet, swearing "my revenge will come." What distinguishes Laertes from Hamlet? How might Laertes' reaction to the business of revenge help us read and understand something important about Hamlet?

Q2: How does the King reveal himself not only as a Machiavellian ruler, but also someone who has read The Prince (and even, perhaps, seems to quote it)? Does he make any  mistakes that Machiavelli might disapprove of toward Hamlet or his kingdom?

Q3: How has Ophelia changed by Act Four, particularly in her language? Has she gone truly mad here, or is she, too, taking a page from Hamlet's book? Is there any "method" in her madness, or is she truly speaking nonsense?

Q4: We also see a different side of Hamlet in Act Four: how does he present himself to other people in these acts? Is he still acting mad? Or is he trying another approach? Consider his lines, "Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar" (197). 

For Monday: Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act Three

The"Love and Death" group should answer TWO of the following questions.
The students in this group are: Danielle M, Kara C, Sydney W, Bekkah T, Madison G, Erica M, Heather B, Raven J, Jack A, and Mya C

Q1: Read Hamlet's famous "to be or not to be" speech carefully: what is he really arguing here? It begins with him asking "should I keep on living or find a way to end myself," but how does he answer this question? What interesting idea or metaphor can you find in this speech that complicates his question, or his character?

Q2: Why does Hamlet turn so violently on Ophelia in Act 3, scene 1? What does he seem to be accusing her of?  Is he merely acting mad here, or is he using his madness to speak the truth? Any clues? 

Q3: Discuss a scene where Hamlet switches from prose to verse (or the other way around). Why is this? How does prose (or verse) help us understand what he's saying, and who he is while he's saying it? 

Q4: In Act 3, scene 4, Hamlet argues with his mother over her 'bad' behavior much as he had earlier chided Ophelia in scene 1. By the end of it, the Queen gasps, "O Hamlet, thou has cleft my heart in twain!" Is she saying this because he's made her see the true nature of her sin? Or is she heart-broken at his apparent madness? In other words, has he won her over to his side, or does she just seem to be humoring him? 

For Wednesday: Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act Two

The “Rainbow” Group should answer TWO of the following. In case you've forgotten, the group consists of Cody G, Mariana E, Kate C, Tim V, Savanna T, Skyler H, Callie C, Taylor J, Jaren S, Kyle F, .Babette R 

REMEMBER: Reading Shakespeare is tricky if you're not used to it. USE THE NOTES on the side to help you. Also, you don't have to understand every word, every speech. Just get the gist and try to pay attention to Hamlet's language: can you tell when he's being serious, and when he's being satirical? When does he make fun of people? When does he make fun of himself? When do we see the 'real' Hamlet? Or is he always acting? 

Q1: All of Act One is in verse (iambic pentameter, like the Sonnets), but in Act Two, when Hamlet enters in scene 2, he talks in prose throughout the entire act (as does everyone around him). You can tell it’s prose because (a) each line has more than 10 syllables, and (b) the lines aren’t indented, but run to the end of the page. Why do you think this is? Why would Hamlet, a prince, insist on speaking prose, which is usually a “low” language of the common people? Also, why does everyone around him, including Polonius, also speak in prose? Hint: could it be some sort of act?

Q2: Hamlet has another famous speech at the end of the Act where he compares himself unfavorably to an actor: “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I…” Why does he, a prince, envy an actor? What can the actor do that he can’t? And why might this be a meta-moment where Shakespeare (a playwright) is marveling at the power of actors (and the theater)?

Q3:  Polonius seems quite willing to exploit his daughter and expose Hamlet’s follies to the King and Queen. Why is this? What does he hope to gain from showing them Hamlet’s love letters? And why does Ophelia (who may be in love with Hamlet) go along with this? Couldn’t she have refused?

Q4: Two of Hamlet’s old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, arrive to keep watch on him for the king. Hamlet knows they’re dong this, but plays along. However, he probably talks too much. What does he reveal about his state of mind and his character in this passage? In other words, how does Shakespeare show us what’s really going on in his mind when he’s acting “mad”?