Weekly Schedule Spring Quarter 2011

Topic readings are linked next to the appropriate week; course assignments (with guidelines and details) and resources are linked to the right (required and/or graded assignments are indicated in bold type). Please be familiar with assignment due dates, since late work cannot be accepted. As always on this site, anything underlined is a link to further information. If at all possible, read assigned essays and pages before class so that you can contribute effectively to the conversation. Any questions you have about the material may then be raised in class for discussion. Because most materials are linked to this schedule, you are expected to be familiar with topics and readings even if you are absent.

Week
Topic
Assignment & Resources
1

Introduction to the Scope of the Humanities
Topic: Memory and Human Being
Videos: Art Through Time: History and Memory

Read The Humanities Toolkit (and the linked material) and become familiar with the
syllabus and its components.
Art Through Time materials on History and Memory.
Recommended: Why Study Ancient World Cultures by Bill Hemminger
(on the Exploring Ancient World Cultures site from the University of Evansville)

Assignment: Exercise 1: A Formative Memory (.pdf; .doc)

2

Topic: Myth, oral tradition, storytelling, translation, and metaphor
Video: James Geary on Metaphor (TED)
Slide lecture: Myth and memory
Video: Art Through Time: Cosmology and Belief

Readings from the Toolkit: Myth and Oral Tradition
Art Through Time materials on Cosmology and Belief
Exercise 2: Translation in practice (in class)
Readings for next week: “Storytelling, The Meaning of Life, and Gilgamesh” (online from Evansville University); Context essay on Mesopotamia; Toolkit essay on Writing and Decipherment
3

Topic: Understanding and interpreting lost worlds
Video: Invitation to World Literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh
Slide lecture: The World of Gilgamesh
Video: Art Through Time: Writing
(short segment)

Art Through Time materials on Writing (program 8; this is very a very useful supplement to class materials).
Invitation to World Literature materials on Gilgamesh
Excerpts from translations of Gilgamesh (handout)
Exercise 3: Coding and Decoding (in class)
Readings for next week: Context essay on the Ancient Aegean; Toolkit essay on Archaeology

4

Topic: The art and science of archaeology
Video clips from The Mummy (1946) and/or Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Slide lecture: Minoans, Mycenaeans, Trojans, and the origins of Greek Myth
Invitation to World Literature: The Odyssey

Midterm Exam (take home; due week 5)
Readings (in class) from Plato, Timaeus and Critias
Exercise 4: Analyzing a Surface Collection (in class)
Reading for next week: Context essay on Everyday Life in Ancient Italy

5

Topic: Domestic life and comedy in Ancient Rome
Slide lecture: Everyday Life in Early Italy
Introduction to synthesis project

Midterm Exam due at beginning of class
Pliny the Younger, Letters to Tacitus reporting on the Vesuvius eruption in CE 79.
Reading for next week: Context essay on the Classic Maya.
Proposal for synthesis project (due week 7 for research workshop)

6

Topic: The Maya and ancient Mesoamerica: Art, science, cosmology, and history
Slide lecture: Deciphering Maya culture
Video: Invitation to World Literature: The Popul Vuh; short animated video of The Popul Vuh
The Popul Vuh: a play

Selections from Popul Vuh (58-77) and Chilam Balam (sections 1 and 10)
Invitation to World Literature materials on The Popul Vuh
Exercise 5: Performing a Myth (in class)
Readings for next week: Guidelines for the synthesis project, research resources
Synthesis project proposal due at the beginning of class
(ungraded but required for Exercise 6). For additional information, consult the
course resources page and the side bar to the online version of the syllabus.

7

Research and project development workshop
Slide presentation on research practices
Library instruction on information literacy

Synthesis project proposal due
Research resources and project guidelines
Exercise 6: Conducting Effective Research (this exercise is required even if you are not
present in class; submit it in the folder with your final project, essay, and bibliography).
8
Integrating the arts: The evolution and practice of performative storytelling
Slide Lecture: A brief history of the theater
Video: Invitation to World Literature: The Odyssey
Preliminary project bibliography due (ungraded, but required for feedback and editorial assistance).
Performance groups will be chosen in class, and texts distributed
(selections from The Odyssey)
Exercise 7: Masks and Mythography
9
Memorial Day Holiday Class does not meet
Synthesis projects, essays, and bibliographies due at the beginning of class, week 10.
10
Topic: Integrating the arts: Applying the humanities toolkit Final Projects, Essays, and Bibliographies due at the beginning of class.
Exercise 8: The Humanities Toolkit in Theory and Practice
(Collaborative course review exercise, in class); Humanities Toolkit diagram (.pdf)
Final performance rehearsal
Take-home final exam due at the beginning of class week 11.
11
Group performances: The Odyssey in translation

Take-home Final exam due at the beginning of class
Popular culture analysis or DMA collection analysis due
Group performances

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04.24.11