Getting Medieval: Literature, History, and Philosophy
from Virgil to Dante
IDS 171, sections 02 and 03, Spring
2007
Instructor: Curtis Gruenler
Office: Lubbers 304 E-mail:
gruenler@hope.edu
Office phone: 395-7996 Home
phone: 399-3731 (Please
Office hours: MWF 11-12, TR
2-3:30, and by appointment don’t call after 10 p.m.)
This course fulfills the
Cultural Heritage I general education requirement, and here are the overarching
goals that those of us who teach Cultural Heritage courses have articulated for
them:
1.
Teach students to
use the fundamental tools common to the humanities (reading, writing, asking
good questions, constructing arguments) both to enrich their lives and to
achieve more practical goals.
2.
Teach students to
read primary historical, literary, and philosophical texts critically,
imaginatively, and reflectively, in order to understand themselves, others, and
the world better.
3.
Teach students to
understand the Western cultural inheritance, its chronological development, its
strengths and weaknesses, and (in some cases) its relation to non-Western
cultures and their development and strengths and weaknesses.
I like these goals a lot
(actually, I helped write them). Our course will pursue these goals by focusing
on the history, literature, and philosophy of the European Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was a crucial time for the formation of modern
Western culture as we know it, but it was also different from our world in
fundamental ways that are hard to imagine. Both the similarities and the differences
make the study of the Middle Ages valuable for understanding ourselves,
whatever culture we come from, as well as the common culture we share at
Looking at the past can also help us think about the
basic questions of life in a number of other ways. The people we’ll study have
worthwhile and challenging ideas and ways of expressing them. They may be
especially valuable when they are different from ours because they can give us
a new perspective.
As we go, we will focus on some overarching questions:
What does it mean to life a good life? What makes for a good community? How is
education important to the good life? What part do literature, history,
philosophy, and the arts play in a good life? What part do religious beliefs
and organizations, especially Christian ones, play in good lives and good communities?
What difference does being male or female make? What kinds of government and
social organization help people to live best? How can power be used for good or
ill? What is good leadership?
In the end, I
want this to be a course that helps you explore what you care about and
deepen what you think. Much of the course will be built around
opportunities for you to ask and answer your own questions about what we are
studying. Asking good questions is the fundamental skill in the disciplines of
humanities, and I hope you will learn to ask better questions in general by
learning how to ask good questions in the way that good scholars of literature,
history, and philosophy do.
I intend this course to help you develop some other general
skills and habits of learning too, such as: using evidence and reasoning in
order to answer questions; articulating ideas and arguments both orally and in
writing; reading; listening; working with others to solve problems; curiosity.
Let me comment on some of these individually.
•
When I was in school I didn’t write in my books for
reasons that I rationalized at the time, but were mostly about being lazy and
selling them back. But now I find that writing in my books essential both for
comprehending them (e.g. by marking the passages that indicate how the text is
organized or state its central points) and for thinking about them (by asking
questions, noting connections to other things I’ve read, etc.). You’re already
paying a lot for your education; it’s worth paying a little more to keep your
books so you can write in them. Plus it’s a good bet you’ll be glad to have
them later, even if you don’t think so now.
For more on good reading, see the three-part article on
“The Art of Close Reading” at www.criticalthinking.org:
Part
One, Part
Two, Part Three.
• Writing. The writing I ask you to do is largely an extension of
reading the texts, a further way of understanding them better. In all of your
writing assignments, I want you to stay close to the texts. Everything you say
about them should be supportable by specific passages, and it will often help
your arguments to quote those passages directly (with page numbers and any
other necessary identifying information). Reading old texts is especially
useful for helping us see past the blind spots of our own time and place, but
in order for this to happen, we have to try to
understand them as much as we can on their own terms and in their historical
context. Otherwise we will merely impose our own ideas and blind spots on them
and they won’t be able to teach us anything.
• Open, meaningful
intellectual exploration. There is a
place in life for making judgments about what you think, and I hope this class
will help you do that, but that is not a main goal of the course. Rather, I
want us to explore basic questions of life together by listening to the past
and to each other. In order to interact with the past successfully, we can
especially help each other by hearing how others engage with the material and
being generous with our own questions and comments. Learning to ask good
questions that open the meaning of the texts is the essential skill of the
humanities that I hope you will learn. Most of all, it will be important for us
to create an open and hospitable community of learning together. That means
suspending judgment until you’ve understood as fully as you can what someone is
saying. It also means interacting in a way that invites others to share their
thoughts rather than making them feel that they or their ideas are unwelcome.
Though we will be looking at the past, some controversial issues may arise,
such as feminism, religion, or American politics. On these and other issues
there will, I hope, be a mix of different opinions in the class, and they all
have a legitimate place. We are here in this class to understand, decide, and
share our thoughts, not to condemn or convert anyone. We will disagree on
things, but the important thing is how we go about disagreeing. Indeed, it is
important for all of our learning that we state our disagreements, but also
that we learn to disagree passionately without getting loud or putting down.
Augustine, Confessions, trans. Chadwick
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. Relihan
Dante, The Portable Dante, trans. Musa
Virgil, The Essential Aeneid, trans. Lombardo
Winks and Ruiz, Medieval Europe and the World
(abbreviated in the schedule as MEW)
Course web site: choose IDS 171 S07 from the list of courses under
Interdisciplinary Studies at http://courses.hope.edu/.
Both sections of this course will share the same Moodle
site. You can also get to this page from KnowHope by
clicking “courselinks” from the top bar and then
“Course Management System (Moodle).” If you don’t
already have a Moodle account, you will first need to
create an account by following the instructions you find when you click on the
link for our section. Let me know right away if you have any trouble using this
site. To enroll in the site for our section, you will need an enrollment key,
which is the word “citizen” (without the quotation marks).
The
course web site will serve several functions for us that will evolve over the
semester. It will have a link to the syllabus as well as other assignment
sheets and important documents. Most important, it will provide you a
day-by-day guide to what you need to do, including responses that are due
before class each day. It will also provide a forum for continuing discussion
outside of class. I’ll set up discussion forums and other activities that
coordinate with many of the things we discuss in class, and I encourage you to
take advantage of the web site as a place to try out ideas, ask questions, and
dialogue with each other about readings and discussions. I will give more
specific assignments during the semester. I especially encourage those who
aren’t comfortable talking during class to use the web site as a way of
participating. The completeness and quality of your participation in the
web-based parts of the course will be included in your overall grade for
participation.
This syllabus is also available on my
faculty web page, http://www.hope.edu/academic/english/gruenler/IDS171syllabus.htm.
The on-line version of the course schedule at the end allows you to clink on
the links to the readings that are on the web.
Participation and attendance: The first requirement is that you learn everyone’s
name. We will often work in class in groups that will rotate so that you have a
chance to meet everyone. Near the end of class, I will ask you to do something
that shows whether you have learned who everyone is. This will count for a tenth
of your grade for participation.
I
will be expecting your active, engaged participation. This does not mean you
need to say something every day, or that I give points based simply on how much
you talk. I respect the value of silent participation, but there is a
difference between engaged listening and inattention. I invite you to take
advantage of the opportunity to raise questions and to develop your thoughts by
articulating them. The course will be most valuable if it becomes an ongoing
conversation about the material. Your grade for participation will include
participation in whole-class discussions, participation in small group
activities and projects, and participation in the forums and other parts of the
web site. Adequate participation on the web site would be six thoughtful
postings to forums or other parts of the site (other than the daily responses
addressed in the next paragraph): two before winter recess, two more before
spring break, and two more before the end of the course. Additional
participation on the web site will help your participation grade.
Each day you will be asked to respond briefly to the
reading in a way meant to help you prepare for class before you come. Usually
this will involve just asking a question about the reading. The assignment for
each day will be posted on the web site, and usually you will post your
response there too. These daily responses will count for half of your
participation grade. You may skip two (we all have days were things get away
from us) and still receive full credit.
Attendance
is required. I will excuse three absences automatically; beyond the third I
will ask for a documented excuse. If you know you will need to miss a class for
a good reason, please let me know ahead of time. Each unexcused absence beyond
the third will lower your grade for participation a fraction (i.e. from B to
B-).
Question papers: Four times during the semester, I ask that you to bring to class a 2-page paper (at
least 400 words) that asks a good question and begins
to answer it. The main point is to formulate a good question (see separate page
about how to ask good questions). They should deal with the readings assigned
for class on the day they are due (otherwise I will deduct points), though they
may also refer to previous readings and class discussions. I will grade them
according to the quality of both the question and the answer. I am looking for
some good thoughts in response, but not necessarily a definitive or polished
answer. If you have asked a good question, a full answer would require more
than two pages anyway.
There is one more requirement: each question paper
must use at least two direct quotations from a text you are discussing.
This is a way of keeping your paper close to the text you are discussing. More
quotations can be good too, but don’t devote more space to quotations that to
your own words.
Your questions can be about anything you find
interesting. If you’re having trouble coming up with a question, try thinking
about the overarching questions of the course and how they might pertain to the
text at hand. I also encourage you to find ways of connecting what you read to
the rest of your life (e.g. “What does Virgil’s Aeneid have to do with leading my
Young Life group?”), but not at the expense of listening closely for what the
text has to say.
A total of 4 question papers is
required, but there are more days listed
when question papers are due, so you need not turn in a paper on each due date.
You must due at least 2 question papers before the due date for the first draft
of the first essay (Feb. 21). Also,
each question paper due date indicates whether the focus of that day’s study is
on literature, history, or philosophy. You must do at least one question paper
for each discipline, and I encourage you to ask the kind of questions that are
appropriate to that discipline (this will also help you ask good questions).
Question
papers should be typed (double-space in a 12-point font) as MS Word compatible
documents and submitted on the course web site before the beginning of class on
the due date. (If submitting by computer is at all a hardship or objectionable
to you, please see me for to make alternate arrangements.) Question papers submitted
after class the day they are due will lose 2 points, and 2 further points for
each additional week they are late.
Essays: You will write two finished essays of 4 to 5 pages. I
will offer some possible topics for these essays, but one possibility will be to
expand and develop one of your question papers. I will grade these essays
according to the quality of both their ideas and their expression. Though
insightful ideas, imagination, and good attention to the texts are of prime
importance in these papers, I will also pay attention to organization,
argumentation, coherence, style, grammar, and spelling. Papers should be titled
and typed (double-spaced) with sufficient margins for commentary.
You will submit two drafts. The first draft you will
exchange with two other students in order to give and receive feedback using a
format I will give you. I will grade only the final draft. Essays should be
typed (double-space in a 12-point font) as MS Word compatible documents and submitted
on the course web site by 11 p.m. on the day they are due. When you turn in the
final draft, turn in along with it the comments on the first draft you received
back from your peers.
If you do not bring a complete draft on the day
indicated, your grade for the paper will drop by one full grade; if you do not
return your classmates’ papers with full comments, your grade for the paper
will drop by one-third of a grade. Late final drafts will be docked a full grade
for each week they are late.
Commonplace book: A commonplace book is a collection of quotations from
your reading. See the separate assignment sheet. You may turn in a partial
version midway through the course so that I can give you some feedback on how
you’re doing. The commonplace book will also help you prepare for the final
exam.
Final Exam:
The final exam will include terms and short quotations from texts we have read
for you to identify and comment on and broad essay questions that ask you to
synthesize what you have learned on the major topics of the course. I will give
you a list of possible questions in advance, and then give you a choice of
certain of those questions on the exam itself. I will encourage you to prepare
for the exam together in groups. The main advantages I see to doing the exams
are: putting together the pieces of what you have learned and committing it to
memory.
Summary
Class participation: 200 points
Question papers : 120 points (30 each)
Essays: 200
points (100 each)
Commonplace book: 100 points
Final exam: 180
points
Total: 800 points
All work turned in for this
course should represent the work of the person whose name appears on it.
Representing another’s work as your own is not only dishonest,
it also defeats your learning. Please do learn from others by discussing texts
and assignments with them both inside and outside of class. I am happy to
discuss assignments with you while you are working on them. And you are welcome
to learn from any other sources. In the end, however, all papers and exams must
be done by you alone.
Unacknowledged use of
another’s words or ideas is plagiarism. Any quotation or direct copying from
another’s work must be set off from your text either by quotation marks or by
indentation, and it must be given an adequate citation (this includes
quotations from our required texts as well as any other sources you use).
Paraphrases must also be given an adequate citation. If you are uncertain about
how to avoid plagiarism or how to give adequate citations, consult A Writer’s Reference, and if you have
any questions, talk with me. Cases of academic dishonesty will be handled using
the procedures outlined in the Hope
College Catalog. The penalty is failure, either of the assignment or of the
entire course, depending on the instructor’s judgment of the seriousness of the
case. For more on plagiarism—what it is, why it matters, the penalties, how to
avoid it, and what others on campus think about it—see Van Wylen
library’s page on it at http://www.hope.edu/lib/plagiarism/index.html.
This course covers an awful
lot of ground. Success will depend on keeping up with the readings and finding
ways to keep the material organized in your memory. Here are some specific
suggestions:
·
Contact me about
any problems you are having with any aspect of the course—readings, web sites,
assignments, class discussions, anything. My office hours and contact
information are listed at the top of this syllabus. E-mail is a good way to
deal with small problems; I check mine regularly during school days, less
consistently on evenings and weekends.
·
Build a
chronology of the important events, people, and texts. You should know a few
important dates precisely, but it’s more important to keep everything in
chronological order and know roughly where things go (Which century? Toward the
beginning or end?). The timelines in The
West in the World and on the IDS 171 web site will give you a start, but
making your own timeline will help you remember better.
·
Make as many
connections as you can between things. This will not only help you remember
each event, person, or text by reference to the others, but it will lead you to
the larger goal of understanding Western history, literature, and philosophy in
general. Use the connections built into the way the course is organized as a
start: chronological development, the three disciplines, the theme of the call
to be human and the related sub-themes of sex, power, and the good life.
Develop your own themes around things you are interested in. Look for how each
text relates to those we’ve already studied.
·
Work together
outside of class. The written work you turn in must, of course, be your own,
but I encourage you to talk with each other about the reading assignments and
your written work. You will be required to give and receive some feedback on
your essays, but you may certainly get other feedback as well.
All the reading titles that
are underlined refer to readings that are on various web sites. You will
need to go to the copy of this syllabus that is on the web in order to click on
these links and find the reading. Since we will usually refer to these
readings in class, you should print them and bring them to class on the day
they are due. You should also bring any textbooks from which there is
assigned reading on a given day. Note the following abbreviations:
MEW=Medieval
W 1/10: Introduction.
F 1/12: Read MEW pp. xi-xvii (preface on why study
history) and 1-8 (overview of the Middle Ages); canto 1 of Dante’s Inferno (pp. 3-8 of The Portable Dante); pp ix-xiii and 1-6 of The Essential Aeneid (first part of the
introduction and the beginning of book 1 of Virgil’s poem itself). Post a
question to the course web site (if you have any trouble with the web site, you
may write it down and bring it to class).
M 1/15: Virgil, Aeneid remainder of book 1 and
all of book 2 (pp. 6-51) and pp. xiii-xix of the introduction; also note the
map of Aeneas’s journey at the beginning of the book. Post a question and bring
a copy of it to class for use in discussion.
W 1/17: Virgil, Aeneid book 4 (pp. 52-74). Question paper due (literature).
F 1/19: Virgil, Aeneid books 6-8 (pp. 75-135 and
pp. xix-xxxii of the introduction). Post a question before class.
M 1/22: Virgil, Aeneid 9-12 (pp. 136-97). Today I
will ask you to write at the beginning of class about a short passage chosen
from the reading, much as I will ask you to do on the final exam. The idea is
to explain the significance of the passage in the context of Virgil’s poem and
in the historical and cultural context of his time.
W 1/24: The End of the Ancient World and the Rise of
Christianity. Read MEW pp. 9-36 and the book of Acts, chapters 15 to 18 (in the
Bible—any version will do). Question
paper due (history).
F 1/26: Augustine, Confessions:
the human predicament. Read books I and II (pp. 3-34; the translator’s
introduction on pp. ix-xxv is also very helpful).
M 1/29: Augustine, Confessions:
philosophy and the problem of evil. Read sections III.1-III.12 (pp. 35-44),
V.15-end (81-89), VII.13-27 (121-132), and excerpt from Plato’s Symposium (handout). Question paper due (philosophy).
W 1/31: Augustine, Confessions:
conversion and grace. Read sections VIII.13-end (pp. 141-154), IX.17-29
(166-74), X.1-7 (179-83), X.29-40 (196-202).
F 2/2:
M 2/5: The “Fall” and “Rise”
of “
W 2/7: Boethius, Consolation
of Philosophy. Read books I and II (pp. 1-48).
F 2/9: Boethius, Consolation
of Philosophy. Read pp. xv-xvii of the translator’s introduction (“The
Philosophical Content of Consolation”), book III (pp. 49-90), and Plato’s
allegory of the cave (handout). Question
paper due (philosophy).
M 2/12: Winter Recess
W 2/14: Boethius, Consolation
of Philosophy. Read books IV and V (pp. 91-150).
F 2/16: Medieval Society. Read MEW pp. 106-129 and
excerpt from Piers Plowman (handout).
M 2/19: The Medieval Church. Read
MEW pp. 130-152 and excerpts from the legend of St. Francis (handout).
W 2/21: Medieval Culture. Read MEW
pp. 153-181. First
draft of first essay due (3 copies).
F 2/23: Stories of courtly love. Read selections from Lais of Marie de
France: translator's
introduction, Prologue, Lanval, and Chevrefoil. Question
paper due (literature).
M 2/26: Aristotle on happiness and virtue. Read Prof.
Carol Simon’s introduction
and excerpts from the Nichomachean Ethics:
on the
nature of happiness and on
virtue as a mean.
W 2/28: Aristotle on friendship. Read Nichomachean Ethics book 8, chapters 1-12
(handout).
F 3/2: Aquinas on faith and reason. Read selections
from Ralph McInerny, A First Glance at St. Thomas (handout) and Summa Theologica,
part one, question 2: The existence of God. Final draft of first essay due.
M 3/5: Aquinas on love and virtue. Read excerpts from
the Summa Theologica
(handout). Question paper due
(philosophy).
W 3/7: Aquinas on love and sex. Read excerpts from the
Summa Contra Gentiles, book 3, on love of God,
on love of
neighbor, on
fornication, on
indissolubility of marriage, on monogamy,
on sex as
good.
F 3/9: The Medieval Political Order. Read MEW pp.
182-213 and excerpt from Dante On Monarchy
(handout).
M 3/12:
W 3/14: Introduction to Dante. Read the introduction
to the Portable Dante, pp. ix-xvi and
xxx-xxxvi, and cantos 1-4 of the Inferno
(pp. 3-25).
F 3/16-F 3/23: Spring Recess.
M 3/26: Dante, Inferno,
cantos 5-10.
W 3/28: Dante, Inferno,
cantos 11-19. Question paper due
(literature).
F 3/30: Dante, Inferno,
cantos 20-27.
M 4/2: Dante, Inferno,
cantos 28-34.
W 4/4: Dante, Purgatorio, cantos 1-8.
F 4/6: Good Friday
M 4/9: Dante, Purgatorio, cantos 9-18.
W 4/11: Dante, Purgatorio, cantos 19-27.
F 4/13: Dante, Purgatorio, cantos 28-33. First draft of second essay due (3 copies).
M 4/16: Dante, Paradiso, cantos 1-9.
W 4/18: Dante, Paradiso, cantos 10-18.
F 4/20: Dante, Paradiso, cantos 19-25.
M 4/23: Dante, Paradiso, cantos 26-33. Quiz on names of classmates. Commonplace book due.
W 4/25: From Medieval to Modern. Read MEW 238-262. Final draft of second essay
due.
F 4/27: Spring fling: no class.
M 4/30, 10:30 a.m.: Final exam for section 02.
W 5/2, 8:00 a.m.: Final exam for section 03.