HONORS 311: Great Books / Great IdeasHONORS 311: Great Books / Great IdeasReading |
Group Elective Books | Writing and
Responding | Final Essay | Objectives
Method, Attendance &
Other Expectations | Extracurriculars |
Reading
Schedule on Moodle
pdf version of syllabus |
pdf reading schedule only
Reading is what we do in this class, plus talking about our reading, and the hits just keep on coming, all semester long, all year long. The reading assignments are ambitious but not unreasonable, presuming you have done the Christmas break reading. With the Brothers K under your belt, you can start reading the magical realism novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude as we discuss Dostoevsky and thus keep ahead of the law all semester long. There is a good chunk of reading scheduled for Spring/Easter Break--365 pages of Boccaccio's Decameron, but this should prove fun reading. Once again, the schedule anticipates daily reading, not the every-other-day of the 2-4-6 schedule, and also counts weekends as reading days. Some selections are a little shorter, either because they're self-contained in a smaller package--Chekhov, the O'Connor stories--or because the philosophy and anthropology will be a little slower going.
Once again, in addition to an 8-10 page essay near the end of the semester, each of you will write six shorter “essays,” all for shared reading and response in a public folder. (Not sure now if we'll continue to use Moodle or switch to Public Folders.) I have divided the class into four groups for these essays:
- Group A: Nicole, Dani, Zach
- Group B: Bruce, David R, Caitlin
- Group C: Kaelly, Alyssa, Mya, Doug
- Group D: Sara, Dan, Andrew
By the end of the term, you will have written a longer essay (2400-3500 words) that is polished, insightful, brilliant, perhaps profound, certainly literate, possibly creative—in short, a wowie-kazowie essay. This essay should treat at least one of the books we have read together during the semester. You are free to trace an idea or character-type, dilemma, theme or trope through several works or focus on one particular work. In late April (28-30th) we will again gather in groupings of 3-4 students (determined by schedules), plus me, at the Local Blend coffee shop for session to discuss each paper. It won't be snowing this time, although I'd better not guarantee that. You will email your essay to me and the others in your reading session by 6 PM on the day before we meet. We will all come to the coffeehouse with comments prepared on each paper. No class on April 29 to help with this scheduling. (I preferred the previous week, but it's "Scholarship & Creativity Day" and some of you may be involved with that). I'm also hoping all theses are long-done by April 28-30.
Educational experts claim that no learning can ever take place unless clear objectives are established. Clarity of objectives is one of the five sacred topoi of the CSB/SJU course evaluation ritual. Even though this claim may be hooey, we will please the authorities and establish some objectives: to read some fifeen great books and have thirty-some equally great discussions about them. Our intended outcomes are intelligence, wit, humor, and wisdom, as well as cultivating a vital and interactive acquaintance with the writers, thinkers, and artists who wrote these books, as well as with one another as readers of them.
In philosophy classes, I start this section of the syllabus with a Nietzsche quote about “slow reading.” Not so here! I’ve already explained the reading: you will have to stay on a regular schedule, developing the habit of always having a book beside your favorite chair, in your backpack, somewhere at hand. Class will not primarily be teacher-led, but be dominated by you in various modes of discussion: small and large group, perhaps with a gimmick here or there to shake us up. I have been counseled by other Great Books teachers that good discussion doesn’t just happen: you will have to work on it, and that means from time to time that we may talk about how to organize our discussions. I will not lecture—maybe a mini-commentary here and there on some particular topic or approach. This is a special class and I will expect that discussions be more substantive and reach more profound levels than in other classes, even other honors classes. That does not mean that everything you say will be brilliant: many false steps and even patently obvious steps are needed for any steps eventually to find fruitful avenues of thought about the remarkable books we’re tackling.
Here is the place for a remark about the best approach to books. We will aim always to be generous readers, not just intelligent or critical readers. A generous reader—of the books as well as of one another's essays and comments—always assumes that the text in question has something of real value to convey. If a text doesn't click right away or seems boring or even repugnant, think to yourself, "But this author threw herself into this work with all her energy and passion." Assume that the author considered an idea to be so important that he dedicated a significant portion of his life to getting it right in his novel or poem or play or essay. A generous reader realizes that he or she owes it to the author to try to unlock what's great in the work at hand. And that goes for our own writings and discussion comments: read one another with the generosity and respect with which you'd like to be read yourself. It will open discussion and insight up and not close it down. And be generous to yourself as well: if you don't immediately "get" a particular book, respect your own intelligence and sensibility and assume that this author wanted you to be moved to think or feel in various ways and be patient enough with yourself to try to discover a way in—the class is designed to help one another here.
Attendance: As always, I have strict attendance policies: no free misses. none, zilch, nada. All absences are to be cleared with me, preferably ahead of time. I consider only illnesses and family emergencies to be valid excuses—regular doctor appointments should be scheduled at times outside of class time. If, in unusual circumstances, something else comes up—the sooner you can let me know about a conflict, the better. If you miss class without communicating or by neglect, your grade will suffer.
Your Commitments:
Grading: Your records tell me you should all expect to receive A's in this class. Given those records and the ability and eagerness you've manifested, I am ready and willing to comply with your desires (referring only to grades here!) so long as you live up to your hype. Several previous Great Books teachers have warned me that it's very possible, even likely, for Great Books students to take on too much and let the class respon�sibi�lities slide a bit, including not only reading schedule but quality of essays and class participation. I don't want cultivate the usual "grade consciousness" but focus instead on quality consciousness and idea consciousness. Thus, I won't grade individual essays, but will have a visit with you if your work—public folder essays, final essay, discussion participation—is below the expectations for A-level work, and I won't be shy about this. For the final paper, if it’s not A-quality when we have our group meetings, I will expect you to revise it based on the group’s critique (as well as mine), and re-submit it as an A paper. I'd like to give all A's and will hope that I can. But I won't compromise standards.
All work and no play makes Jack and Jill dull children. I'd like to carry on the tradition of carrying on outside of class to the extent that this is possible. We may need to draft or elect a social commissar, but here are some starter suggestions: