2012-2013 Academic Year Calendar - Marianopolis

Arts and Sciences: English - HumanitiesGeneral EducationComponentIn Arts and Sciences, the English andhumanities courses belong both to theGeneral and Specific components ofthe program. As General Education,they respect the standards andobjectives common to all otherofferings in these categories. AsSpecific Education, the courses sharea Great Works objective and presentin some depth twenty significantliterary and philosophical works,in context, mainly from the westerncanon. Because of this objective, thecourses are required of all studentsin the program.EnglishThe English offerings reinforce thevalue of the narrative mode, callingon students to learn mainly throughtheir direct experience of literarytexts. As part of the aim of fosteringinteraction with students in otherprograms when appropriate, theseclasses will be taken with students inLiberal Arts.Introduction to College English603-701-MS (2-2-4) 2.66 creditsThis course introduces students topre-classical and classical works intranslation, including selections fromThe Iliad and The Odyssey, andcertain Greek tragedies. It alsoinitiates a process that continues overfour semesters of recognizing literarythemes and techniques in historicaland philosophical contexts, and ofbeing able to speak and write clearlyand effectively about them. Theacademic essay is a special featureof this course.Literary Works I: English LiterarySurvey to 1800603-702-MS (2-2-3) 2.33 creditsDrawing on material from the earlymedieval Beowulf to The CanterburyTales, Sir Gawain and the GreenKnight, and Everyman, the course alsoconsiders Marlowe's Doctor Faustus,Shakespeare's The Tempest andsometimes Milton’s Paradise Lost. Itsframework is to explore developmentsin the genres of epic, romance, anddrama. The course builds on thereading comprehension and structuredwriting of Term 1 and offers practice inwriting a well-crafted, longer essay.Literary Works II: EnglishLiterary Survey Since 1800603-703-MS (2-2-3) 2.33 creditsIn order to provide the student witha sense of the literary tradition inEngland, the reading in this courseis extensive and diverse, coveringpoetry, fiction, drama, and criticalthought. The course also examinesmajor Romantic and Victorianliterary figures from Blake to Wilde.Throughout the semester, students aregiven exercises and sample essaytasks to prepare them for the EnglishExit Exam.Literary Works III: Modernismand Critical Theory (Seminar)603-704-MS (2-2-2) 2 creditsThis course focuses on the period ofliterature (1900-1960) known asModernism and on different genres(poetry, fiction, drama, the novel)representative of that period. Studentswill look at works by some of the bestknown modernist authors (Eliot,Joyce, Woolf, Hemingway, andothers) who came to define the ethosof their era. In addition, students aretaught to apply elements of criticaltheory (such as New Criticism,Psychoanalytic Theory, Marxism,Feminism, and Structuralism) as themode of discourse for their seminarsand critical essays.HumanitiesThe humanities courses tend to usethe more familiar model of findingand verifying evidence, establishingrelationships, propositions, hypotheses,etc. Over three semesters, thecourses will help to establish commonground for identifying, comparingand evaluating assumptions made inthe Arts, Sciences, and SocialSciences. Much of the connecting withother courses and preparing for theIntegrative Project should happennaturally within this centralhumanities experience.Knowledge and its Application345-701-MS (2-1-3) 2 credits- 3 hours of class- 3 hours of homeworkWays of KnowingThis course uses the storyline anddiscussions in Robert Pirsig’s novel,Zen and the Art of MotorcycleMaintenance, as a starting point toexplore the nature of human knowledge,and the connections that existbetween our views on knowledge andour values—even our sense of reality.In the course of their explorationsstudents have the opportunity toexamine the perspectives of bothEastern and Western philosophy,as well as the tension between thescientific and the creative/aestheticattitude – a tension which has beena pervasive undercurrent in thedevelopment of contemporaryculture.96