|
Humanities II (680:022) |
Fall 2009 |
|
Gregory Bruess |
Office Hours: |
|
Seerley 334; Phone# 3-2752 |
MWF 11 – 11:30 & by Appt. |
|
E-mail: bruess@uni.edu |
|
EUROPE
FROM 1300 TO 1789
The
purpose of this course is to introduce students to European history, society,
and culture with an emphasis on supplemental historical readings. It is my hope that each student will
recapture the spirit of European life as it underwent a series of dramatic
changes brought about by the transformation of a predominantly agricultural,
aristocratic, extremely religious, and provincial society in the fourteenth
century to a society in the late eighteenth century that spanned the globe and
was on the cusp of industrialization, liberalism, and increasing secularism. Throughout this transformation, social,
economic and political change was reflected in the arts of the time. In this course students will read a number of
literary texts created during this four-hundred-year period and learn to
appreciate them not only as great works of literature but as products of their
time.
This
course will consist of readings and lectures.
Students will be evaluated on the basis of their performance on the
following: 1) five quizzes (30%) and 2)
four multiple-choice examinations (70%).
There are ABSOLUTELY NO MAKE-UP QUIZZES OR EXAMS without PRIOR
NOTIFICATION of an absence. Students are
allowed a total of five absences, after which the final course grade decreases by no less than 1/3 a letter grade
dependant on the total number of absences.
Even with prior notification, however, it remains the instructor’s
discretion to allow the student to make up a quiz or exam. Students who chronically miss class or
regularly scheduled exams and/or quizzes will not be allowed to make up exams
or quizzes. Conversely, of course,
students who have an excellent attendance record will benefit.
I
encourage you to utilize the Academic Learning Center's free assistance with
writing, math, reading, and learning strategies. UNI’s Academic Learning Center
is located in 008 ITTC. Visit the website at http://www.uni.edu/unialc/ or phone
319-273-2361 for more information.
Information
on this course is also available on the Web at http://www.uni.edu/bruess.
Finally,
if you encounter any problems during the course, please do not hesitate to see
me as soon as possible.
Have
a good semester!
Readings:
Spielvogel, Western Civilization.
Vol. B, 7th ed.
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.
More,
Utopia
Shakespeare,
Hamlet. Penguin
Moliere, The
Bourgeois Gentleman or (Would-be Gentleman) in The Misanthrope and Other
Plays.
Lessing,
Nathan the Wise. Bedford/St. Martins.
Course
Outline
This
course outline is tentative and subject to change. Students are responsible for recording
changes as announced in class.
Topic 1: Crisis
in the Late-Middle Ages; Spielvogel, 11.
Aug
24 Introduction
Aug
26
Aug
28 Hundred Years’ War and Political Crises
Topic 2: Disintegration
in the Late-Middle Ages; Spielvogel, 11.
Aug
31 Ecclesiastical Crises and Popular Belief
Sep
2 Late
Medieval Society and Culture
Sep
5 Renaissance Society
Topic
3: The Origins of the Renaissance; Spielvogel, 12.
Sep 7 Labor Day
Sep
9 Renaissance
States
Sep
11 Quiz on Canterbury Tales
(Read:
Introduction; Prologue, Franklin’s Tale, Knight’s Tale, Miller’s Tale, Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Wife
of Bath’s Tale, Clerk’s Tale, Merchant’s Tale)
Topic
4: The Age of the Renaissance; Spielvogel, 12.
Sep
14 Intellectual
Rebirth
Sep
16 Artistic
Flowering
Sep
18 The Church
Study Guide
Topic
5: The Northern Humanists and the Age of
Reformation; Spielvogel, 13.
Sep
23 Crisis
of Faith and Christian Humanism
Sep
25 Luther and Reformation
Germany
Topic
6: Reformation Europe; Spielvogel, 13.
Sep
28 Spread of Protestant
Reformation
Sep
30 Quiz on Utopia
Oct
2 No
class.
Topic
7: The Age of Discovery and Conquest; Spielvogel, 14.
Oct
5 Catholic
Reformation;
Oct
7 Religious
Conflict and State Power
Oct
9 Conquest of the New World
Topic
8: War and Culture in the Sixteenth
Century; Spielvogel, 14.
Oct
12 Thirty
Years’ War
Oct
14 Art and Culture in the
Sixteenth Century
Oct
16 Quiz on Hamlet
EXAMINATION
2 - OCTOBER 19
Topic
9: The Search for Order in the
Seventeenth Century; Spielvogel, 15.
Oct
21-23 English Civil War and
Glorious Revolution
Topic
10: Absolutism and Its Limits; Spielvogel, 15.
Oct
26 Louis
XIV and Absolutism
Oct
28 Prussia and Austria
Oct
30 Peter the Great Transforms
Russia
Topic 11: A
New World View; Spielvogel, 16.
Nov
2 Shifting Cosmologies
Nov
4 A New Method of Thinking
Nov
6 Rationalism and Politics
Topic
12: The Fruits of Rationalism; Spielvogel, 16.
Nov
9 Rationalism
and Politics; Baroque Culture
Nov
11 Quiz on The Bourgeois Gentleman or “Would-be Gentleman.
EXAMINATION
3 – NOVEMBER 13
Topics
13: The Age of the Enlightenment; Spielvogel, 17.
Nov
16 – 20 Reason, Reform and the
“Republic of Letters”
Topic
14: Governing in the Age of the
Enlightenment; Spielvogel, 18.
Nov
30 - Politics of the
Enlightenment
Dec
4
Topic
15: Society, War and Culture in the Eighteenth
Century; Spielvogel, 18.
Dec 7 Society, Economy and War
Dec
9 The
Arts and Popular Culture
Dec 11 Quiz on Nathan
the Wise
EXAMINATION
4
9 AM Section (2) – WEDNESDAY,
DECEMBER 16 at 10 AM
10 AM Section (5) – MONDAY, DECEMBER
14 at 10 AM