Course Objectives
This course develops ideas and practices central to the Concept: “Spring Arbor University is a community of learners distinguished by our lifelong involvement in the study and application of the liberal arts, total commitment to Jesus Christ as the perspective for learning, and critical participation in the contemporary world.” In reading important literary works from a span of almost three thousand years, we will open up our community of learners to include the wisdom of what G. K. Chesterton terms “the democracy of the dead.” Some of the authors we’ll be studying were committed Christians, but one lived long before Christ was born. So one of the questions we’ll ask is how Christ’s coming altered the human imagination. Hang on, because it’s a chaotic and fascinating transformation.
Yet some of the fundamental questions to which all of these authors addressed themselves remain constant: What is a home? How do we get there? What virtues are required to sustain our homes? These questions raise issues of community, virtue, and human telos that recur through the millennia. And because we are reading authors who wrote works of imaginative literature to respond to these issues, they each believe that literature is one of the fundamental means that humans have to work out answers to such questions. By the end of the semester, I hope that you’ll understand why.
Grading Breakdown:
- Quizzes and Daily Questions 20%
- Midterm 10%
- Three Virtue Reflections 5%
- Three Short Essays 20%
- Final Essay 25%
- Final 20%
Course Grading Scale: A 100-93; A- 92-90; B+ 89-87; B 86-83; B- 82-80; . . . F 59-0.
Required Texts:
- The Odyssey, by Homer. ISBN: 014026886
- The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri. ISBN: 0679433139
- Paradise Lost, by John Milton. ISBN: 0375757961
- Remembering, by Wendell Berry. ISBN: 9781582434155
Recommended Text:
- The Office of Assertion: An Art of Rhetoric for the Academic Essay, by Scott Crider. ISBN: 978-1932236453
Course Calendar:
Section 1 meets MWF from 11:10-12:10 in SMC 111. Section 2 meets MWF from 1:30-2:30 in SMC 111.
If you need to join class via Zoom due to COVID-19 quarantine, you may use this link to do so. Let me know if you need to participate via Zoom as I won’t set up Zoom unless it is necessary.
This schedule is subject to change.
Week 1
- Wednesday 1/27: Introduction
- Friday 1/29: Odyssey Books 1-2 (77-106)
Week 2
- Monday 2/1: Odyssey Books 3, 5 (107-123, 152-167)
- Wednesday 2/3: Odyssey Books 7, 9 (179-190, 211-229)
- Friday 2/5: Odyssey Books 10-12 (230-285)
Week 3
- Monday 2/8: Odyssey Books 13-14 (286-318)
- Wednesday 2/10: Odyssey Books 16-17 (338-374)
- Friday 2/12: no class
Week 4
- Monday 2/15: Odyssey Books 18-19 (375-409)
- Wednesday 2/17: Odyssey Books 21-22 (424-454)
- Friday 2/19: read Odyssey Books 23-24 (455-485), but we won’t have class today
Week 5
- Monday 2/22: Inferno Cantos 1-5; Virtue Reflection 1 due
- Wednesday 2/24: no class
- Friday 2/26: Inferno Cantos 6-10
Week 6
- Monday 3/8: Inferno Cantos 11, 13-15, 26; Short Essay 1 due
- Wednesday 3/10: read Inferno Cantos 31-34, but we won’t have class today
- Friday 3/12: Purgatory Cantos 1-4
Week 7
- Monday 3/15: Purgatory Cantos 5, 6, 9-11
- Wednesday 3/17: FOCUS
- Friday 3/19: Purgatory Cantos 17, 18, 25-27
Week 8
- Monday 3/22: Midterm; Midterm essay questions
- Wednesday 3/24: Purgatory Cantos 30-33
- Friday 3/26: Paradise Cantos 1-3, 6, 11
Week 9
- Monday 3/29: Paradise Cantos 17-20, 22
- Wednesday 3/31: Paradise Cantos 26-29
- Friday 4/2: Good Friday
Week 10
- Monday 4/5: Easter Monday
- Wednesday 4/7: Paradise Cantos 30-33; no class; listen to the introductory lecture below on Milton and Paradise Lost.
- Friday 4/9: Paradise Lost Book 1; These reading questions I’ve prepared may help you follow Milton’s argument. Virtue Reflection 2 due
Week 11
- Monday 4/12: Paradise Lost Book 2
- Wednesday 4/14: Paradise Lost Book 3; Short Essay 2 due
- Friday 4/16: Paradise Lost Book 4
Week 12
- Monday 4/19: Paradise Lost Book 5
- Wednesday 4/21: Paradise Lost Book 6
- Friday 4/23: Paradise Lost Book 8
Week 13
- Monday 4/26: Paradise Lost Book 9
- Wednesday 4/28: Paradise Lost Book 10
- Friday 4/30: Paradise Lost Book 11.1-125; Meetings for final essay must be completed. You can make an appointment for these here.
Week 14
- Monday 5/3: Paradise Lost Book 12.285-649; Virtue Reflection 3 due
- Wednesday 5/5: Remembering 1-34
- Friday 5/7: Remembering 35-76; Short Essay 3 due
Week 15
- Monday 5/10: Remembering 77-103
- Section 1 Final on Wednesday 5/12, 8:00-10:00; Final Essay due (plus 3 points if you go to the WC). List of terms to study for the final. List of essay questions that will be on the final.
- Section 2 Final on Thursday 5/13, 1:00-3:00; Final Essay due (plus 3 points if you go to the WC). List of terms to study for the final. List of essay questions that will be on the final.