SEMINARS FALL 2009
HONR 218C Western Intellectual Heritage: The Hero and Society
Thursday, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Dr. Peter Losin, Lecturer in University Honors; Program Officer, National
Endowment for the Humanities
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to some of the important texts that have shaped the western intellectual heritage. Readings fall into three general groups: The Classical Heritage, the Biblical Tradition, and the Early Modern Inheritance. Running through the three sections is the common theme of the hero and society. We’ll be asking questions such as: What is a hero? How is the hero related to society? How do conceptions of heroism change over time? What can you learn about a society by studying its heroes? The readings will offer an opportunity to examine literary, philosophical, religious, and intellectual conceptions of heroism. We will consider examples as diverse as Achilles, Oedipus, Antigone, Socrates, Aeneas, David, Samson, Dalila, Sir Gawain, and Henry V.
In addition to this substantive goal, the course has the additional pedagogical purpose of teaching students how to explicate texts carefully and intelligently and how to write about them analytically. While the instructors will briefly set out the historical context of each reading, the greater part of each class will be devoted to close reading and discussion of each text from various perspectives, including ethical and cultural as well as literary and aesthetic.
Attendance at all class meetings is required, and informed participation is expected. Each student will write at least two of the three assigned short papers (3-5 pages) analyzing the texts and take a final examination at the conclusion of the course.
Reading List:
Homer, The Iliad; Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, Antigone
Plato, Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito; Virgil, Aeneid
Judges, Samuel I & II; Milton, Samson Agonistes
Shakespeare, Henry V
Machiavelli, The Prince; Montaigne, Essays
CORE: Humanities [HO]
