First-Year Courses in Great Books This page was created at 6:52 PM on Mon, Jan 21, 2002. Winter Academic Term, 2002 (January 7 - April 26) Open courses in Great Books (*Not real-time Information. Review the "Data current as of: " statement at the bottom of hyperlinked page) Wolverine Access Subject listing for GTBOOKS Winter Academic Term '02 Time Schedule for Great Books. GTBOOKS 202. Great Books of the Medieval and Modern World. Section 001 – Athens and Jerusalem in Great Books of the West. Instructor(s): Robert D Wallin (rdwallin@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (HU). Credits: (4). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. In this course we will read, discuss, and write about ten or so of the (mostly shorter) classics of Western literature. Written for the most part for audiences with backgrounds and expectations widely different from our own, these books have preserved their value and importance with ease. Because they force us to consider important questions and values, because they make us think about the kinds of persons we are or want to be, these books are as much our heritage as are the rules of arithmetic. I want you to become comfortable reading these books and eager to use them in forming your own education. The terms Athens and Jerusalem in the course subtitle refer to the two famous cities and the distinctive ways of looking at and understanding the world that developed in each. One way, we might say, is the way of philosophy and science, the other the way of Scripture and its insights. One way can be considered Greco-Roman, the other Judeo-Christian. The ways of Athens and Jerusalem are fundamental to the structure of the Western mind and its civilization. We will begin with some background reading. Vergil's Roman epic, The Aeneid, and the New Testament Gospels of Mark and Matthew will serve to ground us, and then we will proceed to examine two or three of Paul's Letters. From the Bible we will move on to Augustine's Confessions and Dante's Inferno. We will then consider three works of the Renaissance, More's Utopia, Machiavelli's The Prince, , and a tragedy of Shakespeare, either Hamlet or King Lear. From the 18th century we will read Voltaire's Candide , from the 19th Goethe's Faust, Part One, and from the 20th Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Our conversation about and with these greats will include about ten pages of writing in a few shortish papers, a few brief quizzes and a midterm (or perhaps two), and a final examination. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. GTBOOKS 221 / ASIAN 221 / CHIN 221. Great Books of China. Section 001. Instructor(s): Shuen-fu Lin (lsf@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: A knowledge of Chinese is not required. (4). (HU). Credits: (4). Course Homepage: https://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2002/winter/gtbooks/221/001.nsf An introduction to some of the books that have exerted a commanding influence on the lives, thought, culture, and literary experience of the Chinese people through the ages, and that have the power to delight or enlighten Western readers today. We will begin with a short selection from the ancient Book of Changes which represents the earliest crystallization of the Chinese mind and then extend to examine several texts in the ethical, social, and political philosophy of Confucianism; two texts in the mystical philosophy of Taoism; and Sun Tzu's The Art of War, the world's oldest, and perhaps also greatest, military text. Other readings include one wild Buddhist text about the experience of enlightenment; Monkey, a novel of myth, fantasy, comedy, and allegory; The Tower of Myriad Mirrors, a sequel to Monkey exploring the world of desire, dreams, and the unconscious; and finally The Story of the Stone, a monument in fiction, set in the last high point in premodern Chinese civilization and depicting in vivid detail its splendor and decadence. The format of the course consists of two lectures and two recitation sessions per week. Regular one-page written assignments, three brief papers (four or five pages each), and a final examination are required. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. This page was created at 6:52 PM on Mon, Jan 21, 2002. University of Michigan | College of LS&A | Student Academic Affairs | First-Year Handbook | First-Year Information | Parent Handbook | LS&A Bulletin This page maintained by LS&A Academic Information and Publications, 1228 Angell Hall Copyright © 2001 The Regents of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA +1 734 764-1817 Trademarks of the University of Michigan may not be electronically or otherwise altered or separated from this document or used for any non-University purpose.