192. Great Books. Open
to Honors first-year students only. (4). (HU).
Continuation of Great Books 191, from Plato to the Renaissance.
We will read Plato, Symposium and Republic;
Vergil, The Aeneid; selections from the Old Testament
and New Testament; St. Augustine, Confessions; Dante, The Divine Comedy (Inferno, and selections from Purgatorio and Paradiso ); and selections from
Boccaccio. Great Books 192 is open only to first-year students
in the Honors Program; other students wishing to take a similar
course are encouraged to elect Great Books 202. (Cameron, Williams, et al.)
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Times, Location, and Availability
202. Great Books of the
Medieval and Modern World. (4). (HU).
Section 001 – Journeys of Flesh and Spirit. In this course
we will read, discuss, and write about some eight or so of the
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. After focusing for two weeks in the Christian New Testament, we will read Saint Augustine's Confessions, Gottfried
von Strassburg's Tristan, Dante's Inferno, Machiavelli's The Prince, Shakespeare's King Lear, Rousseau's Confessions, Richard Wagner's music drama Tristan
and Isolde, and Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals .
Our conversation about and with these greats will include about
ten pages of writing in a few shortish papers, two midterms, and a final. Cost:2
WL:1 (Wallin)
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Times, Location, and Availability
221. Great Books of China.
(4). (HU).
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 traditional Chinese
civilization and depicting in vivid detail its splendor and decadence.
Regular one-page written assignments, three brief papers (four
or five pages each), and a final examination are required. (Lin)
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Times, Location, and Availability
331(320)/Spanish 331. Great
Books of Spain and Latin America. Open to students
at all levels. A knowledge of Spanish is not required. (3). (HU).
May not be included in a concentration plan in Spanish (or teaching
certificate major or minor).
See Spanish 331. (Colás)
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Times, Location, and Availability
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