HC 221 H, Honors College World Literature: The romance of travel

Bishop, Fall '09 | 212 Chapman | (541) 346-0733 | lmbishop@uoregon.edu
Office hours:

Monday, 3:00 to 5:00 pm

Wednesday, 3:00 to 5:00 pm

and by appointment

Reserve office hour time via sign-up sheets on my office door (sign-up sheets list hours for the entire term); make an appointment if these hours don't work.

Class hours: CRN 12885 Mon., Wed., Fri. 2:00 to 2:50 pm in 307 Chapman

Requirements | Texts | Grading | Reading schedule | Paper format instructions | Tips for topics | Reflective essay instructions | What is an "A" paper?

Modernity depends on opposing fact and fiction: 21st-century globalism would be nowhere without an understanding of scientific fact. Pre-modern societies like Rome, on the other hand, differentiated knowledge (scientia) from wisdom (sapientia). Stories were thought to carry knowledge in its many forms, and a recent theory contends that narrative - story -- is the foundation of language itself (see Mark Turner, The Literary Mind, Oxford UP, 1996).

Since the western Enlightenment, however, story has been "mere story" -- so Francis Bacon called it in 1626. Modernity makes history story's opposite: history gives us fact rather than fiction, story gives us imagination rather than reality. Aren't facts more important than fiction?

Reading pre-modern texts with attention to discovery, interpretation, and use can help us understand the value of narrative and our own positions within a sea of story. We'll use travellers' tales (a tale is also a "mere story," according to the OED) and their "translations" (meaning "to carry, to transfer") to grapple with representations of self and other, and with the value of imagination and emotion. We'll let the root of education - educare, to lead forth - lead us to new sorts of intellectual and emotional understandings as we consider the ways a reader's necessary empathy can shade into appropriation. Close reading is vital; interpretive muscle grows from it.

Reading list: The following three texts have been ordered at the UO Bookstore:

• The Epic of Gilgamesh in the Norton Critical edition;
• The Monkey and the Monk, Anthony Yu's translation and edition, with abridgements, of Journey to the West;
• Shakespeare's The Tempest, ordered in the Oxford UP edition.

I've ordered our last text late: Euripedes' The Trojan Women, in a new Oxford UP edition, translated by poet Alan Shapiro. It should arrive in time for our reading of it.

Your own writing is, of course, both formally and contextually situated. HC 221 H includes writing analysis (composition) with the study of literature. Please be advised of two resources: the University Composition Program's resources, and the Teaching and Learning Center in the basement of PLC. See also tips for topics.

Requirements

1. First writing assignment, due Friday, October 2. Once she has seduced Enkidu and his animals have run away from him, Shamhat flatters Enkidu and tells him of Uruk's mighty walls, holy temple, and Gilgamesh. If Shamhat were trying to get Enkidu to come to the University of Oregon, what would she use to entice him? Write a little narrative, in the harlot's voice, explaining to Enkidu what he will find at the UO to compensate for his lost idyll in nature. You'll be writing in a long tradition: Mesopotamian students parodied Gilgamesh some 3000 years ago (see page 167 of our Gilgamesh edition).

2. Response papers. You'll write four one- to two-page response papers this term. Label your papers as primarily discovery (something that surprised you and which you're investigating), interpretation (some event that you are look at closely for its effect in the text or outside it) or use, meaning the way one feature of the text can be used for a larger argument. Check due dates on the schedule below. Response paper are formal in the sense that spelling, grammar, and thinking count; at the same time, these are papers in which to try out ideas, to experiment and challenge yourself intellectually. Here are the steps for writing response papers:

• No fewer than four days before a paper is due, think about discovery, interpretation, and use, and re-read the text.
• No fewer than three days before the due date, free write, meaning that you make notes, construct an outline, or write a complete draft (this may be handwritten)--either a method you habitually use, or a method you're trying out for the first time. Get something down on paper. Then put away whatever you've written for at least six hours.
• Reread and revise what you've written, again looking at our text for evidence. Have a typed, final copy of your essay complete by noon Friday.
• Attach your notes/outline/draft to your finished copy and hand it in.

I will read these papers, comment on them, and grade them pass/no pass. Normally, a no-pass paper lacks a thesis and/or contains egregious writing errors. Four passing papers will count as a 4.0, three as a 3.0, two as a 2.0, one as a 1.0. No-pass papers may be re-written, and handed back to me within a week. You may also request that I give any response paper a "grade," meaning the grade it would receive were it a graded assignment: I'll "grade" the paper in order to give you an idea of how grading works on formal papers, but the grade won't "count," per se.

3 . Graded formal papers. Two five-page (1250-word) papers, each of which can use an observation originally explored in a response paper and/or an informal study group. See also tips for topics. Paper 1, due Friday, Oct. 16, will treat Gilgamesh. Paper 2, due Wednesday, Nov. 25, will treat The Monkey and the Monk and/or The Trojan Women. Note paper due dates: turn in your papers on the date specified. The first paper may also be rewritten (due one week after returned; include the original paper when submitting the rewrite), with the two grades averaged for the paper's final grade.

4 . Writing portfolio and reflective essay. During the term, keep all of your work in this portfolio; at the end of the term, you'll write a reflective essay about your writing, using your portfolio in order to include specific examples of your writing's strengths and weaknesses, and to list what you hope to continue to improve in your writing. You'll give me your writing portfolio, with reflective essay, along with your final exam, no later than Thursday, December 10, at 5:15 pm. Completing this assignment contributes 10% to your final grade.

5. Final exam. Take-home exam, focusing primarily on The Tempest, due no later than Thursday, December 10, at 5:15 pm. (Back to top of page)

Extra credit

Informal study groups. The learning community of the Honors College affords you an opportunity to test your ideas and grow intellectually in a supportive yet challenging environment.

To facilitate conversations about our texts, you can, along with at least one other student, contribute a "discovery" to our Blackboard discussion site before Sunday midnight for each Monday's class. You're on the honor system for the listing of contributors' names. You may get credit only once for each week, but of course you'll benefit from chatting about many different discoveries. List the discussants' names and include on the "discussion site" for that text on Blackboard a question your discovery led to (but as many questions as you wish). Again, all this must be posted before midnight on the appropriate Sunday.

If you complete the assignment for each of the eight weeks, you'll receive 3 tenth-points extra-credit on your final grade; for seven, 2; for six, 1; for five, half a tenth.(Back to top of page)

Grading

The response papers constitute 15% of your grade; the first formal paper, 20%, the second, 30%; reflective essay, 10%; participation, 10%; and the final exam will constitute 15% of your grade. Please note the University's "grade point value" system effective 9/90, as I will be using this system (unless otherwise noted):

Note that a grade of "C" is, according to academic regulations, "satisfactory," while a "B" is "good." That means that a "B" is better than average, better than satisfactory, better than adequate. The average grade, then, is a "C"; a grade of "B" requires effort and accomplishment.

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Daily reading schedule

Discovery	Interpretation	Use
	Sept. 30 class introduction--historicizing "literature" and respecting difference; groundrules for class; introduction to Gilgamesh--the purpose of story	Oct. 2 First writing assignment due Gilgamesh, a poem of the human condition Tablet 1: Kingship, nature, the creation of Enkidu: read also "Gilgamesh and Akka," pp. 99 - 104 in the Norton edition Why present Gilgamesh as a bad king? Why do the animals reject Enkidu after he has intercourse with Shamhat? What does their rejection mean? Why does reason and understanding result from Enkidu's episode Shamhat? What more defines a man, according to the epic?
Oct. 5 Gilgamesh Tablets 2 and 3: eroticism, male bonding, heroic challenge and anticipation Why does Gilgamesh propose killing Humbaba? What role does Ninsun play in the drama? Assess the approach/avoidance motif shared between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.	Oct. 7 Gilgamesh Tablets 4 and 5: Humbaba and the journey to the Cedar Forest; read also "Gilgamesh and Huwawa A and B," pp. 104-120 in the Norton edition What distinguishes Gilgamesh from Enkidu?Why detail Gilgamesh's dreams? What do his dreams mean? Does anything make Humbaba a sympathetic character?	#1 response paper due Oct. 9 Gilgamesh Tablet 6: Ishtar, sex and heroism; read also "Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven," pp. 120 - 129, and Rivkah Harris's essay, pp. 207 - 218 in the Norton edition Is Gilgamesh afraid of Ishtar? Is Gilgamesh's pride involved? Why does Ishtar want Gilgamesh in the first place? What is Enkidu's role in the rejection and in the death of the Bull of Heaven? How does the Bull of Heaven's death compare with Humbaba's?
Oct. 12 Gilgamesh Tablets 7 through 9: the death of Enkidu and Gilgamesh's reaction: violence and sympathy Why does Enkidu change his mind about cursing Shamhat? How do curses compare with dreams?	Oct. 14 Gilgamesh Tablets 10 and 11: the journey to the underworld, the flood story, and walls; read also "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld" and "The Death of Gilgamesh," pp. 129-155 in the Norton edition Tablet 10 culminates in Uta-napishtim's description of death. How have we been prepared for it? How does it differ from other actions and descriptions? From scorpion-men and Shiduri the tavern-keeper to Uta-napishtim, how does their advice count for Gilgamesh and for the audience? Since death is so much this text's concern, how do you account for its failure to recount Gilgamesh's death?	Oct. 16 *First formal paper due The Trojan Women: Poseidon and Athena, the towers of Ilium, and fate These are the questions I've posed to our visitor for her presentation: -- how do you as a costume designer think about costume as separate from “regular life”? -- what are the basics of designing a Greek play?  Where do you start? -- how do you as a costume designer think about the historical dimension of the costumes?  Is it a constant back-and-forth between ancient and modern in color, materials, other things? What were your major influences?  Why did you choose those (or did they choose you)? -- what role does the play’s language have in your design work?   -- how do you calibrate costume to character? -- what did you especially like in your designs for this production?  What would you do differently if you had it to do over again?
Oct. 19 The Trojan Women: Hecuba, Cassandra, Andromache, Astyanax and generation Please read the entire play before class. We will concentrate on the first half of the play on Monday (up to the separation of Astyanax from Andromache), the second half on Wednesday. Dialogue is what a play is all about. How does dialogue change in form and content relative to particular speakers? Think of the pacing of the play; why does it begin with the dialogue between Poseidon and Athena? How does a "chorus" work? Why include the chorus in a play?	Oct. 21 The Trojan Women: Helen and Menelaus, the death of Astyanax: is this the worst? Check out our Blackboard site for a recent play, Trojan Barbie by Christine Evans, which recently debuted. Please read the play and think about its relation to our play. What is its point of view?	#2 response paper due Oct. 23 Introduction to The Monkey and the Monk by Prof. Maram Epstein, East Asian Languages and Literatures, an expert in ancient and modern Chinese Please read the preface and the first chapter, through page 18
Oct. 26 The Monkey and the Monk, Preface and Chapters 2 through 5, pp. 19-81. Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism; India, China, origins and the Dear Monkey.	Oct. 28 The Monkey and the Monk: the movie No class meeting today. Instead, work on rewriting your first paper and also take some time to watch a few episodes of this version (with English subtitles) of Journey to the West: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A0721BAF21807BE3	Oct. 30 The Monkey and the Monk, through Chapter 8, page 127. Prof. Frances Cogan, CHC's most lauded professor, and an accomplished reader of Journey to the West, will talk with you about Guanyin's journey and her finding of The Great Sage (Chapter Eight). What role does poetry play in Chapter Eight? What are we learning about the Boddhisatva? Why end the chapter with Sun Wukong?
Nov. 2 The Monkey and the Monk, through Chapter 12, p. 202: finding the monk who will bring back the sacred scrolls.	Nov. 4 The Monkey and the Monk, through Chapter 17, p. 274: "Pilgrim" and Bajie join Tripitaka	#3 response paper due Nov. 6 For your response papers (due on Monday the 9th), choose one of five topics: Bajie's and Sun Wukong's relationship Sun Wukong's admirable traits, and bad traits -- what's the point? What makes the Tang emperor a good emperor? Why is it important to the text? Look at Buddha subduing Sun Wukong and/or the process leading up to it (Chapter 7): what's the point/tenor/meaning of the episode? Besides on p. 272, where else have we encountered the Heart Sutra? What does it mean that it shows up in this chapter?
Nov. 9 The Monkey and the Monk, through Chapter 19, p. 304: lessons and adventures	Nov. 11 The Monkey and the Monk, through Chapter 21, p. 337: dragons	Nov. 13 The Monkey and the Monk, through Chapter 24, p. 385: moth-brows and phoenix eyes
Nov. 16 The Monkey and the Monk, through Chapter 28, p. 448: humor	Nov. 18 The Monkey and the Monk, through Chapter 31, p. 497: prayers	#4 response paper due Nov. 20 Review: How do we use discovery and interpretation?
Nov. 23 The Tempest, Act 1: Discovering a new world, and treachery How does the first scene set up the character and characters of the play? Why is Prospero so worried that Miranda will fall asleep? Are Ariel and Caliban opposites or two sides of the same coin?	*Second formal paper due Nov. 25 The Tempest, Act II: brothers, family, and power Why were Alonso and his entourage on a voyage in the first place? What makes the sibling relationship an appropriate vehicle for exploring rivalry? How would you stage Caliban?	Nov. 27 NO CLASS HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Nov. 30 The Tempest, Act III: The discovery of love Although love trials are a common theme in medieval romance, do the particulars of Ferdinand's bondage suggest other meanings? Why have Ariel accuse Alonso?	Dec. 2 The Tempest, Act IV: the interpretation of magic Do Ceres and Iris embody qualities we've seen in other works? What purpose do they serve in the play? Why are clothes the way to trick Stephano and Trinculo?	Dec. 4 The Tempest, Act V: the use of art Do Sebastian and Antonio repent? Why does Prospero forgive them? Or does he? Why end the play with Prospero as Epilogue?

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