"Telling Wisdom"
Class hours: M W F 11:00 am to 11:50 am, 103 Global Scholars Hall
Office hours: Wednesdays from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm and by appointment, 310 Chapman Hall
Scientia is the Latin word for “knowledge”; sapientia is the Latin word for “wisdom.” In this course, we will consider how knowledge and wisdom have been created, defined and shared through pre-modern literature.
Knowledge is a good place to start. See the Oxford English Dictionary entry, which includes, for the English word’s meaning, acknowledgement, recognition, acquaintance, friendship, intimacy, understanding, intelligence, perception, and consciousness. The word “wisdom” has the same sort of long pedigree in English: it involves concepts of judgment, sound sense, enlightenment, learning, sanity, reason, dignity and respect. Interestingly, the word “wisdom” also seems to have been used both jocularly and ironically for a very long time. What does it mean to be knowledgeable? To be wise, ironically or not? How do we know, and what is at stake?
This course will concentrate on human culture’s most powerful vehicle with which to explore, understand, create and contest both knowledge and wisdom: telling stories. Stories – narratives – carry knowledge and create wisdom. In his book The Literary Mind (Oxford UP, 1996), Mark Turner suggests that narrative—story – is the foundation of language itself. Closely reading pre-modern texts can help us understand the value of narrative, our own positions within a sea of story, and how the past -- and we in an Oregon classroom -- understand the human condition in terms of knowledge and wisdom. We will use many kinds of tales (a tale is 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 intellectual and emotional knowledge and wisdom as we consider the ways pre-modern cultures produced and saved these tales. We will also investigate how and why we’ve gotten our hands on them in 2018 Oregon. Your literary journey starts here.
Written work for the class includes ungraded response papers, two 1500-word formal papers, class presentations, and a comprehensive final examination. Some special events related to the class, such as films or readings, are not required, but strongly recommended.
Close reading is vital; interpretive muscle grows from it.
Reading schedule -- reading due for that day's class; always a good idea to read ahead
Sept. 24 What does it mean to "tell"? See the definition in the Oxford English Dictionary. What difference does it make to know a word's history, such as the history of the words "knowledge" and "wisdom"? Read the text's Introduction to Gilgamesh --the "joy-woe" man (Table I, line 234) -- and consider the purpose of story.
Read on Canvas the assigned "definition of close reading": we will practice "close reading" all term |
Sept. 26 Gilgamesh, a poem of the human condition -- Tablet 1: Kingship, nature, the creation of Enkidu. "The Arabic name of Babylonia, al-?Ir?q, is thought to be derived from the name Uruk, via Aramaic (Erech) and possibly Middle Persian (Er?q) transmission. (W. Eilers (1983), "Iran and Mesopotamia" in E. Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) |
Sept. 28 First writing assignment due (creative assignment to begin the writing conversation)
Paper format instructions Gilgamesh, Tablets 2 and 3: eroticism, male bonding, heroic challenge and anticipation |
Oct. 1 Gilgamesh Tablets 4 through 6: Humbaba, the Bull of Heaven, Ishtar: sex and heroism. Read Rivkah Harris, pp. 207 – 218 in our edition |
Oct. 3 Gilgamesh Tablets 7 through 9: the death of Enkidu and Gilgamesh's reaction: violence and sympathy
Baba Brinkman's rap Gilgamesh
If you listen to this rap, note what it includes (idiom of fame, problems of heroism, kingship) and doesn't include (everything after Tablet VIII). Is Brinkman correct that the last part is boring? What other reasons might there be for excluding the last part of the text? |
Oct. 5 Gilgamesh Tablets 10 and 11: the journey to the underworld, the flood story, and immortality *Gilgamesh (#1) response paper due |
Oct. 8 Trojan Women Poseidon and Athena, the towers of Ilium, and fate; please read the entire play before class. Concentrate on the first half of the play, up to the separation of Astyanax from Andromache, p. 58.
Grinnell College production from Fall 2016 on YouTube here |
Oct. 10 Trojan Women Hecuba, Cassandra, Andromache, Astyanax and generation; the death of Astyanax: is this the worst? The end of the play. . . the end? |
Oct. 12 Trojan Barbie by Christine Evans. Think about its relation to Trojan Women. What is this play’s point of view? What are the elements in that point of view that fit, and contest, the original play? For extra insight, read Scanlan's essay on the play |
Oct. 15 Alter's Genesis and the reasons for reading Genesis -- Read Chapters 1-11 (Garden, Noah). Do consult Alter's copious notes on the text: do not assume you know "the Bible" |
Oct. 17 Alter's Genesis, Chapters 12-22 (Generations to Abraham, ending with the sacrifice of Isaac) |
Oct. 19 Alter's Genesis, Isaac, Jacob, generations and women's roles (Chapters 23-36)
*Alter's Genesis or Trojan Women (#2) response paper due |
Oct. 22 Alter's Genesis
Chapter 37-50 (Joseph): the meanings of parallel narratives, and the value of repetition |
Oct. 24 Mahabharata, Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 (through page 19): the set-up of family rivalry, and exposition of character
You Tube 1988 Indian television version
What is an A paper?
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Oct. 26 First formal paper due Mahabharata, through Chapter 6 (ends page 53): Draupadi, competition and rivalry – avoidable? |
Oct. 29 Mahabharata, Chapters 7 through 8 (page 83): gambling as metaphor.
Peter Brooks' film version |
Oct. 31 Mahabharata, through Chapter 12 (page 131): exile, satisfaction, story, and war |
Nov. 2 Mahabharata, through the Epilogue: death, fame, character, dharma, karma
*Mahabharata (#3) response paper due |
Nov. 5 The Consolation of Philosophy Introduction and Book 1 (through p. 26): Who is Lady Philosophy? How do metaphor and visions go together? |
Nov. 7 The Consolation of Philosophy Book 2: the wheel of fortune; Book 3: wisdom, creation, and divinity (through page 105)
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Nov. 9 The Consolation of Philosophy Book 4 (through page 145): All fortune is good
*Consolation of Philosophy (#4) response paper due |
Nov. 12 The Consolation of Philosophy Book 5: free will and determinism |
Nov. 14 The Wife of Bath, from the Canterbury Tales: Read the Introduction in Beidler’s edition of the Tale (pp. 1 – 27 and 89 – 114 only), along with the description of the Wife from the General Prologue (pp. 42-43). Note the wife’s “pedigree.” Have a look at this “modernized” version by Prof. Michael Murphy at CUNY Brooklyn; read the excellent introduction and enjoy the notes. Bring both Beidler and Murphy to class meetings. Here's my essay on Chaucer, from Icons of the Middle Ages, vol. 1 (Greenwood, 2012). |
Nov. 16 The Wife of Bath’s Prologue The role of authority vs experience. Bring to class your Beidler and Murphy. Check out Baba Brinkman's rap version, from his "Rap Canterbury Tales" |
Nov. 19 The Wife of Bath’s Tale Sexual violence, law, questions, answers, dreams and reality: expectations confirmed? Here's Baba Brinkman's version of the Tale |
Nov. 21 Second formal paper due |
NO CLASS; HAPPY THANKSGIVING! |
Nov. 26 Mirabai Passions, devotions, and "inner life" with Krishna and her "Master." How are transcendence and interiority portrayed? See also these two articles about Mirabai: Mirabai and her Contributions to the Bhakti Movement
and
Mirabai and the Spiritual Economy of Bhakti |
Nov. 28 Mirabai The role of suffering and how that suffering is portrayed compared with the Mahabharata: joy, grief, and freedom |
Nov. 30 Mirabai: the matter of gender, of western assumptions. . . .
*Mirabai (#5) response paper due |
Requirements
- First writing assignment, due Friday, September 28. One to two pages, 250 to 500 words. Read the first tablet of Gilgamesh, pages 1 to 12, and pay attention to Gilgamesh's dream and Ninsun's interpretation of it. Invent a dream that presages your experiences at the University of Oregon. Have someone (and identify who it is) who interprets your dream. You'll be writing in a long tradition: Mesopotamian students parodied Gilgamesh some 3000 years ago. This is a P/N assignment, meant to begin our writing conversation.
- Response papers. You'll write four (not five, although there are five opportunities) one- to two-page response papers this term (about 600 words for each essay). Check due dates on the schedules above AND below (they should match!). 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, and to organize your assertions with attention to text and audience. Here are the steps for writing response papers:
- No fewer than four days before a paper is due, think about something you find intriguing in our reading, 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). Use a habitual method, or try a new 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. Feel free to talk about your ideas/assertions with others.
- Reread and revise what you've written, again looking at our text for evidence. Have a typed, final copy of your essay complete before noon Wednesday.
- Attach your notes/outline/draft to your finished copy and hand it in.
Do not be surprised if you change your mind utterly while you're writing. Do not be surprised if the last thing you write can better serve as the beginning of the paper. 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.
- Graded formal papers. Two five-page (1250 to 1500 words) papers, each of which can, but are not required to, use an observation originally explored in a response paper and/or an informal study group. See also tips for topics. Paper 1, due Wednesday, Oct. 24, will treat Gilgamesh, Trojan Women/Trojan Barbie, and/or Genesis. Paper 2, due Wednesday, Nov. 21, will treat the Mahabharata, The Consolation of Philosophy, and/or The Wife of Bath. Comparisons are welcome, but don't lose specificity. 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.
- Writing portfolio and reflective essay. During the term, keep all of your work in a folder; 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. Your essay will also treat what you hope to continue to improve in your writing. You'll submit your reflective essay electronically (required), and give me (via the CHC main office) your writing portfolio no later than Thursday, December 6, at 12:15 pm. Completing this assignment contributes 10% to your final grade.
- Final exam. Take-home exam due electronically, via Canvas, no later than Thursday, December 6, at 12:15 pm.
Grading
The response papers constitute 15% of your grade; the two formal papers, 25% and 30% respectively; the reflective essay 10%; participation, 5%, 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):
A+ = 4.3 |
B+ = 3.3 |
C+ = 2.3 |
D+ = 1.3 |
A = 4.0 |
B = 3.0 |
C = 2.0 |
D = 1.0 |
A- = 3.7 |
B- = 2.7 |
C- = 1.7 |
D- = 0.7 |
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.
Office hours
Wednesdays 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
310 Chapman (shared office space)
Appointments possible, but space to meet will need to be arranged along with appointment time
