Jay Lutz

COR101: Narratives of the Self I

Fall Semester 2004

Course Description:

Voyage usually suggests the action of leaving one place in the expectation of arriving elsewhere.  Although some humans choose to live sedentary existences, most people experience both the difficulties and pleasures of changing their physical surroundings, of traveling.  Something fascinates in the act of leaving a given site behind and being on the way to somewhere else.  The cinema has understood the attraction of this kind of activity, and movies are full of train trips, auto journeys, sailings and treks across wide open spaces.  This situation of being “in transit,” of being “in transition” can serve as an overarching metaphor for this course.  It may be one way of approaching how singers, poets, storytellers, philosphers, dramatists and others narrate something we could call the self.

For it is the creation of a self that we will study as it emerges in periods far removed from our own.  The way this persona manifests itself will vary greatly.  In some cases it will be a matter of  unfolding discovery not unlike the excitement and anxiety associated with a long and perilous voyage.  Travel was not easy in the ancient world.  It can even be hazardous in the modern setting.  Where am I going, and how do I get there?  In other cases the individual will be investigated in relationship to others.  Who is a virtuous person?  How do we know?  These questions will preoccupy the seekers we meet through poetry, essays and drama.  We will try to follow in the wake of their ships, alongside their coaches, at their footside into the realm of the unexpected and ill defined.

Our study will begin with one of the most famous life voyages of history, the Odyssey.  It has come to serve as a model for other kinds of wanderings and adventurous journeys, spiritual and romantic, sceptical and confident, tortured and serene.  We will then learn of Plato’s response to the Homeric heritage as he muses on justice and virtue as it relates to the individual.  From Ancient Greece we will move to Augustine’s North Africa and then continue to Medieval and Renaissance France and England.  There will be secular and religious voices, male and female, younger and older.  All will have written in a language other than English except, of course, Shakespeare.  Competent translations will allow us to enter into these other linguistic universes.

The challenge we face concerns finding the questions these writers are asking.  To succeed will demand careful reading, re-reading and much reflection.  This is a course about thinking.  It is writing intensive.  The subject matter contains complexity and no small amount of anxiety.  The goal will be to develop the kind of analytic skills to respond to the richness of these very diverse texts.

As we travel together this semester, the nature of the journey will become more apparent.  Starting with the charting of the ships of Odysseus across the waters of a mythical Aegean, we will soon find ourselves navigating through the regions of the mind and the heart.  The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1995) defines “self” to be, among other things, “a person or thing as the object of introspection or reflexive action (1253).”  We will attempt to write about the narrating of this phenomenon.

This Course and The Core:

This is the first semester of a two-semester sequence entitled Narratives of the Self.  The second semester will treat texts from later centuries, including a contemporary novel.  The sequence is required of all first-year Oglethorpe students.  It is then followed in the second year by the study of the self in community.  Third and fourth year Core courses build upon the intellectual experiences of the first two years.  Our intention is to provide students with an interdisciplinary series of integrated courses which, together with the fine arts, mathematics and, for Bachelor of Arts students, foreign language, constitute a compelling “second major” in the best tradition of a liberal arts education.

Texts:

The Odyssey of Homer, tr. Richmond Lattimore (Harper Perennial)

Plato, Republic, tr. G.M.A. Grube (Hackett)

Saint Augustine, Confessions, tr. Henry Chadwick (Oxford University Press)

Pizan, Christine de, The Book of the City of Ladies (Persea)

Shakespeare, Othello (Bantam)

YOU MUST ACQUIRE THESE EDITIONS.  THE TRANSLATIONS HAVE BEEN CAREFULLY SELECTED, AND REFERENCE TO THE SAME EDITION IS CRUCIAL FOR EFFECTIVE CLASS DISCUSSION AND REVIEW OF PAPERS.

Class Periods:

Readings will be assigned for each class meeting with a few exceptions.  It is the responsibility of the students to have carefully prepared the material before coming to class.  There will be some short writing activities involving the texts, an occasional mini quiz and ample time for discussion.  Time will also be allotted to reading and critiquing the drafts of each other’s work. 

Short Papers:

A five-page paper will be written on each of the texts studied.  The first four papers will be due on the date indicated on the schedule.  The final paper on Othello will be due by Wednesday December 8.  There will be no final examination.  A list of three topics from which to choose will be announced soon after we begin the study of each text. 

Papers will be read anonymously by the professor.  Students will be asked to supply only their student numbers.  Oglethorpe provides access to the software program Microsoft Word.  It is the preferred formatting program for papers.  The text should be prepared in 12-point type.  The pages should be numbered and double spaced.  A word count should be included at the end of the paper.  1250-1500 words is average for a “five page paper.”  The word count is easy to obtain with Word in the "Tools" drop-down menu.  Citations are assumed to be from the text ordered for the course unless otherwise noted.  After quoting a passage from the text in your paper, simply type the page from which you obtained it in parentheses at the conclusion of the quotation.  Good papers make judicious use of appropriate citations.  They are the only evidence you have to support your arguments and are therefore essential.  They do not, however, constitute an argument in and of themselves.

Schedule:

August 25        Wednesday      Introduction to the Course

                        27        Friday              Odyssey, Books I-III

                        30        Monday           Odyssey, Books IV-VI

September          1        Wednesday      Odyssey, Books VII-IX

                          3        Friday              Odyssey, Books X-XII

                          6        Monday           Labor Day Holiday

                          8        Wednesday      Odyssey, Books XIII-XV

                        10        Friday              Odyssey, Books XVI-XVIII

                        13        Monday           Odyssey, Books XIX-XXI

                        15        Wednesday      Odyssey, Books XXII-XXIV

                        17        Friday              Odyssey           Workshop

                        20        Monday           Paper #1 Due

22        Wednesday      Plato, Books I-II

24        Friday              Plato, Books III-IV

                        27        Monday           Plato, Books V-VI

                        29        Wednesday      Plato, Books VII-VIII

October             1        Friday              No Class

                          4        Monday           Plato, Books IX-X

  6        Wednesday      Plato, Workshop

  8        Friday              Paper #2 Due

                         11       Monday           Columbus Day

                         13       Wednesday      Pizan, p. 1-51

                         15       Friday              No Class

                         18       Monday           Pizan, p. 52-97

 20       Wednesday      Pizan, p. 99-150          

                         22       Friday              No Class

                         25       Monday           Pizan, p. 150-199

                         27       Wednesday      Pizan, p. 200-257

                         29       Friday              Pizan, Workshop

November           1       Monday           Paper #3 Due

                           3       Wednesday      Augustine, Books I-II

                           5       Friday              Augustine, Books III-IV

                           8       Monday           Augustine, Book V-VI

                          10      Wednesday      Augustine, Book VII

                          12      Friday              No Class

                          15      Monday           Augustine, Book VIII

                          17      Wednesday      Augustine, Book IX

                          19      Friday              Augustine, Workshop

                          22      Monday           Paper #4 Due

  24      Wednesday      Thanksgiving Holiday

                          26      Friday              Thanksgiving Holiday

                          29      Monday           Othello, Acts I-II

December            1      Wednesday      Othello, Act III

                            3      Friday              Othello, Acts IV-V

                            6      Monday           Othello, Workshop (Last Class)

                            8      Wednesday      Paper #5 Due              

Grading:

Writing is a difficult and cumulative process.  The first paper will receive written comments and be the subject of a conference between the professor and the student.  It will be included in the class participation portion of the grade.  Clearly unsatisfactory work on the first paper will be indicated as such.  Subsequent papers will receive letter grades and be final. 

The following percentages will be used in figuring the final grade:

Class Participation (including first paper)           40%

Four Graded Papers                                         60%

Attendance:

Class depends on good discussion, and some written work will be done in class.  For that reason, attendance is expected.  It should also be obvious that excessive absence will result in a low class participation grade or no grade at all.

Honor Code:

The students and faculty of Oglethorpe University expect each other to be truthful in the academic endeavor they share.  Faculty assume students complete work honestly and act toward them in ways consistent with that assumption.

Students will pledge to have completed papers honestly by signing the following at the conclusion of each paper:

I pledge that I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this paper.

            Signed ___________________________________________________

All references to sources should be duly cited and acknowledged.  Plagiarism is a serious violation of the Honor Code and will not be tolerated.  Your pledge indicates that the ideas and the wording in your paper are your own unless another source is noted.  The penalty for premediated cheating at Oglethorpe University is an F in the course.  A second violation of the honor code results in permanent expulsion.  Unpledged work will not be graded.

Incompletes:

An incomplete for unfinished work at the end of the semester will be granted only in the most exceptional cases.  All incompletes must have signed permission from the instructor specifying the work which remains to be completed.  According to university regulations all remaining work for the course must be completed within 30 days following the date of the scheduled final examination (December 8, 2004) or the grade of “F” will be assigned permanently.