Humanities 2
680:022. Humanities II: The Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment--3 credits.
Literature, philosophy, religion, and the fine arts, integrated with the history of Western Civilization from 1300 to the French Revolution of 1789 (offered Fall, Spring, and Summer).
Books Approved for Use in Humanities 2
History Texts
Instructors may use any standard "Western Civ." textbook from a major publisher, such as:
Greer, Lewis, Brief History of the Western World
(One Volume Edition)
Kagan, Paul, et al., The Western Heritage (Vols. I & II)
Kishlansky, et al., Civilization in the West
Lerner, Meacham, Burns, Western Civilizations (Vols. I & II)
McKay, et al., A History of Western Society
Perry, Western Civilization
(the Concise or the Longer Version)
Spielvogel, Western Civilization (Vols. I & II, Vol. B)
Recommendations of the Humanities Text Working Group
1. That in each of the three Humanities courses, faculty be encouraged to assign a minimum of four complete works, assuming those works to be of moderate length; faculty are encouraged to assign more works, if shorter works are used.
2. That the use of literary anthologies be approved, when those anthologies include complete shorter works or when they are used in conjunction with complete works, the total assigned readings to be equivalent to the use of four or more complete texts. We recommend the use of an anthology similar to the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces (2 vols.). Documents collections can be very useful as adjuncts to such literary anthologies, and complete texts.
3. That the use of a main Western
civilization text be continued, and that the breadth of choice that
currently prevails in selecting such texts continue to accommodate varying
pedagogical approaches to the teaching of the courses. Some faculty have
also found volumes such as art history texts valuable in supplementing their
use of Western civilization texts. An inexpensive example of such a text is
Cole and Gelt's Art of the Western World.
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I. The Late Middle Ages and the Black Death
Poetry:
Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, esp. Inferno
Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Cresyde
Chretien de Troyes, any Arthurian romance
Drama:
Wakefield Mystery Plays
Literary:
Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron
II. Renaissance
In Their Own Words:
Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography
Francesco Petrarch, My Secret Book
Leonardo da Vinci, On Painting
Poetry:
Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso
Francesco Petrarch, Canzoniere
Pierre de Ronsard, Selected Poems
William Shakespeare, Sonnets, Venus and Adonis
Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queen
Drama:
Ben Johnson, Volpone
Niccolo Machiavelli, Mandragola
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Tamerlane
William Shakespeare, any playLope de Vega, La Dorotea
Biography:
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists
Political:
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy
Montaigne, Apology for Raymond Sebond
Philosphical:
Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man
Michel de Montaigne, Essays (selections)
Literature:
Marguerite de Navarre, Heptameron
Francois Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
III. Reformation
Christian Humanism:
Sebastian Brant, Ship of Fools
Desiderius Erasmus, In Praise of Folly, On the Freedom of the Will
Ulrich von Hutten, Letters of Obscure Men
Protestants:
Michael Baylor, ed. The Radical Reformation (selections--this is the handiest collection of Anabaptist statements. Cambridge U.P.)
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (selections)
Martin Luther, Christian Liberty, The Bondage of Will
Catholics:
Ignatius of Lyola, Spiritual Exercises
Teresa of Avila, Autobiography, The Interior Castle
IV. Absolutism and Revolution/Restoration
In Their Own Words:
Madame de Sevigne, Letters (selections)
Samuel Pepys, Diaries (selections)
Political:
Jacques Bossuet, Politics drawn from the very World of Holy Scripture
Oliver, Cromwell, Speeches
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (selections)
John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government
Biography:
John Aubrey, Brief Lives
Poetry:
John Milton, Paradise Lost
John Donne, Selected Pomes
Drama:
Aphra Behn, any play
John Dryden, Marriage a la Mode
Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
Major 17th-century French playwrights (Racine, Corneille, Moliere) Any play
Religious:
Blaise Pascal, Pensees
Literature:
Madame de Lafayette, La Princesse de Cleves
V. The Scientific Revolution
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum
Nicolas Copernicus, On the Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs
Rene Descares, Discourse on method
Galileo Galilei, Discourses Concerning Two New Sciences, Siderus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger)
Isaac Newton, Principia Mathematica (selections)
VI. The Enlightenment
Political/Economic:
English Bill of Rights
Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws
J.-J. Rousseau, The Social Contract (selections)
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Literature/Novels:
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Henry Fielding, Tom Jones
Samuel Johnson, Rasselas
Montesquieu, The Persian Letters
Samuel Richardson, Pamela
J.-J. Rousseau, Enmile, Julie
Lawrence Sterne, Tristam Shandy
Jonathan Swift, Guillver's Travels, A Modest Proposal
Voltaire, Candide
Poetry:
Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, The Rape of the Lock
Religious:
David Hume, "On Miracles," Dialogues on Natural Religion (selections)
Voltaire, On Tolerance
John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection
Philosophy:
Immanuel Kant, What is Enlightenment?
VII. Revolutions, French and American
Edmund Burke, Reflections of the Revolution in France
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
Maximilien Robespierre, On the Moral and Political Principles of Domestic Policy
United States of America, Constitution and Bill of Rights
Mary Wollstoncraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women
IX. Options
An art history text
Web sites containing art and other aspects of this course