Freshman Foundations 100
Foundations of Western Thought

Syllabus Page for Fall 2002

Al Drake. Office: 231 Wilkinson, MW 2:15-3:15 | 714-434-1612

Note: Other sites are available from my Portal.

General: College | Sample Paper | Grammar Guide | Deductive Essays | Citation | Analysis | Editing | Plagiphrasing | Rubric | Links

Guides: Titus: Honorable | Titus: Lucretia | Titus: Scaevola | Odyssey Frame | Dantean Allegory | Renaissance Soul | Tragedy | Typology | Marx on Commodities

Questions: Homer | Plato | Ovid | Dante | Machiavelli | Shakespeare | Voltaire | Rousseau | Marx | Dostoyevsky | Borges | Camus

Audio Note: Lectures were made available online after class. [Audio has been removed since the class is no longer current.]

Schedule of Assignments:

Ancient Literature and Philosophy: Foundations

Week 1

Mon. 08/26. Intro to class and to Homer's Odyssey.

Wed. 08/28. Homer, The Odyssey.

Week 2

Mon. 09/02. Labor Day Holiday

Wed. 09/04. Homer, The Odyssey.

Week 3

Mon. 09/09. Homer, The Odyssey.

Wed. 09/11. Plato, The Symposium.

Week 4

Mon. 09/16. Plato, The Symposium.

Wed. 09/18. Ovid, from Metamorphoses:

Required: "Pentheus and Bacchus" (66-73); "The Rape of Proserpine" (109-16); "Arethusa" (116-18); "Tereus, Procne, and Philomela" (134-42); "Orpheus and Eurydice" (225-28); "The Death of Orpheus" (249-52)

Suggested: "Diana and Actaeon"; (55-58); "Narcissus and Echo" (61-66); "Hyacinth" (230-32); "Pygmalion" (232-34); ; "Caenis" (279-80); "The Apotheosis of Julius Caesar" (374-78); "Epilogue" (379). I may refer to some of these stories in our session on Ovid, so if you have time, look them over.

Rough Draft of Paper #1 due.

Week 5

Mon. 09/23. Intro to Medieval period. Dante, Inferno.

Wed. 09/25. Dante, Inferno.

Week 6

Mon. 09/30. Dante, Inferno.

Wed. 10/02. Intro to Renaissance. Machiavelli, The Prince.

Week 7

Mon. 10/07. Machiavelli, The Prince.

Wed. 10/09. Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus.

Final Draft of Paper #1 due.

Week 8

Mon. 10/14. Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus.

Wed. 10/16. Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus.

Week 9

Mon. 10/21. Midterm Exam. (*Note the changed date)

Wed. 10/23. Intro to Enlightenment. Voltaire, Candide.

Week 10

Mon. 10/28. Voltaire, Candide.

Wed. 10/30. Voltaire, Candide.

Week 11

Mon. 11/04. Rousseau, from Confessions. (Books 1-2 only)

Wed. 11/06. Rousseau, from Confessions. (Books 1-2 only)

Week 12

Mon. 11/11. Marx. Communist Manifesto Sects. 1-2.

Wed. 11/13. Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground.

Week 13

Mon. 11/18. Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground.

Wed. 11/20. Optional Attendance Day: Rough Drafts discussed in class.

Rough Draft of Paper #2 due Wed., 11/20.

Week 14

Mon. 11/25. Intro to C20 Lit. Borges, from Ficciones--"The Circular Ruins," "The Babylon Lottery," "The Secret Miracle," and "The South."

Wed. 11/27. Thanksgiving Holiday.

Week 15

Mon. 12/02. Camus, The Stranger.

Wed. 12/04. Camus, The Stranger.

Week 16

12/09-12/14.

Turn in Final Exam on Tuesday, December 10th from 1:30-4:00 pm, in our usual room, 202 Argyros Forum. You may also turn in the exam before that date and time if it proves convenient for you.

Final Draft of Paper #2 due on Friday of Finals Week or earlier.