Core Humanities Seminar: Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance Thought                      

Ruth Bienstock Anolik                                                     

mailto: ruth.anolik@villanova.edu

 

 

Hauntings and Other Communions with the Dead

 

                                                “The dead by their nature are not able to involve themselves in

the affairs of the living.” (St. Augustine. “De Cura pro Mortuis Gerenda”)

 

                                                “It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed

since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has ever bean an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death.  All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.”

                        (Boswell. Life of Johnson)

 

 

One of the defining features of human beings is that we are aware of our own mortality.  From ancient times, one response to the idea of an impending end has been to imagine a realm of existence that lies beyond death.  Out of that realm emanate messengers who return for a variety of reasons:  to instruct and to warn; to rectify and to admonish; and sometimes, simply, to frighten; additionally, some brave living beings venture to the world of the dead to commune with them.  In this course, we will examine early representations of communion with the dead in the Western tradition.  We will consider the challenge raised by St. Augustine’s and Boswell’s comments on ghosts:  the strange paradox of the impossibility and the universality of ghostly apparitions.  We will closely read texts in which writers imagine communion with the dead.  We will consider the meanings of this return within the cultural context of the writers who invoke the spirits of their past, and we will ask: Why do the dead return?  Why do the living summon them?  As a community of scholars, we will deploy strategies of critical thinking and critical reading to engage with these writers and to generate written responses to the issues (and the ghosts) that they raise. 

 

Reading List:

The Hebrew Bible. Selections

The Christian Bible. Selections

Homer. The Odyssey.  Selections

Aeschylus.  The Persians

Virgil. The Aeneid. Selections

Pliny.  Letter. 7.27

Augustine.  Confessions.  Selections.  “On the Care of the Dead.”

Dante.  The Divine Comedy. Selections

Marie de France.  “Bisclavret”

Shakespeare. Twelfth Night

Films:  Cocteau. Orphée; Hamlet; Return of Martin Guerre


 

Course Policies and Procedures

 

CHS: Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance Thought

Ruth Bienstock Anolik

ruth.anolik@villanova.edu

 

Attending Class is very important as is classroom participation.  We will be doing group work of various kinds, and class discussion is a central part of the learning that I hope you will do in this course.  Please attend class unless you are prevented by illness or emergency.

 

Reading should be completed by the first day a text is discussed.  It is advisable to read ahead (particularly the longer texts) when your workload permits; some of the texts may be too long to read in a single week. If you are ever unsure about what reading is expected for the next discussion, please ask.

 

Written work should be word-processed (with the exception of prewriting) and double-spaced with ample margins.  On the top of each copy of your work note your name, date, course and title, when appropriate. We will be using the portfolio method (to be explained further in class).  That means that you will be writing and submitting your work in stages.  Always indicate the stage of writing that you are handing in: prewriting, draft, revision, etc. Staple work of multiple pages. When you submit work by email, the file name should consist of your last name and a description of the assignment: Smithdraft.  Check the assignment sheet to determine whether the assignment should be submitted by email or brought to class.  Late Papers can create several kinds of problems.  Your reading, writing and class discussions are carefully synchronized.  If your essays are not done as scheduled they will fall out of sequence with the readings and discussions.  Also, since there are frequent submissions, papers that are late can begin to "snowball" and before long it can become very hard to catch up.  In any case, if an essay must be late please contact me before the due date to let me know what's going on.

 

Conferences  are an essential part of the course. Throughout the semester we will schedule individual conferences at our mutual convenience.  Once we have an appointment set up, please remember to attend your conference; if some emergency or illness arises, be in touch to let me know.

 

Academic Integrity. From the Academic Integrity Board:  “Academic integrity is a primary value for any institution of higher education.  Cheating on tests, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty and misconduct are completely unacceptable, especially at Villanova which prides itself on its commitment to the Augustinian values of truth, unity, and love.”

 

Grades.  The course grade will be based on written work and class participation (75% writing; 25% participation).  Your writing grade will be a reflection of your writing progress as evidenced by your portfolio.  You must submit all assigned work in order to pass this course.  Do not make the mistake of thinking that a missing essay will be counted in as a 0.  Your participation grade will be based on attendance, peer-led discussions, contribution to class discussions, reaction papers and commonplace entries. 
 

Core Humanities Seminar  Fall 2004  

Ruth Bienstock Anolik              

ruth.anolik@villanova.edu                                                         

 

WEEK OF:               READING

WRITING

CONFERENCES

 

 

 

 8/24     Raab. “The Invention of Nostalgia”

                      (handout)

 ---

 ---

 

 

 

 8/31     Hebrew Bible

                1 Samuel 15-31

                2 Kings 4

                Ezekiel 37

                “Making Meanings” (handout)

                Hacker 3-9;23-26;31-36

 Tues:

      Prewriting

      Paragraph

      Commonplace 

            Entries

 

 

  Scheduled

 Conferences

 

 

 

 9/7       Christian Bible

                 Matthew 28

                 Mark 16

                 Luke 24

                 Hacker 9-17;39-43

 

               Thurs: St. Thomas of Villanova Day

                          SPECIAL MEETING TIME!

 

  Mon: 

      Draft (email)

     

      Commonplace 

            Entries

 

 

 

 

 Scheduled

 Conferences

 

 

 

 9/14      Christian Bible

                  John 11; 20-21

               Hacker 17-23

         

               Thurs:  peer workshop

 Tues:

       Revision plan

       Revised essay

       Commonplace 

            Entries

 

 

 ---

 

 

 

 9/21      Homer. The Odyssey

                  Books 11, 19, 23

  Tues:

       Draft

       Commonplace 

            Entries

 Scheduled

    Conferences

 

 

 

 9/28      Homer. The Odyssey

                   Book 24

       

              Thurs: peer workshop

  Tues:

      Revision plan

      Revised Essay

      Commonplace

           Entries

 

 ---

 

 

 

 10/5      Aeschylus.  The Persians

                   (handout)

 

  Tues:

       Draft

       Commonplace 

              Entries

 ---

 

 

 

 10/12                     Fall Break

 

 


 

 

WEEK OF:               READING

 WRITING

 CONFERENCES

 

 

 

 10/19     Virgil. The Aeneid Book 6

                           (handout)

 Tues:  Commonplace 

            Entries

 Thurs:

           Revision outlines

      

  

 

 ---

 

 

           

 

 

 10/26     Pliny. Letter 7.27

                     (handout)

 

 Tues: Revision plan

          Revised essay

          Commonplace 

              Entries

 

 Scheduled  

     Conferences

     

                 

 

 

 

 11/2     Augustine. Confessions  Books 8, 9

  Tues: Radical revision

           Commonplace 

              Entries

 

 ---

 

 

 

 

 11/9     Augustine. Confessions  Books 10, 11            

                 “On the Care of the Dead” (handout)

   Tues: Cover sheet

        Commonplace 

              Entries

  Scheduled

      Conferences

 

 11/16    Dante. 

                  The Inferno. Cantos 1, 3, 5, 26, 34

                  Purgatorio   Canto 30 (handout)

                  Paradiso      Canto 33 (handout)

   Tues:  Prewriting

         Commonplace 

              Entries

 

 ---

 11/23   Tues:  Marie de France. “Bisclavret”

                                                      (handout)

             Thurs: Thanksgiving

   Tues: Draft

         Commonplace

              Entries

 Scheduled

      Conferences

 

 

 

 11/30    Shakespeare. Twelfth Night Acts 1-3

   Tues:

        Revision outlines

        Commonplace       

              Entries/Book

 ---

 12/7     Shakespeare. Twelfth Night Acts 4-5

   Thurs: Revised essay

              Portfolio

 ---

 

 

 

 


 

 

CHS: Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance Thought

Ruth Bienstock Anolik

ruth.anolik@villanova.edu

 

 

Peer Discussion Leaders

 

 

Each student must work with a group to lead class discussions.  All the work for this project will be collaborative.

 

 

 

These talks should be more conversational than formal.  

            Discussion time should be approximately 20 minutes

Include at least 2 questions about the text that you would like to discuss with the

             rest of the class

Remember to focus attention on one or two specific passages to anchor your

discussion.

 

 

At least two days before the discussion, at least one member of the group (or all) must communicate with me (meeting or e mail) to tell me about the topic and approach you have chosen, as well as the questions you plan to ask and passages you plan to discuss.  This conversation will give you an opportunity to test and refine your ideas and questions.

 

 

 

·        Focus on the text: what interested you? Why? Direct the class’s attention to particular part of the text that you find especially compelling or absorbing.  Your discussion should explore new territory and should not be a reprise of previous class discussions.  This is your opportunity to present a topic that you think has not yet received adequate attention in class.


 

Core Humanities Seminar: Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance Thought       

 

Commonplace Assignment

Ungraded

Due: every Tuesday as indicated on syllabus

 

Robert Darnton writes, “Time was when readers kept commonplace books.  Whenever they came across a pithy passage, they copied it into a notebook under an appropriate heading, adding observations made in the course of daily life.  The practice spread everywhere in early modern England, among ordinary readers as well as famous writers like Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, John Milton, and John Locke.  It involved a special way of taking in the printed word.  Unlike modern readers, who follow the flow of a narrative from beginning to end, early modern Englishmen read in fits and starts and jumped from book to book.  They broke texts into fragments and assembled them into new patterns by transcribing them in different sections of their notebooks…Reading and writing were therefore inseparable activities.  They belonged to a continuous effort to make sense of things, for the world was full of signs: you could read your way through it; and by keeping an account of your readings, you made a book of your own, one stamped with your personality”  (New York Review of Books. 12/21/00. 82). 

 

In this class we will talk about the relationship of the reader to the text and the responsibility of the active reader to find new meanings within a text.  In pursuit of that goal, you will compile a commonplace book during the course of this semester.  The commonplace book will be a way for you to identify and interpret passages from our reading that speak to you.  It will also be a way for you to identify and think about the ideas, themes and modes of writing that resonate particularly for you.

 

Each Tuesday, you are to bring to class a commonplace entry for each reading that is assigned for that week (excluding readings from Hacker and “Making Meanings”).

 

For each entry supply the following:

 

As you develop your commonplace book over time, the patterns of your thinking and interests should become clear (and should be indicated in the headings that you develop).  This commonplace book should, then, open doors for you in your further reading, writing and thinking.  Over the course of the semester, please keep your entries in a single computer document; cut and paste your passages so that they are grouped under common headings.  In this way, you will discover common themes in different texts and identify your interests. 

 

I will be collecting the commonplace entries randomly throughout the semester.  Remember to bring the assignment to class each Tuesday (only new entries, please; keep the cumulated file on your own).  The grade for the commonplace project will be determined by the quality of your response and by your commentary (that will be explained later in the semester).  Feel free to add to your commonplace book: additional entries from our readings or entries from readings outside of our class readings. 

 

To get a sense of the expectations for this assignment, please refer to the “Commonplace Assignment Sample.”


 

Core Humanities Seminar: Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance Thought        

 

Writing Assignment – Essay #1

 

General Topic/Question:

Choose one text from a Hebrew or Christian Bible reading that is on the syllabus.  (This does mean that you will need to read ahead to make a choice.)  Use these questions to get you started (but do allow the pre-writing to bring you to a related topic that interests you). Focus on a moment that features a return from the dead:  What does the dead person represent?  What answers/questions are posed by the dead person?  What needs of the living are fulfilled by this return?  How do the living respond?   How does the text respond? What does all this tell you about attitudes toward death/the dead/the past in Jewish/Christian culture?

 

 

Due Dates:

8/31 Prewriting (ungraded)

 

8/31  Paragraph (ungraded)

 

9/7  Due by 9AM.  Draft (ungraded) – (Please submit as an attached email document)

 

9/14 Revision plan (ungraded)

 

9/14  Final Revision (graded) – (Please submit the entire portfolio: paper copy of the revision and all previous work)

 

Length of Final Revision: 2-3 pages

 

 

Active reading for writing

 

·         Read the text carefully; refer to Hacker on “Annotating texts,” p. 8.

·         Read the text critically.  Think about what interests you – the questions, images, issues, quotes that you find most compelling.  Try to look at the text from different angles.  

·         Keep track of questions, images, issues, quotes as you read.  Take careful notes, jotting down relevant page/verse numbers.

 

 

Prewriting: (at least 40 minutes) 

 

·         Brainstorming: refer to Hacker on listing (brainstorming), pp. 5-6.  Let your ideas flow to generate an “idea list.”  Spend 10 minutes brainstorming in response to the text. 

 

·         Freewriting: refer to Hacker p. 7.  Read over your “idea list” and choose one idea, issue, image, key word or quote. Write about it for 10 minutes without stopping to think, edit, or criticize yourself.  Don’t stop writing.  Talk on paper.  See what comes out.  Then read through what you’ve written.  Where does your focus seem to lie?  What seems most compelling?  Start with that interesting point and write about this for another 10 minutes.  Again, see what emerges.  Then, again, find a focus and write about that for another 10 minutes without stopping.  Each subsequent writing should help you refine your focus and define what matters to you in this text.  Remember: Write nonstop and record whatever comes to mind. Don’t stop to judge, edit, or correct your writing (that comes later).  Keep writing even when you think you’ve exhausted all your ideas (often, this is when the best ideas emerge).


 

 

Paragraph (refer to Hacker pp. 23-26; 31-36)

Answer one of the questions posed in the “General topic/question” part of this assignment in a well-constructed body paragraph (not an introduction or a conclusion).  Sample topic sentence:  “The dead person represents __________.” Your paragraph should demonstrate: a strong and lucid topic sentence; a unified and coherent argument that supports and advances the point of the topic sentence; specific concrete evidence to support your points; a concluding sentence that may indicate the movement of the next paragraph.  You are not obligated to include this paragraph in your draft or final revision but it should be useful in directing your ideas and in focusing your attention on your writing. 

 

 

Draft (refer to Hacker pp. 9-17; 39-43)

·         At this point you need the following: a narrow focused thesis statement and clearly defined topic sentences to help guide your reader easily through the logic of your argument; an introduction; supporting paragraphs; and a temporary conclusion.

·         Make sure your argument focuses on only one main idea and that your argument progresses in an organized manner.  SIMPLIFY!

·         Follow through with all the quotes and examples you have used.  Do you explain them fully and say why they matter to your argument?

·         Does your paper say what you want it to say?  Does your argument still matter to you?  Don’t lose your connection to what you’re saying as you make it presentable to other readers.

·         Give your paper some kind of descriptive, though perhaps only temporary, title.

 

 

 

Revision plan

After you have received feedback on your draft, write an informal paragraph or two indicating the global revisions that you think will benefit your essay.

 

 

Final Revision (refer to Hacker 17-23)

·         Develop a global reworking of the draft.

·         Make sure that each paragraph is well-constructed and fits coherently into the line of your argument. 

·         Read your draft aloud to test it for sense and sound, or else have someone else read it to you.  Listen carefully.  Does each sentence express a complete thought?  Does each paragraph have an overall point and purpose that is connected with your thesis?  Does your argument make sense?  Is it easy to follow?  If you answer “no” to any of these questions, make the necessary changes.

·         Think carefully about your introduction and conclusion.  Do they function effectively to introduce and frame your argument?  If not, rewrite entirely.  Make certain that your conclusion does more than repeat your introduction or summarize the points you’ve made previously.  It should add to and complete your argument and suggest the implications of your argument, not simply repeat it.

·         Have you explained every quote as fully and effectively as possible?  If not, add the necessary explanations.

·         Editing.  Take care of the details: grammar and spelling; transform verbs from passive to active voice; use a single tense throughout; make sure you have good transitions.

·         Trim down to 2-3 pages.

·         Give your paper a descriptive title.