I modified the schedule of readings and the date of the midterm on the course information page.
Monthly Archives: February 2011
Links/Images of the Veil (HUM415)
Aboulela’s website:
http://www.leila-aboulela.com/
Robert J.C. Young explains the cover of his book, Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (2001):
http://robertjcyoung.com/pchicover.html
Photos of Princess Hijab’s grafitti:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2010/nov/10/princess-hijab-graffiti-france-metro
Culture bombing by Niqabitch:
England in 1819 (HUM303)
An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,–
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn,–mud from a muddy spring,–
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,–
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,–
An army, which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,–
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless–a book sealed;
A Senate,–Time’s worst statute unrepealed,–
Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestous day.
— Percy Bysshe Shelley
Solidarity
Egypt Supports Wisconsin Workers
From Egypt, a message to Wisconsin workers who are facing a direct attack not simply against their wages and pensions, but the very right to collectively bargain.
Sudan/ Africa Maps (HUM415)
Back to the Future (HUM470)
Hey, look at this. These images strike me as a good visual analogy for writing autobiography.
Recap (HUM415)
Today we started with a photograph (Eugene Hoshiko/ AP) from the UK Guardian which I thought could tell us something about the condition of the contemporary era:
Thursday (HUM303)
I looked over the writing assignments completed in class today. Here’s a couple of things:
1. Virtually without exception people were satisfied with the group work. We’ll make it a permanent component of class, though of course we won’t be doing it every day. For instance on Tuesday, we’ll be getting into the historical context of Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. If, as I suggested, you screened the short documentary Life During the Early Years of Napoleon’s Reign then you’re already ahead of the game. That suggestion was made in order to compensate for the cancellation of class on Tuesday.
Cancellation (HUM303)
I have to cancel class this Tuesday, Feb. 15. My apologies. So that we don’t lose the thread altogether, go to the library page– http://www.library.sfsu.edu/ — and click on the link Films on Demand. If you’re off campus you’ll need to sign in. Do a title search for Life During the Early Years of Napoleon’s Reign. This short documentary will give you a sense of the social and historical context of the period when Goethe wrote Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. Unless I take a turn for the worse, we’ll have class as planned on Thursday. And I’ll leave you with this, a quote from the first volume of Eric Hobsbawm’s history of the Long 19th Century (another periodization!) which treats the years 1789-1848 in Europe:
“If a single misleading sentence is to sum up the relations of artist and society in this era, we might say that the French Revolution inspired him by its example, the Industrial Revolution by its horror, and the bourgeois society, which emerged from both, transformed his very existence and modes of creation” (The Age of Revolution 255).
Cancelled (HUM470)
Class is cancelled on Monday due to illness but with any luck we’ll be back on track for Wednesday.
analepsis 