Humanities 220-02: Values and Culture
SPRING 2021
Tuesday 2-3.15
Sean Connelly
Office hour: Thursday 12-1
Contact: connelly@sfsu.edu
Course Blog: analepsis.org
The Project:
Prerequisite: GE Area A2. Examination of significant works of cultural expression with respect to their aesthetic dimensions, historical contexts, and illumination of human value patterns. At least one non-western work is studied.
HUM220 examines the relationships between expressive forms and social values across multiple historical periods and national cultures including Qing era China, , and colonized Africa. Using the supernatural as a lens, students will explore specific texts from a range of genres such as the novel, the short story, film, visual culture, and popular music. By focusing specifically on the category of the gothic—a concept that denotes “barbarian” European tribes, a style of architecture, and a system of fictive conventions—we will consider the ways that tropes and themes of haunting, confinement, delusion, and terror (among others) are used to support and trouble dominant social values. What are the ideological functions of the gothic? How do different cultures, at different moments in history, use gothic materials?
Basic Expectations:
Arrive on time, work completed, with the assigned text.
With the exception of in-class work, all assignments should be typed.
Every assignment should include name/date/course.
ALL ELECTRONIC DEVICES ARE TO BE TURNED OFF AND PUT AWAY.
Students who text, sleep, or surf in class will be told to leave.
Trust and Development:
Cheating destroys trust between teacher and student, actively undermines their relationship, and indicates that the cheater is more interested in pocketing a couple of credits than developing as an intellectual and ethical being.
Anyone caught plagiarizing will receive a zero on the assignment and be reported to the dean in charge of student affairs. Chronic cheating will result in an F for the semester and possibly expulsion from SFSU.
Note that plagiarism includes taking someone else’s ideas without attribution and re-phrasing them. It also includes contract cheating and using an electronic device to cheat on in-class assignments. Because ALL ELECTRONIC DEVICES ARE TO BE TURNED OFF AND PUT AWAY, however, the latter will be impossible.
See http://www.sfsu.edu/~vpsa/judicial/titlev.html
Accessibility:
If you have particular needs or challenges that you think I should know about, please discuss them with me at the beginning of the semester and I’ll do my best to accommodate you. See also: Disability Program and Resource Center (338-2472 or dprc@sfsu.edu).
Title IX:
Teachers are required by law to contact the Dean of Students should a student inform them of an instance of sexual violence or gender discrimination. Students wishing to discuss such experiences confidentially may contact The SAFE Place – (415) 338-2208; http://www.sfsu.edu/~safe_plc/ Counseling and Psychological Services Center – (415) 338-2208; http://psyservs.sfsu.edu/ For more information see http://titleix.sfsu.edu
Work and Grading Rubric:
Attendance (More than 3 absences will result in a “no-pass” for this portion of the final grade) 10%
Class Work (participation, random pop quizzes, in-class writing) 25%
Gothic Track Assignment: 10% TBA
Midterm (a short set of identifications and definitions) 20% 3/8
Film Analysis Project 15% TBA
Final Exam 20% 5/24
Notes on Reading:
Reading is an activity. MRI scans of students fully immersed in reading show a remarkable degree of brain activity. Reading repays the effort, imagination, attention, and discipline that it requires. The more we read the better readers (and writers) we become. See http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Buy hard copies of the proper editions of the books.
Complete the readings as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
Look up unfamiliar words and take notes. Taking notes in longhand increases memory and comprehension. In fact, participants in a recent study “who [took] notes with laptops performed worse on tests of both factual content and conceptual understanding, relative to participants who had taken notes longhand.” See http://www.academia.edu/6273095/The_Pen_Is_Mightier_Than_The_Keyboard_Advantages_of_Longhand_Over_Laptop_Note_Taking
Write in the margins of your book.
Mark significant passages.
Read carefully and think about what you read.
Learning Outcomes
Students should complete this course with a solid foundation in cultural theory, contemporary history, and the analysis and interpretation of literature and film.
Required Resources
To take this course you will need the following:
3 books (see below)
a computer and internet access
a notebook
pens/pencils
Required Texts
You are required to have hard copies of these specific editions of the following texts. Use the ISBN to be sure you have the required edition.
Jeremias Gotthelf, The Black Spider (Switzerland 1842 )
ISBN: 9781590176689
Thierry Jonquet, Mygale (France 1995)
ISBN: 9780872864092
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Poland/UK 1899)
ISBN: 9780199536016
eReader
(* = at SFSU library. hyperlinked title = the entire text is available on this page in pdf format. hyperlink after the title = an excerpt)
Bennett, Grossberg, Morris, Williams, Bennett, Tony, Grossberg, Lawrence, Morris, Meaghan, and Williams, Raymond. New Keywords A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2005. (NKW)
*Faulkner, Neil. A Radical History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals. London: Pluto, 2013. (RHW)
Hall, Stuart. Modernity: An Introduction to Modern Societies. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1996. HallWestRest
*Herman, David. Narrative Theory: Core Concepts and Critical Debates. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2012.
Jenkins, Keith,. Re-Thinking-History. 3rd ed. London: Routledge Classics, 2003.
Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto: ManifestoSec1
Marx, “The Fetishism of the Commodity”: fetishism
Marx, “The Power of Money”: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/power.htm
Patterson, Thomas C. Inventing Western Civilization. New York: Monthly Review, 1997. InventingBarbarians
*Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Chapel Hill, N.C.: U of North Carolina, 2000. (BM)
“Storyworld”: Storyworld
Williams, Raymond. Marxism and Literature. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1977. (ML)
Music
Internet Resources
The Internet Medieval Sourcebook: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/sbook.asp
via library.sfsu.edu:
artstor.org
films on demand https://fod-infobase-com.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/nd_Home.aspx
academic video online https://video-alexanderstreet-com.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/channel/academic-video-online
jstor https://www-jstor-org.jpllnet.sfsu.edu
Filmography
TBA
Assignments/Grading Rubric
Effort and Engagement 30%
Fora. Discuss readings with other students in several fora.
Quizzes. Short answer and multiple choice.
Image 15%
Curate an image that enhances our understanding of the The Crusades Through Arab Eyes in terms of 1+2 or 1+3
1. its historical context
2. its connection to the contemporary era
3. one (or more) of its thematic elements
AND Respond in a thoughtful (informed, non-trivial) way to a classmate’s curated image.
Reading Log 15%
Upload images of 3 pages from your reading log to the forum (x 3). Example: reading journal
Film Analysis 15%
Review a feature film set in or focused on Haiti or the African Diaspora.
Use YaleFilmGuide to include discussion of formal aspects of the film.
Writing Project 25%
A critical essay, a personal essay, or a critical emulation
3 = assignment met AND delivered by FIRST deadline
2 = assignment not met AND delivered by FIRST deadline
OR assignment met AND delivered by FINAL deadline (one week after FIRST deadline)
1 = assignment not met AND delivered by FINAL deadline (one week after FIRST deadline)
0 = assignment not delivered by FINAL deadline
Important Dates
1/25 Instruction begins
2/12 Last day of drop/add
9/25 Graduation application deadline
10/19 CR/NC deadline
11/23-11/30 Fall break
12/11 Last day of instruction
12/15 Writing project due by 12 pm
Films:
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920); Nosferatu (1922); The Golem (1920); The Haunting (1963); The Innocents (1961); Dark City (1998); Double Take (2010); Gothic (1987); The Seventh Victim (1943); A Tale of Two Sisters (2003); Ugetsu (1953); Kwaidan (1964)
Music:
Bauhaus, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”; Johnny Cash, “Ain’t No Grave”; Joy Division, “Atmosphere”; The Birthday Party, “She’s Hit”; Adam and the Ants, “Kick!”; The Cure; Fields of Nephilim; Xmal Deutschland; etc.
Schedule:
Week Two: 2/2
In Class: Course Introduction; GW1: “Before the Law”
Clips/Tracks: Bauhaus, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” ( https://analepsis.org/2015/08/23/bela-lugosis-dead-hum220-hum303/ ); Vincent ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxQcBKUPm8o ); An Introduction to the Gothic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpA_3NL_S7E)
Assignment for next week, 2/9: Eagleton, “What is a Novel?”; Bennett, “Culture”; Armstrong, “Gothic Novel”; OED, “Atmosphere”; Carter, “In the Bloody Chamber”
Week Three: 2/9
DROP/ADD ends
In class: Lecture/Discussion of assignments.
Clips/Tracks: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992); The Hunger; BFI Gothic ( https://analepsis.org/2015/08/29/bfi-gothic-hum220-hum303/ );
Assignment for next week, 2/16: Aikin, “Sir Bertrand: A Fragment”; Hawthorn, “Preface”; Hogle, “‘Gothic’ Romance”; Mikaberidze, “Enlightenment”
Week Four: 2/16
In Class: Lecture/Discussion of assignments.
Clips/Tracks: Xmal Deutschland, “Mondlicht”; The Monk
Assignment: Nealon & Giroux, “Subject” and “History”; Gotthelf, The Black Spider
Week Five: 2/23
In Class: The Birthday Party, “She’s Hit”; ICW; discuss The Black Spider
Clips/Tracks: None
Assignment: Groom, The Gothic (through Ch. 10); Thomas, “Introduction,” Glossary; Gotthelf, The Black Spider
Week Six: 3/1
In Class: Crimson Peak (full length); Discussion MEET IN HUM 133. DON’T BE LATE.
Assignment: Yale Film Analysis Guide
Week Seven: 3/8
In Class: Prep Midterm; MIDTERM
Assignment: Pu, “Painted Skin” and “Fox Enchantment”; Ancuta, “Asian Gothic”; Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of the Sublime and the Beautiful (excerpts)
Week Eight: 3/15
In Class: Painted Skin films
Assignment for 3/29: Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; “Negro”; Leslie Fiedler, Love and Death in the American Novel (excerpts)
Week Nine: 3/22
Spring Break
Week Ten: 3/29
In Class: Skip James, “Devil Got My Woman” ( https://analepsis.org/2015/09/09/two-tracks-hum220-hum303/ )
Assignment: Hoffmann, “The Sandman”
CR/NC Option Deadline on 3/30
Week Eleven: 4/5
In Class:
Clips/Tracks: Ex Machina; Alien; The Sandman
Assignment: Freud, “The Uncanny”
Week Twelve: 4/12
In Class:
Clips/Tracks: The Sandman
Assignment: Conrad, The Heart of Darkness
Week Thirteen: 4/19
In Class: Final GTA presentation.
Clips/Tracks: Bookmark: Heart of Darkness
Assignment: Bronfen, “Cinema of the Gothic Extreme”; Kromm, “Inventing the Mise-en-scene”
Week Fourteen: 4/26
In Class:
Clips: German Expressionist Cinema
Assignment: Jonquel, Mygale
Week Fifteen: 5/3
In Class:
Screening: Dark City (Proyas 1999)
Assignment: Jonquel, Mygale
Week Sixteen: 5/10
In Class:
Film Analysis Project Presentations
Week Seventeen: 5/17
Last Day of Class: Review
TUESDAY MAY 24 6.10 FINAL EXAM
