This course is intended to serve undergraduates seeking to fulfill their degree plan requirements for coursework in the Humanities. It presumes completion of English 1312 but no other formal college work in these disciplines.

The use of “shaped words” has exercised power since its development began five millennia ago. And as its power grew, it became a subject for careful study by both those employing such power and those who saw its potential for abuse unless approached with an analytic appreciation of how the use of such “shaped words” has exercised power, its potential benefits and its potential problems.

Such issues are more important today than at anytime in the past because of our personal and collective dependence upon information acquired not through first-hand experience but rather through the “shaped words” at the heart of our pervasive modern media.  The development of an equally effective set of analytic and evaluative skills is vital to for anyone whose personal and professional decisions will inevitably be influenced by such “shaped words.”

Through the assigned readings, lectures and discussion, we will first explore the major ideas about such “word shaping” that have arisen over time and are still operative in contemporary society, as they are articulated by writers from different periods. Then we will observe the operations of such “shapers of words” as they persuasively articulate different visions about the nature of societal operations and the values essential to such operations. After examining representative visions of the metaphysical and their implications for both society and the individual, we will conclude with an analysis of the implications of such visions for the individual.

All students will be provided with an opportunity to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the multitude of idea-sets about literature that have been articulated by writers and their critics over time and are still in play today. Such an understanding, as part of a general Liberal Arts education, serves to assist students in appreciating how writers see themselves and their work, how they justify the enterprise, and what problems are inherent in such “word shaping.” Such an understanding is intended to assist all students in making valid assessments of the validity of those “word pictures” offered them as part of both their “entertainments” and the larger universe of social, professional and political “story tellings.”

Course outcomes

At the end of this course, successful students should be able to

• Distinguish among the views of “word shaping” or “poetry “articulated by the writers examined in this course, identifying the internal coherence of each together with the cultural assumptions upon which each depends.
• Distinguish among the views of how “society” should be organized and how “shaped words” are used to advocate such visions.
• Identify the ways in which “shapers of words” use visions of the metaphysical or spiritual to shape others’ behaviors.
• Analyze and evaluate how such visions ultimately influence our expectations of ourselves and others within society, both then and now.

• Demonstrate increased competence as an analyst and writer in formal environments as well as in electronic and informal communications.

Course methodology

This course will approach its subject matter first through the general methodology employed in the history of ideas. Central to this approach is a recognition that cultures simultaneously preserve and transform core ideas, and that the understanding of these processes of transformation can serve to illuminate the uniqueness and the value of each work arising within this process, and through that, the corresponding uniqueness of those ideas as they continue to manifest themselves in contemporary culture.

While the texts and authors considered in this survey may claim to have a “true vision” which supplants or repudiates all others, the validity of such claims will NOT be at issue. Rather, each text/author will be credited with having an internally coherent vision that is shared with others—then and now. Our challenge will be to identify the philosophical, cultural, and social premises which give each vision such power and persistence.

While it is recognized that no one can fully recapture the intent of another from their writings, the act of speculating about such intent is intrinsically worthwhile, as it is an act that we perform (or should be performing) daily in our  responses to all “speech acts” or “mediated information” upon which we depend so extensively in contemporary society. Such speculation about the “intent” of the skilled (and clearly powerful) authors included in this survey models possible approaches that can be employed in responding to more mundane (but perhaps more critical) “voices” in our daily life.

Finally, this course stands in the middle of the tradition of humanistic studies as defined by Renaissance apologists and embedded even in the much more “pragmatic” tradition of public higher education in the United States: the content of this course is intended for “the use and benefit of zealous” learners in both their public and private lives, enhancing their abilities of critical analysis and making them better decision makers in both their private and public lives.

Expectations of Students

Learning is something that results from the efforts of a student: your learning—and my assessment of it—will be proportional to the investment of effort you make in addressing the content of the readings, first in (1) confronting the texts themselves and then (2) collaborating with others engaged in similar efforts (including, but not limited to, your instructor’s efforts) , and finally (3) essaying (attempting) to organize and articulate your evolving ideas resulting from those readings and that collaboration.

1. Confronting the texts

It is expected that each student will have “read” the assigned text(s) prior to the class session. There is no expectation that the text will be mastered in that reading; rather, it is assumed that there will be much that appears unclear, incoherent, or incomprehensible. What is expected is that each student will have a general familiarity with the text and, more importantly, will have identified that which is unclear, incoherent, or incomprehensible. Subsequently, after discussions in class and on the conferences, all students are expected to revisit the text under consideration and integrate what has been learned from others involved in the discussion into their own understanding All such understandings—even those of the instructor—are “works in progress” and it is the “work” where the learning takes place.

2. Collaborating with others

The core of a college education (inherent in the derivation of the word “college”) is collaboration, the primary means of learning at this level and, subsequently, throughout life in one’s public and private lives. Having done the reading as described above, each student is expected to engage in such collaboration through class participation and through the extension of that dialogue by means of the web-based discussions on Blackboard that are an integral part of this course.

In-class participation will take two primary forms: first and foremost, students are expected to raise questions from the outset about what they have just read (1) to clarify things for themselves before the text is examined in more detail, (2) to raise issues that may have been bothering other students but which they could not articulate, and (3) to focus the content of the instructor’s presentation on matters of concern to students.  From time to time the instructor will assign specific segments of the assigned reading to individual students who will then be asked to comment on what they have understood the text to say, a synopsis of the assigned passage, as the basis for further in-class discussion. In either case, however, what will be of significance is not the quality of the contribution in and of itself, but rather the effort invested in formulating that contribution..

The second form of collaboration expected of students is manifested in their contributions to the class dialogue which takes place outside of class through Blackboard and its discussion boards.

These conferences are vital for two reasons: (1) they compensate for the structural weaknesses of “commuter campuses” where face-to-face collegiality is too often precluded; and (2) they provide critical experience in the use of electronic communication media which is becoming increasingly prevalent and problematic outside the university. These conferences are an extension of the classroom collaboration where issues are raised and then addressed by all of us for our mutual benefit much as they would be in the classroom: this medium, however, allows each student to contribute to the collaboration without being physically present and at such time as the student is prepared and able to make a coherent contribution. The minimum expectation is that each student will make three distinct contributions to these computer discussions each week. Numbers alone, however, will not be the true measure of effort: that will be more visible in the benefit a student’s questions and observations offer to the rest of the class.

3. Essaying the articulation of your evolving ideas

Over the course of the semester, there will be three opportunities for each student to articulate his or her evolving understanding of the issues addressed in the readings and discussions through written assignments that apply that understanding in specific cases (chosen in part by the student). While there are formal criteria for such written efforts (see the tab “Grading Criteria”) that are analogous to those expected of written products outside the University, the true weight of these “essays” will be placed on the investment made by the individual student in assimilating and then applying and articulating the insights he or she has gained from the readings and discussions in a specific case. Thus the premium is placed not on your ability to “regurgitate” what you heard (or thought you heard) but on your efforts to take what you have heard and use it in a context beyond the course. Each of these assignments will be progressively weighted, allowing students to learn from their prior efforts as their understanding grows over the course of the semester.

The bottom line

Students who do the reading, participate in class and on the conferences, and submit their essays will pass this course. Grades above a “C” will be awarded on the basis of my assessment of each student’s effort and investment over the semester and thus the growth in his/her learning evidenced by that effort. This standard is one that I have used for forty years outside the University in my evaluation of those young professionals working for me, one which has proven to best promote their personal development. I will be happy to discuss this approach in greater detail at your request.