Course Syllabus

ENGL 2160 Intellectual Traditions II

Course Description

This course is an integrative exploration of intellectual traditions during the sixteenth through twenty-first centuries. The emphasis of the course is on reading entire seminal literary works in the history of intellectual development. The course includes texts from other disciplines such as art, music, philosophy, religion, and science. It fulfills a HU general education requirement. This class is open to all students and fills an honors program requirement.

Justification

Students in this class will learn about the advancements of intellectual thought from the sixteenth century to the present. This course is designed for students in letters and sciences who intend to transfer to a four-year institution to complete a BA or BS degree. This course is similar to HONOR 2103 at the University of Utah and HNRS 2120 at Weber State University. Although not a majors class, the class prepares students for BA and BS degrees as well as for honors programs in Utah's four-year universities. The Humanities are a group of academic disciplines that study the many ways by which humans have attempted to understand themselves and their world. At Snow College, the Humanities focus on cultural traditions that are expressed largely through text or which have a strong textual component: languages, literature, and philosophy. The methods by which the Humanities study culture are at once analytical and interpretive, objective and subjective, historical and aesthetic.

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Students will be able to address key intellectual movements throughout the world, from 1500 to the present, addressing a variety of facets and fields. While students will access these movements primarily through representative texts, students will also examine art, philosophy, economics, and science in order to achieve a fuller understanding of each period and their associated movements. Students will demonstrate their understanding of these concepts through class discussions, written responses, exams, and possible special projects.
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Students will be able to craft original arguments centered on an idea presented through a class text and then conduct quality, academically rigorous research in order to support their claim. They will also be expected to use a variety of scholarly research in order to support their claim. Students will demonstrate their ability to respond critically to a text with an original claim through the completion of at least one academic essay that is analytical, interpretive, and argumentative in nature. Students will also have opportunities for critical thinking and information delivery through written responses such as journaling, short essays, and essay questions on exams.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Students will examine complex themes and ideas from 1500 to the present through texts from a variety of disciplines, including art, philosophy, economics, science, and literature. Students will demonstrate their ability to think critically about complex ideas from multiple disciplines through such assignments as in-class discussions, journaling, short essays, and presentations.
4. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. Students will critically evaluate the presence of key ideas and philosophies from representative texts, placing these ideas and philosophies in the context of the time period(s) and key movement(s) in order to better understand the connection between movements, time periods, and the related fields. Students will examine the various ways these ideas and philosophies are presented in the text, better understanding literary craft. Students will demonstrate their ability to make these cross-discipline connections through close-text reading and analysis, class discussions, written responses, and exams.
5. A student who completes the GE curriculum can communicate effectively through writing and speaking. Students will be able to contribute to the overall understanding of intellectual movements between 1500 and the present by participating in class discussion and a variety of written responses. Students will have the opportunity for instructor feedback to written responses. Students will demonstrate their ability to communicate in writing and speaking through their written work, presentations, and class discussions.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Through the interdisciplinary examination of key movements from 1500 to the present, students will engage in big-picture questions concerning issues like culture, social reform, class, race, and gender. Students will demonstrate their understanding of these key movements and their effects on the human experience through class discussions, written responses, and exams. Through the interdisciplinary examination of key movements from 1500 to the present, students will engage in big-picture questions concerning issues like culture, social reform, class, race, and gender. Students will demonstrate their understanding of these key movements and their effects on the human experience through class discussions, written responses, and exams.
2. Understand how knowledge is created through the study of language systems, literature, and/or philosophy. Through close-text reading of representative texts, as well as various interdisciplinary representations, students will understand how knowledge is created, as well as the ways in which knowledge is accepted, challenged, and altered. Students will articulate their understanding of the production and progression of knowledge from 1500 to the present through class discussions, written responses, and exams. They will also articulate their understanding and address questions via opportunities for peer-to-peer discussion in small groups.
3. Understand cultural traditions within an historical context and make connections with the present. Students will understand the production and progression of cultural traditions in the western world from 1500 to the present, particularly within an historical context, as presented through representative texts and a variety of other fields such as philosophy, art, and economics. Students will demonstrate their ability to identify and critically analyze these cultural traditions through class discussions, written responses, and presentations.
4. Critically read and respond to primary texts (original, uninterpreted) from a Humanities’ perspective. Representative texts will provide the foundation for understanding the development of intellectual thought from 1500 to the present. Students will read and critically analyze primary texts representative of each period, and will respond via a variety of written responses, class discussion, and exams.
5. Write effectively within the Humanities discipline to analyze and form critical and aesthetic judgments. Students will be able to read, interpret, and analyze representative texts in order to articulate the nuances of the various intellectual movements from 1500 to the present. Students will demonstrate their ability to analyze and form critical aesthetic judgments through a variety of written assignments, including at least one formal, academic essay that incorporates interpretation, analysis, and argument. Students will be taught the writing process and will demonstrate this through planning, drafting, and revising their writing.

Course Content

While precise content in ENGL 2160 may vary based on the texts adopted and the individual preferences of the instructor, the course will include entire seminal works of representative intellectual movements between 1500 and the present, such as the Renaissance, Romanticism, Realism, Post-Modernism, Post-Colonialism, as well as other selected movements from intellectual thought throughout the world. Instructors may choose texts from a variety of cultures and traditions around the world and texts that represent a variety of disciplines and disciplinary approaches. Course content will represent cultures and ideas within these movements.Through various teaching methods, students will examine such themes as race, gender, class, economics, social reform, and scientific progress, and they will read texts from around the world in the context of these themes. The course will emphasize close reading, historical influences, and contextual and textual analysis, synthesis, interpretation, critical thinking, and application.