HC 231H
Creation and Invention
Tuesday and Thursday
12:00-13:20 in Chapman Hall 303
and 2:00-15:20 in Chapman Hall 303
Professor Vera Keller
320C Chapman Hall
1
Creation and Invention: Europe and the Middle East, 2000 BCE-1450 CE
Accounts of artists, builders, founders, and creators, both heavenly and human, situate human knowledge of and power over the world in different ways, and thus have long been the subject of controversy. We will discuss how the relationship between human, nature, and the divine was framed differently in connected cultures across North Africa, Asia, and Europe. Through a focus on ancient texts of history, poetry, religion, liturgy, philosophy, and magic, we will question how such texts and practices shaped, justified, or gave meaning to the founding of settlements, religions, and empires.
Required Texts
All texts are available in the Duck Store
Barbara C. Sproul, Primal Myths: Creation Myths around the World (Harper, 1979)
ISBN: 9780060675011
Plato, Timaeus, translated by David Zeyl (Hackett, 200) ISBN: 0872204464
HC 231 Course Reader
Office Hours and Email Policy
Office hours are a highly beneficial practice for everyone involved. They allow the professors to prepare a certain block of their time devoted entirely to communicating with students outside of the class. They allow students to get to know their professors better, get better answers to their questions, and invariably receive more guidance and advice than they would in an email. Office hours are there for you. Use them! Email should only be used in case of emergencies when attending office hours is not an option, but do not expect a rapid reply. If you cannot attend the designated office hours, you can email me to set up an appointment for another time.
Guide to Assignments
Grades will be based on participation (20%), four writing exercises (each 10 %) and a final paper (40%). Each writing exercise will be a 2-3 page paper on a single reading (all page numbers are for 12-point font, Times New Roman). The final paper will be a 5-7 page paper comparing and contrasting two sources you did previously write a paper about.
Participation: Being a good participant in the class means raising questions for discussion, engaging with your fellow students by listening and responding to their points, and respecting your fellow students. Absences will be counted against the participation grade.
Papers: Good papers will display careful close readings of the text, good grammar, a specific, well-reasoned argument, and will stay within the required length. “Common knowledge” and generalizations are not your friends! An unsupported generalization will drop your grade significantly (at least by A to A minus, A minus to B plus, and so forth). See the guide to writing appended below. The final paper is an exercise in showing that you have engaged and thought about the issues raised in class, but also that you can produce a fine, finished product. Please proofread. No outside sources are allowed for the papers. Use only the texts provided, in the editions used for the class. Specific page numbers for every quotation should be given, in a footnote.
Warning about Wikipedia in particular. I always check Wikipedia (and the web in general), to make sure it is not being used. The uncited use of Wikipedia will be considered plagiarism (and, as above, there is no need to cite any outside sources at all in these papers, so there should be no use made of Wikipedia).
University of Oregon Affirmation of Community Standards
The University of Oregon community is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the development of integrity. In order to thrive and excel, this community must preserve the freedom of thought and expression of all its members. The University Of Oregon has a long and illustrious history in the area of academic freedom and freedom of speech. A culture of respect that honors the rights, safety, dignity, and worth of every individual is essential to preserve such freedom. We affirm our respect for the rights and well-being of all members.
We further affirm our commitment to:
· respect the dignity and essential worth of all individuals
· promote a culture of respect throughout the university community
· respect the privacy, property, and freedom of others
· reject bigotry, discrimination, violence, or intimidation of any kind
· practice personal and academic integrity and expect it from others
· promote the diversity of opinions, ideas, and backgrounds that is the lifeblood of the university
An equal opportunity, affirmative action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Students with Disabilities
If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, please make arrangements to meet with me soon. Please bring a notification letter from Disability Services outlining your approved accommodations.
Academic Honesty
Students will comply with all policies on Academic Honesty at the University of Oregon. Plagiarism can often unintentionally become a problem when students are unaware of what it includes, or when they use improper citation. Plagiarism is the inclusion of someone else's product, words, ideas, or data as one's own work. When a student submits work for credit that includes the product, words, ideas, or data of others (or of their own previous work), the source must be acknowledged by the use of complete, accurate, and specific references, such as footnotes. Wikipedia will not be accepted as a source. By placing one's name on work submitted for credit, the student certifies the originality of all work not otherwise identified by appropriate acknowledgements. On written assignments, if verbatim statements are included, the statements must be enclosed by quotation marks or set off from regular text as indented extracts.
Readings
1) Introduction, "History's Habits of the Mind" (reader), David Christian, “Science as a Modern Creation Story,” (20 mins.), Ancient Egypt, Primal Myths, 80-90,
2) Enki and Ninmah (reader)
3) The Enuma Elish, Primal Myths, 91-113 and
Genesis 11: 1-9 (reader)
4) From Genesis, Job and Proverbs Primal Myths, 122-134.
5) Hesiod, From the Theogony and The Five Ages of Man, Primal Myths, 157-168
First Paper Due. Choose from Enuma Elish, Genesis, or Hesiod.
6) Homer, Illiad, Book 18, lines 478-608, The Shield of Achilles (reader)
7) Dasavaikalika Sutra, and the Creation according to Mani. Primal Myths, 194-5.
8) 10/16 Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC), Timaeus (translated by Donald Zeyl), from page 13
9) Cicero (106 BC – December 7, 43 BC), The Dream of Scipio (reader)
Optional Film Night: Fellini, Satyricon (1969) (1st century Roman decadence)
10) 10/23 Lucretius, The Nature of Things, Book Five (reader)
Second Paper Due:
11) Virgil, Shield of Aeneas, Aeneid, Book 8, lines 617-731 (reader)
12) From the Gospel according to John, Primal Myths, 134-5 and From the Poimandres of Hermes Trimegistus, Primal Myths, 142-6.
13) Proba, Cento
Third Paper Due: Choose from Lucretius, Ovid, Augustus, Proba, or Claudian
Optional Film Night: Agora (historical fiction based on the life of the pagan philosopher, Hypatia, in late antique, Christian Alexandria)
14) From the Soothsaying of the Vala, Primal Myths, 173-6. From the Koran, Primal Myths, 151-5.
15) 11/6 Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), from the Visions (reader).
See in class: Animation of Attar.
16): Attar (1136-1220), "Invocation," from the Conference of the Birds (reader)
Optional Film Night: Vision: From the life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)
17) Ab'ul Hasan Yamin ud-Din Khusrow (1253-1325), Life of Alexander (reader)
18) Christine de Pizan, Vision (ca 1365-1430) (reader)
Fourth Paper Due: Choose from Hildegard of Bingen, Attar, and Khusrow.
19) Rare Books Visit. Meet in front of Knight Library.
20) Geoffrey Chaucer (ca 1343-1400), The Parliament of Fowls (reader)
In-class time for course evaluations.
Final Paper due in Class
The following is adapted from “A Guide to Writing in AI 133, Ancient Fictions: The Ancient Novel in Context,” Harvard College Program in General Education.
What is Close Reading?
Close reading is the technique of carefully analyzing a passage’s language, content, structure, and patterns in order to understand what it means, what it suggests, and how it connects to the whole work (that is, its context). A successful close reading will often take on all three tasks. It will delve into what a passage means in order to understand what it suggests, and will then link what the passage suggests to its con- text. One goal of close reading is to help readers to see facets of the text that they may not have noticed before. To this end, close reading entails “reading out of” a text rather than “reading into” it. The goal of close reading, therefore, is to notice, describe, and interpret details of the text that are already there, rather than to impose your own point of view on the text. As a general rule of thumb, every claim you make should be directly supported by evidence in the text.
How to Choose a Passage
Look for:
-Passages which are puzzling in some way.
-Passages which contradict the reader’s expectations.
-Passages which seem at first to be irrelevant digressions from the main narrative.
Strategies for Close Reading
There are several strategies for getting to a meaningful close reading, once you have chosen your passage. The goal of close reading is to learn what the passage says, what the passage implies, and how the passage connects to its context. This phase should occur while you are planning and outlining your paper, before you have started writing. You might re-read the passage several times, each time keeping a set of reading approaches in mind:
- rewrite the passage by paraphrasing it. You might not use this paraphrase verbatim in your essay, but in the final ver- sion of your essay you will want to be sure to orient your reader to the larger context from which your passage was taken. What does the text literally mean? What is it doing in the narrative? This first step in close reading will allow you to put aside what you think you know about the passage(s), and help you to read “out of the text” rather than “into the text.”
- identify some of the formal mechanisms of the writing, such as:
° Narrative: How would you describe the narrative voice in your passage? Is the narrator first or third person, male or female, omniscient or restricted in knowledge? What are the limitations of the narrator, and how are these reflected in the text?
° Structure: How is the passage structured? Does it move from point A to B? Does it move from point A to B and then back to A again? Does it linger on a single detail?
° Patterns: are there images, keywords, or other devices that reappear in the passage? Are these elements used the same way? Finding a pattern can help establish general characteristics of the text.
- the next step in close reading is to start examining the implications of a passage. One way to delve into the implications of a passage is to connect its formal elements to your literal read- ing. Do these formal mechanisms underscore or undermine what the passage says on a literal level? Does this passage share imagery with another passage in the novel? Does it contradict it? Does the passage engage with larger themes in the text (e.g., vision and voyeurism, the natural world, the nature of desire)? Are there important similarities and differences between this passage and others like it throughout the text?
As you can see, the process of close reading becomes more sophisticated and com- plicated as you read and re-read, but it also helps you to focus on a text’s puzzling moments, patterns, or expectations. Close reading, in other words, is not just a static, mechanical process, but an analytical tool you leverage to make an argument.
Strategies for Writing and Editing
Writing
Once you have begun to analyze and outline your essay, the next step is to turn your ideas into a clear and persuasive essay. In part, the ideal structure for your essay depends on how many passages you choose to examine and how multi-faceted your reading of those passages is. There are, however, some things that all close reading essays should do:
-Introduce your argument: It is helpful in the introduction to establish what is at stake in your close reading and what your argument is. Your thesis claim can range in its specificity. It even can be as broad as the claim: “This passage is important and worthy of attention because it suggests/illuminates . . .” Some thesis claims are more specific, however.
-Introduce your passage(s) in context. It is helpful for your reader to summarize the literal content of the passages in a few sentences and also to explain where they come in the narrative of the novel. This should be no more than about a paragraph.
-Present your reading(s) of a passage supported by evidence from the text. No matter what you argue, your thesis should be supported by close analysis of the structure, language, and imagery of the text.
-Clarify the relationship(s) between different pieces of evidence.
Editing
Some of the best writing seems effortless. It isn’t. Writing takes time and careful editing. Professional writers and editors spend hours writing, re-writing, proofread- ing, and fact-checking their work. Here are some tips: