Fall 2017 Semester Schedule HUM 2250 20th Century Humanities 12800
Wednesday 7:00-9:45 pm Rm 8-245 Professor Jonathan Landwer
The schedule below outlines the readings/activities/ tests we are responsible for during our semester together. We have readings that must be completed before each class so you will be prepared for the discussions, quizzes, and brief, in-class, essays. There will be three writing assignments to be submitted to SafeAssign and in class.
Before 1st Class Review late 19th century up to Fin de Siècle; Read Chapt 1 entirely, at home.
August 31 Class Introductions, expectations, essays, assessments and schedule
Read Chapt 1 The Fin de Siècle and contribute to the Discussion Board
September 7 The Great war and Its Impact: A Lost Generation and the New Imagination
Read Chapt 2 entirely
September 14 Read Handouts; PDF Excerpts on Freud, Jung, Stavinsky, Owens, and
Dada. Discuss the European Worldview, Reflections in Artistic Expression
September 21 The Era of Invention: Paris and the Modern World
Read Chapter 3 entirely, Essay I Due
September 28 EXAM I
Review of Chapters 1-3
October 5 Read Langston Hughes’ poetry; view excerpt from Prohibition by Ken Burns, PBS Doc, review The Great Migration, the American economy, and changing Zeitgeist
October 12 New York, Skyscraper Culture and the Jazz Age: Making it New
Read Chapt 4 entirely;
October 19 Read Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler; view Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will; Essay II Due
Essay III requirements
October 26 EXAM II Take-Home
Essay II requirements
November 2 The Age of Anxiety: Fascism and Depression, Holocaust and Bomb
Read Chapt 5 entirely; Read Existentialism is a Humanism by Jean-Paul Sartre, PDF
November 9 Read handouts on Simone de Beauvoir and The Second Sex, review the art and architecture of
American Avante Garde
November 16 After the War: Existential Doubts, Artistic Triumph, and the Culture of Consumption
Read Chapt 6 entirely; Complete Quiz
November 23 Read Zora Neale Hurston’s How it feels to be colored me, PDF; Read Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains (PDF)
November 30 Without Boundaries: Multiple Meanings in a Postmodern World
Read Chapt 7 entirely, Discuss Socialism and the advance of Communist state.
December 7 Multiplicity and Diversity: Cultures of Liberation and Identity in the 1960s and 1970s
Read The Things They Carried; Discuss the directions of the 21st century Essay III Due
December 14 EXAM III Review –
Read the assignments before each class. You will be asked to contribute to the in-class conversation by demonstrating your understanding of the complex concepts we are studying. Expect random quizzes.