The intent of this course is to provide students with an introduction to and an overview of Western cultural history from the Renaissance to the present day. This is a daunting task for any teacher to accomplish in one semester and requires the utmost cooperation from students if anything substantive is to be achieved. Therefore, please read the assignments in order that you can ask intelligent questions and take part in class discussions. Attend the course faithfully. HSS 212 is a required course and more than four absences will result in a failing grade. There are no “excused absences” with the exception of certain recognized religious holidays. Lateness disturbs the flow of a class and should be avoided. Lateness of more than 15 minutes will be considered an absence. Chronic lateness will result in a lowered grade. In evening sections, failure to return from the break will be counted as an absence. If you are absent, don’t email the instructor asking about what you missed in class. Contact a fellow student. Check your NJIT email on a daily basis for possible messages from the instructor. If you normally use another email address, make sure that your NJIT account forwards to this address.

Your final grade will be based on the results of your midterm and final examinations as well as the quality of your research paper and oral report. The latter will constitute part of a group presentation. The research paper will be at least 1250 words in length. It will cite sources according to MLA rules (see your Scott Foresman Handbook). Sources include printed texts available in the Van Houten Library (you can also use the Dana Library at Rutgers) as well as scholarly articles accessible through the humanities databases on the Van Houten website. Random selections from the Internet are to be avoided. Hand in papers on time. Lateness will result in a lowered grade. Failure to show up for your oral report will result in an “F” for the report.

A portfolio of all written material including drafts of your research will be kept during the term. Selected portfolios will be collected for inspection by the Humanities Department.

Course Required Texts:
Bulliet et al., The Earth and Its Peoples (Brief Edition),2nd Edition
Cabeza de Vaca,  The Account
Camus, The Stranger
Witt et al., The Humanities, Vol. II,  6th  Edition.

Part I  Early Modern Europe: Renaissance, Reformation, and New World Encounters

Bulliet, Ch. 14, “The Latin West,”
Witt, Ch. 17, “Humanism and Early Italian Renaissance,”
 della Mirandola, “ Oration on the Dignity of Man”
 Cereta, “Letter to Bibulus Sempronius”
____, Ch. 18, “Art, Architecture and Music in Florence”
____, Ch. 19 “The End of the Florentine Renaissance”
 Machiavelli, “The Prince”
Bulliet, Ch. 16, “ The Transformation of Europe”
Witt, Ch. 20, “ Northern Renaissance and Protestant Reformation”
 Montaigne, “On Cannibals”
 Shakespeare, “Sonnets”
 __________, “Tragedy of Othello”
Bulliet, Ch. 15, “The Maritime Revolution”
______,Ch. 17, “The Americas, the Atlantic, and Africa”
Cabeza de Vaca. The Account
Films: “The City of Florence”
 “Renaissance Painting”
 “Cabeza de Vaca”
            “Othello”
Witt, Ch. 21, “The Consolidation of Modernity”
 Descartes, “ The Discourse on Method”
 Locke, “Second Treatise on Civil Government”
____, Ch. 22, “The Baroque in Art and Architecture”
 St. Teresa de Ávila, “The Book of Her Life”
 Sor Juana, Poems
 Crashaw, Poems
 Donne, Poems
____, Ch. 23, “Handel and Bach”
____, Ch 24, “Court of Louis XIV”
 Molière, “The Would-be Gentleman”
 

Part II The Enlightenment, Political and Industrial Revolutions

Bulliet,  Ch. 20, “Revolutionary Changes in the Atlantic World”
Witt, Ch. 25, “ The European Enlightenment”
 Voltaire, “Candide”
             ______, “The Philosophical Dictionary”
 Montesquieu, “The Spirit of the Laws”
 Rousseau, “The Social Contract”
 Wollstonecraft, “Rights of Women”
____, Ch. 26, “ The Enlightenment in the U.S.”
 Edwards, “ A Faithful Narrative”
 Jefferson,” Virginia Statute’
 Wheatley, Poems
 Walker, “Appeal to the Coloured Citizens”
____, Ch. 27, “The Development of Opera.”
Mozart, “The Marriage of Figaro” (Film)
Witt, Ch. 28, “Romanticism and Revolution”
 Schiller, “Ode to Joy”
            Wordsworth, Poems
 Byron, Poems
 Keats, Poems
 Shelley, Poems
 Whitman, “Song of Myself’
 Dickinson, Poems
Bulliet, Ch. 21, “Early Industrial Revolution”
Witt, Ch. 29, “ The Industrial Revolution and New Social Thought”
 Marx and Engels, “Communist Manifesto”
 Seneca Falls Convention, “ Declaration of Sentiments”
 Mill, “ The Subjection of Women”
 Douglass, “ What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Bulliet, Ch. 23, “The New Power Balance”
______, Ch. 24, “The New Imperialism”
Witt, Ch. 30, “Art and Literature in the Industrial World”
 Dickens, “Old Curiosity Shop”
 Beaudelaire, “Les Fleurs du mal”
 Nietszche, “Excerpts”
 Dostoevsky, “ Notes from the Underground”

Part III  The Twentieth Century

Bulliet, Ch. 25, “Crisis in the Imperial Order”
______, Ch. 26, “Collapse of the Old Order”
Witt, Ch. 31, “Culture in Self-Doubt”
 Owen, “ Dulce et Decorum est”
 Pound, “Hugh Selwyn Mauberly”
 Kipling, “Recessional”
 Gandhi, “Letter to Lord Irwin”
 Freud, “ Civilization and Its Discontents”
____, Ch. 32, “Modernism in the Visual Arts”
Bulliet, Ch. 27, “Struggle for Independence”
Witt, Ch. 33, “Modernism in Music, Dance etc.”
 Kafka, “ A Country Doctor”
 Woolf, “ A Room of One’s Own”
 Senghor, “Prayer to Masks”
 McKay, “ If we must die”
 Borges, “Death and the Compass”
 Neruda,” Ode to Broken Things”
Bulliet, Ch. 28, “Cold War and Decolonization”
Witt, Ch. 34, “Absurdity and Alienation”
 Levi, “ If This Is a Man
 Sartre, “The Republic of Silence”
 De Beauvoir, “ The Second Sex”
 Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus”
 Ellison, “Invisible Man”
 Ginsberg, “Sunflower Sutra”
 Fanon, “The Wretched of the Earth”
Camus, The Stranger
De Sica, The Bicycle Thief
Fellini, La Dolce Vita
Bulliet, Ch. 29, “ Crisis, Realignment etc.”
Witt, Ch 35, “Postmodernism and Beyond”
 Cardenal, Poems

Due to time constraints and other contingencies, we may not be able to cover all of the above material. The instructor may also assign additional material as he sees fit. The student will be informed as to what material may appear on the midterm and final examinations. If a student is confused at any time about what s/he should be reading, please let her or him speak with the instructor.