Great Books and Ideas II, Spring 2020 -- Mr Furr
Homework Page
Back to Home Page for this
course.
I will post all writing assignments on this page.. You should create a 'bookmark' of
your own to this page, so you can go to it without having to first go to the Home Page for
the course.
NOTE: BE SURE TO USE THE PROPER SUBJECT LINE ON ALL YOUR EMAILS
TO ME! SEE BOTTOM OF HOME PAGE
FOR EXAMPLE! |
Be sure to "send a copy to yourself" of ALL
your homework assignments!
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS
- For Thursday, January 23
- send me two emails, from different email servers. One
of these servers MUST be the MSU 'mail' server. You must set up an email account for
yourself on this server. THIS IS THE EMAIL ADDRESS I WILL SEND ALL EMAIL TO. The second
one is only for emergency use.
- See the full instructions for setting up your MSU mail account on this page.
- Make sure that the Subject line of the email messages conforms to the
model at the bottom of our Home Page.
Assignments on The Many-Headed Hydra, Chapter 1.
- Read Chapter 1 of MHH. Make careful notes.
- Read the Endnotes to Chapter 1, carefully. Pick TWO articles that sound interesting.
- Type up your notes -- 300 words minimum, neat, but not necessarily full sentences (these
are "notes", after all).
- Write out the full bibliographical reference for the two articles which seem
interesting to you. Put this at the end of your notes.
- By "articles", I mean the 'scholarly' or 'research' articles cited in the
notes, recent studies, published either in journals or in book form, in collections of
articles. We want to look at some of them. Linebaugh and Rediker cite a large number of
them in their notes, in every chapter.
- Articles may be distinguished from books this way. The title of an article is in
quotation marks; the title of a book is in italics (or, in some publications, underlined).
- If you don't know how to write a bibliographical reference in MLA format, check out some
of the links here.
- Email your assigment to me, TEXT ONLY, on your MSU 'mail' account.
- THIS IS A REQUIRED ASSIGNMENT. It is NOT "optional" or
"extra."
- For Tuesday, January 28: Read Shakespeare's play "The
Tempest". Read it, download it, and print it out, in this edition.
That way, we all have the same text, with the same page numbering (lower left-hand
corner of the page).
- Write about 300 words, identifying three passages (by Act, Scene, Line numbers, e.g.
1,2,48 ff.) where the issues of Caliban, Prospero, and "expropriation" are
raised. Examine, and discuss them, in somewhat the same fashion as do L&R (Linebaugh
and Rediker, authors of The Many-Headed Hydra) in Chapter 1.
- You should carefully reread MHH, Chapter 1, in preparation for this assignment and for
our class discussion.
- For Thursday, January 30.
- For Tuesday, February 4.
NOTE: The following book has just now -- late
January, 2020 -- been published. Helen C Scott Shakespeare's Tempest and
Capitalism: The Storm of History. (Routledge, 2019). It costs $120, so we
can't get it. But its publication shows that The Tempest and the
development of early mercantile capitalism remain a subject of interest. You can
read
a review of this book here (if you wish -- not required).
- For Thursday, February 6.
- For Tuesday, February 11: During this class, each group should prepare a
report on
the materials you have read so far. The report can use academic, graphic, dramatic
(acting), imaginative, elements. It should demonstrate that, a a group, you have grappled
with the main ideas of Chapter 1 of MHH and of our supplementary readings.
- For Thursday, February 13: Each group will present its report to the
class. Please organize your report so that every member of your group has a
role in the presentation.
Organize your report so as to present questions, problems, etc., for
all-class discussion. Email your completed report to me
after class.
Assignments on The Many-Headed Hydra, Chapter 2.
Assignments on The Many-Headed Hydra, Chapter 4.
See
Cerquozzi, "The Revolt of Masaniello" (MHH, p. 113);
Masaniello image from page 115 (large, readable);
|
MARCH 9 -13 - SPRING
BREAK - NO CLASSES |
- For Tuesday, March 17.
- For Thursday, March 19 - Reports by all groups, on MHH,
Ch. 4, plus and and all of the articles you have studied. See the directions
for February 11,
above.
|
IMPORTANT: SEE THE
HOME PAGE FOR LINK TO ANNOUNCEMENTS CONCERNING
ONLINE CLASSES FOR THE REST OF THE SEMESTER |
Assignments on The Many-Headed Hydra, Chapter 5.
IMPORTANT: In order to give you -- and me
-- some time to get settled in this new
online-only routine, we will continue discussing
the second part of Chapter 5 of MHH on Tuesday, April
7,
instead of Tuesday, March 31.
That means you have the week of March 30
- April 3 with no assignments due.
This will give you time to prepare for the
second part of Chapter 5, and also to do what you need to do to get set up
for the remainder of the semester. |
- For Tuesday, April 7.
- For Thursday, April 9. Reports by all groups. See the
directions for February 11, 2020, above. Then EMAIL your individual
contributions to your group report to me, by Sunday, 11:59 p.m.
Assignments on The Many-Headed Hydra, Chapter 7.
- For Tuesday, April 14. You can now also download
the original text of Morris' letter to Thomas Penn, from volume one of Jared
Sparks' biography of Gouverneur Morris, published in Boston, in 1832.
It's in the "Files" section of our Canvas Page. But for our course, please
use this
edited and annoated text/
- For Thursday, April 16.. NOTE: I have put
Fresia's book online here. But the problem
is this: if we print it out, it will have different page numbers, depending
on the settings of our computers and/or printers.
So I have also put Chapter 1 and Part 1, Chapters 2 and 3, in PDF format, on
our "Files" pages in Canvas. The problem here is that the print is
rather small.
FINALLY, I have also put these chapters from Fresia on our
Canvas - Files page in DOCX format. Why? * The font is larger,
much easier to read; * the Table of Contents is hyperlinked --
Control-Click on a chapter or section title in the TOC takes you straight to
that part of the text [PCs only -- I don't know how to do that with a Mac].
Use whichever version you wish. But we are going to have to be patient with
each other in looking up specific passages.
- For Tuesday, April 21: read
Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal," and the
two of the three articles assigned to your group. Group 1:
read Nokes and Rawson. Group 2: read Rawson and Richardson. Bring them,
and the text, to class.
- For Thursday, April 23.
- For Tuesday, April 28.
- For Thursday, April 30 - Reports by both groups, on MHH, Ch. 7
plus the other primary and secondary sources you have studied.
Last Class and Final Exam
