Interview in groups of 3 to 4, and be prepared to
introduce someone else you talked to about their:
Name
Major
What kinds of things do you like to read?
Course
Introduction:HONP
101 (Great Books/Ideas II): Nature, Sensibility, and
Revolution
Rousseau'sSecond
Discourse; Voltaire'sCandide; Kleist's
"Earthquake in Chile;"Goethe'sSufferings
of Young WertherandFaust;
and Mary Shelley'sFrankenstein.
Discussion topics include but are not limited to:
utopia and political idealism; colonialism; the noble
savage; the rise of sensibility and the middle class;
satire; suicide; and the promise and dangers of genius in an
age that produced the American and French Revolutions and
popularized the republic as a form of government.
Course
Goals
Attain membership to a community of thinkers who
know what the following terms and authors refer
to:eighteenth century, Storm and Stress, Romanticism,
Goethe (Werther, Faust), Voltaire (Candide).Familiarity
with most of these authors traditionally constitutes
membership to an educated community, but we will
query what makes these texts "great" (or not) and also
prepare students for next semester's focus on modern
literature.
Become stronger critical thinkers, or adults able to
reason, argue, and make intelligent analyses about cultural
issues;
Improve technical and analytical writing skills;
And move students from being consumers of knowledge
to becoming producers of knowledge, by encouraging original
literary analysis in essays, exams, and class participation.
In-class Free Write on Revolution
Write for 5-10 minutes on the following question:
In what specific (biological, ecological, cultural, political)
ways does society need to change, in your opinion, to promote
equality among all classes, genders, and races?
ENLT 536
transparency
Rousseau'sDiscourse on the Origin of
Inequalityaddresses the
question: "What is the origin of inequality among men, and is it
authorized by the natural law?" (Rousseau 16).
What's Rousseau's answer to
this question? Find a passage that supports your summary of
Rousseau's point (A) and respond in the right-hand column about
why you think this inequality exists. Pick 3 out of the 4
categories to address.
A. Rousseau
B. You
Political Inequalities
"a society of a size limited by the
extent of human faculties" + "above the law" (2); the
powerful rule over the weak (210 online); weak
manipulated into subservience (56)
uninformed & uninterested
populace; 2 party system; $; lack of transparency;
selfishness
Racial Inequalities
religious teaching (17); economics
(27)
fear; rash judgement; technology; $
Gender Inequalities
assoc. women w/nature (9); elision
of women from the text; falsity of romantic love as a
means of manipulation (39); division of labor > women
in domestic sphere (48)
division of labor makes women seem
weak; stereotypes about women belonging in the home
What doyouassociate with the
words "nature" and "society"?
Nature
Society
organic
wilderness
primitive
pure
freedom
minimalism
peaceful
structure
man-made
competition
civilized
living under someone else's rule
labor
law
» naive
- proto-capitalist society
Rousseau's idea of natural man assumes they lived in "rustic
huts" (50).
His idea of natural man assumes they lived in "rustic huts"
(Rousseau 50).
Bildungsroman = coming-of-age novel (Novel of Education)
Deism = God as a clockmaker
Free write on 2 of these 4
words. What do associate with them? What do they mean to you?
Rousseau: nature, anarchist, against society,
authenticity
revolution: change in society, generally good for
the majority, chaos, challenging society's ideals, usually
a noble cause, new ideas, new system (Rousseau 47)
gender: double standards, inequality, biology;
plays a role in class, occupation, and salary
class: unjust,
economy, power, division, the past
- inherited > less mobile society
- absence of a middle class (bourgeoisie) / burgeoning middle
class > artisans/craftsman
- class = social power
- tensions between classes
- protocols for each kind of class
- aristocracy (upper class), peasants
Read
these sentences from Leibniz, reflect on them, and
compose your own brief response to Leibniz's assertion
that "God is absolutely perfect" (and that anything
that happens shows his perfection/everything is for the
good) = THEODICY
"40. We may hold that the supreme substance, which is
unique, universal and necessary with nothing independent
outside of it, which is further a pure sequence of possible
being, must be incapable of limitation and must contain as
much reality as possible.
41. Whence it follows that God is absolutely perfect,
perfection being understood as the magnitude of positive
reality in the strict sense, when the limitations or the
bounds of those things which have them are removed. There
where there are no limits, that is to say, in God,
perfection is absolutely infinite."
According to Voltaire, why do people
suffer? Why is there suffering in the world?
Suffering is life (23) > Suffering is universal;
the world is destabilized; the world is governed by random
chance; perhaps it's a cycle (garden in beg. and end);
religion can't answer this ques. either (73).
Religion: auto-da-fé (11-2), mistreatment of
Jews (12), Jesuits hated in the New World (18); abuse of
free will (46); Brother Giroflée (57-8): corrupt, not
someone who is a priest b/c of calling
Class: aristocratic ideals of lineage keeps
Candide away from Cunegunde (between classes like Werther);
money doesn't make Candide happy:
greed (Candide leaving Eldorado 34); Parisians take
advantage of his wealth (47); Lord P. (ch. 25, 59-64): class
has alienated him for everyone; 6 kings (64-5)
Gender: Old Woman's Tale; Helen cause of the
war (60); homosexuality punished (69)
Ethnicity / Race: slavery = "the price of the
sugar you eat" (40); Jews
"isms"
How to find happiness?
27: Cacambo expects bad things to happen
pessimism?
Find more examples under the categories or others in
order to find why people suffer in Candide, and what recipe
for happiness Voltaire might suggest.
Research Questions:
- How effective was this book as a satire if it's not
totally accurate?
What do Candide's companions say about him?
Cunegonde
Cacambo
Martin
Pangloss
Party game:Ask
yes or no questions about your character, such as: Do I survive
the story? Am I male? etc. Sit down when you finish and write a
1-3 sentence sketch of your character.
Jeronimo Rugera Donna Josephe Asteron "little Philip" [Rugera Asteron] (316) Don Henrico Asteron
Don Fernando Ormez (321) Donna Elvire Ormez (317) "little Juan" Ormez (323) Don Pedro Xares (317) Donna Elisabeth Xares (317) Donna Constanze Xares (322)
the Abbess (315) the Viceroy (318) Master Pedrillo (321, 323) Don Alonzo Onoreja (322)
KLEIST: What does Kleist propose causes
evil, as shown in the root causes for characters'
suffering? In what ways is God responsible (or not) for
human suffering and happiness?
Religion: Sinners blamed for
earthquake, leading deaths (321-22); on the other hand,
God gives them a second chance (earthquake)
Class: Mésalliance between J +
J (312); ideal of classless society (318)
Gender: Lust at the center of
the catastrophe
Ethnicity / Race: German view
of Spanish-speaking countries as barbaric/savage ("a lion
fighting for its life . . . killer dogs" 323)
(German) Women are defined by the 3 "K's" Children Church Kitchen
>> To what extent is Faust responsible for the
suffering around him?
Free Write:
Where does Mephisto derive his power from? What forces,
institutions (family, state, religion), activities, &/or
desires, such as the pursuit of profession, love, power,
knowledge, &/or money give him control over Faust and
others? Be specific in your response.
76/2785: Gretchen admires the jewels (beg. of her
corruption)
60/2290: greed: Auerbach's Tavern--they want more
wine
45/1663: "Faust: It is from out this earth my
pleasures spring"
143/4925: "Emperor: We're sort of money--well,
procure it then."
50: manipulation of the student
Prologue in Heaven: Lord allows him to act
What seem to be the gender
issues in Goethe's Faust? In what ways are female
characters unequal to male characters? Please be specific in
your responses. > To what extent are female characters
allowed to be subjects (and not just objects)?
Double Standard about Sexual Promiscuity
"Valentine: You're a whore, what's there to say?"
(106/3370) >> once women are "ruined," they have no
future
At the Well: "Lieschen: If she gets him, we'll make
it hot for her" (100/3575). > Condemnation towards women
who've had relationships (yet the men are not punished for
sexual promiscuity). Nothing said in this scene about the
groom.
Virtue tied up with virginity for women, whereas
it's not an issue in male virtue.
Helena
"reports spun out have grown to a fairy-tale"
(8515/242) > myth that Helena
started war
shows that women are valued for their physical
appearances
Archetypes of Femininity: virgin, mother, whore >
to what extent can they escape these roles?
female characters don't have their own motivations
meaning of Gretchen's death?
Gretchen "redeemed" in the end (133/4610).
> Evil (Meph.) judges Gretchen.
Is Goethe critiquing
these instances of inequality?
"Meph.: She is not the first" (126)
sympathy with Gretchen, not Lieschen
Homunculus + Meph/Phorcyas: Gender is just a role?