Course Overview
CMPL 122 offers a survey of mutually supportive developments of literature and the visual arts from classical antiquity until around 1750. In each lesson, you will read one or two literary and/or philosophical texts from a specific cultural and historical moment. Many of the lessons will present representative artistic monuments from the same culture and time period. Our primary task will be to understand and appreciate these texts, which are in many ways quite different from those of the modern world. We will also try to gain a general knowledge of Western literary texts and visual arts by approaching general time periods through exemplary works. We will be “sampling” texts from the following time periods: Ancient Greece, Augustan/Christian Rome, Medieval, Reformation, Renaissance/Baroque, and Enlightenment. In addition to a general appreciation of literary and visual works from the above eras, we will explore the following questions and sub-themes:
TextbooksThe advantage to reading ancient and medieval texts is the lack of copyright by the original author (translations and edited editions are still under copyright). As a result most of the assigned readings for this course will be posted on Blackboard in the Course Documents area (for more about Blackboard, see Course Mechanics). There is only one required text to purchase for this course. This text can be obtained from Friday Center Books & Gifts at the Friday Center either by ordering online or by printing and mailing the book order form.
The following texts will be available online. However, if you choose to purchase these books, please note that I will be referring to the following editions:
Requirements and ExpectationsYou will be required to read three texts in their entirety: Plato’s Phaedrus, Dante’s The New Life, and Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. We will read selections from the remaining texts. You must also read all of the online lessons, participate in discussion forums, complete all of the written assignments, and take a final exam. In the Lesson Schedule you will find links to the fifteen lessons that comprise the course. Each lesson includes introductory material and questions for the discussion forum. You will need to finish the assigned readings in time to participate in the discussion forum. You must read every lesson, explore every link, post to the discussion forum every week, and submit assignments on schedule. (For each week of the course, you should expect to log on at least three times and spend about nine hours of study time in addition to your reading time. This timetable is not a rule, but a guideline to help you judge your involvement in class.) Please note that the amount of reading varies from week to week! We may read a poem one week and eighty pages of prose the next week—you are responsible for completing all reading assignments on time, so make sure to plan ahead! In addition to the discussion forums, you will write two short papers; detailed instructions are posted on Blackboard in the Assignments section. Please e-mail your assignments as attachments, either saved as Microsoft Word 97-2003 documents (.doc) or in rich text format (.rtf). Do not paste the text into the body of an e-mail message. To save a document in a specific format, choose the appropriate option under "Save As..." on most word processors. Papers must be in my e-mail inbox by midnight Eastern Time on the day they are due. About the Discussion ForumWe will use an electronic discussion forum via Blackboard to discuss the works we'll study. In addition to answering the questions posed in each week’s lesson, you can use the forum to post comments and questions, read the comments of other students, post responses, and read comments from me. Discussion forums also act as a great tool for “feeling out” paper topic ideas—your short essays can thus become a great place for exploring a discussion forum topic or idea in more critical and creative depth! It is important when posting that you include a clear topic/subject line—if you are responding to a fellow student’s post you can reply directly to that post, otherwise please start a new topic discussion thread! I will expect you to respond to each of the posted questions by the final day of the lesson (usually a Sunday) by midnight Eastern Time. In addition to posting your own responses, you will also be required to make at least one additional post for each lesson. Your posts should be between 100 and 300 words, depending on the assignment. You may respond to someone else's posts or you may post in the optional "Questions/Comments" section. Since we do not meet in person, the discussion forums are an indispensable part of connecting as a class. I expect a wide variety of responses in the discussion forum. The pleasure of reading and interpreting comes from interesting debates, not an adherence to the standard reading. Don't be afraid to put forward a bold or unusual observation—those are often the most worthwhile! If everyone contributes regularly to the discussion forum, we will have a great class! Grading and Final ExamYou are expected to participate regularly (on a weekly basis) and turn in assignments on time. Your grade will be determined as follows:
Your final examination will be scheduled during one of several three-hour periods between 9 am and 5 pm Eastern Time. As the time for the final exam draws closer, I will send out a list of available time slots and you may choose one that best fits your schedule. I will then send the exam questions to you via e-mail at the beginning of the time period you have selected, and you will have three hours in which to send me your answers in response. More information on this process will be provided later. Honor CodeRemember that as a student of UNC-Chapel Hill, you are bound by the University's Honor Code:
This code applies to all writing assignments, discussion forum postings, and to the final exam. Course MechanicsBlackboardThe discussion forums and readings for this course are accessed through a software package called Blackboard, and you will need to log in to Blackboard using a unique identifier known as your UNC Onyen (Only Name You'll Ever Need) and Onyen password. There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to log in to Blackboard. Click on the "CMPL 122" link, and you will see navigation buttons on the left side of the screen labeled Announcements, Discussion Forum, Course Documents, and so on. If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is what you should do:
Library Services and E-reservesStudents enrolled in Carolina Courses Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves. If you are using an off-campus computer, you will need to enter your ONYEN and password to access the e-reserve system. The UNC library staff is available to assist any students who have difficulties accessing online library resources. If you encounter difficulties, please report your problem by visiting this Web page for reporting a problem. Using E-mailAll communication from me will go to your UNC Onyen e-mail address (the one that appears when you post to the discussion forum). Off-campus users can access their UNC e-mail account using Webmail. You can have your Onyen e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking “Forward email” on the Onyen Web site. We strongly recommend that you use your UNC e-mail account for all e-mails regarding your course. Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses "blind carbon copy" to protect privacy. If you forward your mail to a commercial e-mail service provider (yahoo.com or msn.com, for example), messages from your instructor, Friday Center staff, or other students may be delayed because these service providers sometimes place temporary blocks on messages originating from universities. If you are using a commercial e-mail service provider, the e-mail links in this course may not work for you. Please include “CCO CMPL122” (plus the relevant topic) in the subject line of all e-mail correspondence. I receive a lot of e-mail during the semester and this helps me organize my responses. Submitting AssignmentsIt is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to me via e-mail. If I don't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered. Any easy way to ensure you have a record of your email is to “cc” yourself whenever you send an assignment. Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to me and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course. Other QuestionsIf you have questions regarding
Course Schedule
Course Author: Catherine Clark, MA ©University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Last modified: August 27, 2009 Send comments and questions to fridaycenter@unc.edu. |
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