Winter 2004 HNR 225 / 226 Honors European Civilization

Professor Crouthamel 
Office: MAK 1018
Office Hours: MW 10am-noon
Telephone: 331-2931
E-mail: crouthaj@gvsu.edu
Class time: 1:00-2:50 MWF, ASH 2147
Online materials: Blackboard at http://bb.gvsu.edu
Professor Webster
Office: 129 LHH
Office Hours: 11-12 MW, 5-6 T
Telephone: 331-3071
E-mail: websterm@gvsu.edu
Home page: http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/
European Civilization II Links

Texts:

Allen, William Sheridan. The Nazi Seizure of Power. Rev. ed. New York: Franklin Watts, 1984. ISBN: 0-531-05633.

Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove Press, 1953. ISBN: 0-8021-3034-8

Byatt, A.S. Possession. New York: Random-Vintage, 1990 ISBN: 0-679-73590-9

Camus, Albert. The Fall. New York: Random-Vintage. ISBN: 0-679-72022-7

Cummings, E. E. The Enormous Room: A typescript edition with drawings by the author. 1922. Ed. George James Firmage. New York: Liveright, 1978. ISBN: 0-87140-150-9

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. 1915. Trans. and ed. Stanley Corngold. New York: Norton, 1996. ISBN: 0-393-96797-2.

Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. 1929. New York: Fawcett / Ballantine, 1982. ISBN: 0-449-21394-3

Shaw, George Bernard. Major Barbara. 1905. New York: Penguin, 2001. ISBN 0-14-043790-8

Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia. London and Boston: Faber and Faber, 1993. ISBN: 0-571-16934-1.

Ward, Candace. World War One British Poets. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1997. ISBN: 0-486-29568-0.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. 1958. Trans. Stella Rodway. New York: Bantam, 1986. ISBN: 0-553-27253-5

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway. 1925. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1981. ISBN: 0-15-662870-8

History Section: Similar to last semester, primary documents will be made available and assigned for class discussions. Regarding the textbook by Perry: Major chapters are assigned here – use them to complement lecture and discussion, and to prepare for papers and exams.

Literature Section: As with last semester, we will discuss open-ended questions with a view towards reaching some tentative conclusions. When necessary, the instructor or Perry will provide biographical, historical, and intellectual contexts and frameworks for those discussions.


Schedule of Readings and Discussions:

M Jan. 5: August 1914 and Stalemate

Perry, Ch. 29
Introduction to pre-war modernism (futurism, cubism).Video: Robert Hughes, The Shock of the New: Mechanical Paradise. The Image and the Word: Guillaume Apollinaire's "Ocean Letter," The Eiffel Tower as modernist icon.
Start, Shaw, Major Barbara. Read the first part of Margery Morgan's Introduction, pp. vii-xii and Mazer's biographical sketch of Shaw at http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cmazer/mis1.html. Read Perry, Ch 28, pp. 712-718. Look at pictures in Perry between pages 640-641.

W Jan. 7: Human Costs of the War, Pt. I

Read: Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
Shaw, Major Barbara, Acts I and II.

F Jan. 9: Prof. Crouthamel away:

Introduction to modernism; Read material on modernism and on futurism in the packet. Read also Perry, pp. 710-12. View rest of Hughes video, Mechanical Paradise. . ? Stravinsky, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring. Finish Shaw, Major Barbara, Act III. Read also Shaw's Preface, pp. 12-22, 24-39.

M Jan. 12: Human Costs of the War, Pt. II

Read: All Quiet
E. E. Cummings, The Enormous Room, chapters 1-4 (3-81). Read Part I of Richard S. Kennedy's Foreword (vii-xi). For French words and phrases, consult the "Glossary of Foreign Terms" at the back of the book (243-268). For other notes and questions, consult Webster's Enormous Room page at http://www.gvsu.edu/english/cummings/ERoom.html.

W Jan. 14: Trauma: Home/Front

Read: All Quiet
E. E. Cummings, The Enormous Room, chapters 4-5 (44-106).

F Jan. 16: Discussion: All Quiet on the Western Front

Read: All Quiet
E. E. Cummings, The Enormous Room, chapters 6-7 (107-156).

M Jan. 19: Women and World War I

E. E. Cummings, The Enormous Room, Delectable Mountains, chapters 8-10 (157-214). Read Parts II and III of Richard S. Kennedy's Foreword (xi-xix).

W Jan. 21: Social Class Tensions and Economic Crisis

Finish E. E. Cummings, The Enormous Room, chapters 11-12 (215-242. Read Dada material in packet and in Perry, pp. 814-816.

F Jan. 23: The End of Causality

Read Perry, "Physics" and "Enlightenment Tradition in Disarray," pages 718-723.
World War I Poets. Video: Robert Hughes, The Shock of the New: Powers That Be.

M Jan. 26: A Peace to End all Peace

Perry, "Postwar Pessimism" 809-812. Modernist poetry: W. B. Yeats, "Easter 1916," Ezra Pound, "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley," and T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and The Waste Land.

W Jan. 28: W Jan. 28 The Russian Revolution, Pt. I

Perry, Ch. 30
Modernist poetry continued : Ezra Pound, "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley," and T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and The Waste Land

F Jan. 30: F Jan. 30 The Russian Revolution, Pt. II

James Joyce, Ulysses ("Aolus" chapter).

M Feb. 2: Weimar Germany: Society and Politics

Read: Allen, Nazi Seizure of Power, Chs. 1-2
Post war shock: Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (3-48).

W Feb. 4: Weimar Culture

Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (48-95).

F Feb. 6: Life in the 1920s: Social Revolutions and Reactions

Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (96-151).

M Feb. 9: The Rise of Stalin

Finish Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (151-194).

W Feb. 11: The Rise of Fascism: What is fascism?

Franz Kafka. The Metamorphosis, chapter 1.
Perry, pp. 812-813

F Feb. 13: The Great Depression

Read: Allen, Nazi Seizure of Power, Chs. 3-5
Franz Kafka. The Metamorphosis, chapter 2.

M Feb. 16: Hitler’s Seizure of Power, Pt. I

Read: Allen, Chs. 6-7
Franz Kafka. The Metamorphosis, chapter 3.

W Feb. 18: Hitler’s Seizure of Power, Pt. II

Read: Allen, Chs. 8-10
George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant." Read about Orwell in Perry, p. 823.

F Feb. 20: Life in Nazi Germany, Pt. I: Conformity and Consent

Read: Allen, Chs. 11-13
Video: Degenerate Art

M Feb. 23: Life in Nazi Germany, Pt. II: Creating the ‘Racial State’

Read: Allen, Chs. 14-17
W. H. Auden poems ("In Memory of W. B. Yeats"); discuss Degenerate Art.

W Feb. 25: The Spanish Civil War

Read: Perry, Ch. 32
George Orwell essays: "Inside the Whale" and "Politics and the English Language."
Read about Orwell in Perry, p. 823.

F Feb. 27: Midterm.


Monday March 1-Friday March 5: Spring Break!

M Mar 8: The Origins of World War II

Dylan Thomas poems ("A Refusal to Mourn"), Auden poems ("September, 1939").

W Mar 10: Prof. Crouthamel's surprise.

Beckett, Waiting for Godot.

F Mar 12: Hitler’s Successes, 1939-1941

Beckett, Waiting for Godot.

M Mar 15: Operation Barbarossa

Beckett, Waiting for Godot.

W Mar 17: Hitler’s Defeat

Read: Allen, Chs. 19-20
Camus, The Fall.

F Mar 19: The Holocaust: Road to Auschwitz

Read: Browning, Ordinary Men, begin
Camus, The Fall; "Existentialism" and "The Modern Predicament" (Perry 823-831)

M Mar 22: The Holocaust: Rationalization and Conformity

Read: Browning, Ordinary Men, continue
Camus, The Fall.

W Mar 24: The Holocaust: Ordinary Men?

Read: Browning, Ordinary Men, complete
Paul Celan, "Todesfugue."

F Mar 26: The Holocaust: Moral and Spiritual Legacy

Existentialism and Postmodernism. Start A. S. Byatt, Possession. (Discuss next Wed.)

M Mar 29: Discussion of Wiesel’s Night

Read: Wiesel, Night

W Mar 31: 1945: Zero Hour?

Read: Perry, Ch. 33
Byatt, Possession and Perry, "Epilogue " (911-12).

F April 2: Origins of the Cold War and Recovery in Western Europe

Read: Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star (begin)
Byatt, Possession.

M April 5: Eastern Europe in the 1950-60s

Read: Kovaly, continue
Byatt, Possession.

W April 7: Discussion of Kovaly’s Under a Cruel Star

Read: Kovaly, complete
Byatt, Possession.

F April 9: From Kruschev to Gorbachev

Stoppard, Arcadia.

M April 12: The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Collapse of Communism

Read: Perry, Ch. 34
Stoppard, Arcadia.

W April 15: New Challenges after the Cold War

Stoppard, Arcadia.

F April 17: Europe Today, Final Discussion

Review. CONGRATULATIONS! YOU MADE IT!

Final Exam: Tuesday, April 21, 2-3:50 p.m.


Grade Chart:

Preparation and Participation
(includes reading quizzes; online work)

10 %

Essay #1

15 %

Essay #2

20 %

Essay #3

20 %

Midterm Exam

15 %

Final Exam

15 %