School of Arts & Humanities
HUMA 3300: Reading & Writing Texts Fall, 2003
Section 001 Call # 11848 Jo 3.906 M & W 12:30 - 1:45
Professor Gerald Soliday
Office: Jonsson 4.202
Hours: M 2:00-3:00,
M & W 6:00-7:00, and by
appointment: 972-883-2760
E-mail: soliday@utdallas.edu Internet:
http://www.utdallas.edu/~soliday
Reference Librarian: Ms. Linda Snow Office: McDermott 2.512
Consultation by
appointment 972-883-2626
E-mail: snow@utdallas.edu
Teaching Assistant: Ms. Elizabeth Berrett Office: Jonsson 3.110
Hours: W 2:00-3:00 and by appointment 972-883-2062
E-mail: utdbeth@hotmail.com
Arts & Humanities 3300 Reading and Writing Texts
Topic: The French Revolution
HUMA 3300 is an introduction
to the School of Arts & Humanities at UT Dallas, its organization and
programs, and especially its disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives on
undergraduate education. The course acquaints
students with a wide variety of the intellectual and artistic interests,
methods, and approaches represented in our school. While this semester's substantive focus is on the French
Revolution, the goal is not only to study one of the major events in modern
history. Our chief purpose here is to
explore how creative writers and artists, historians, philosophers, as well as
literary and art critics have arrived at their various interpretations of the
revolution. The history of the French
Revolution serves, in other words, as an introductory case study in different
modes of interpretation.
At the same time, the course
meets our school’s advanced writing requirement, and it emphasizes different
types of expository or critical writing as well as the reading and interpretive
skills crucial for serious work in the arts and humanities. Thus the faculty urges students exploring or
majoring in the school to take this required course as early as possible,
preferably first, in their study programs.
Course requirements include: (1)
attendance and participation in class discussion of assigned readings
(averaging about 100 pages per week) completed prior to our meetings [15%] and
(2) five pieces of written work:
(a) an outline [15%] due 17 September
(b) a short bibliography [15%] due 15 October
(c) an explication of a text [15%] due 22 October
(d) an interpretive essay [20%] due 12 November
(e) a comparative essay [20%] due 1 December
Please note that I can not
accept writing assignments late, unless very unusual circumstances arise or
my permission is sought and granted in advance of the due date. Note also that you must submit all
assignments in order to pass the course.
All written work and class discussion for
this course is in gender-neutral, nonsexist language and rhetorical
constructions. Such practice is part of
a classroom situation according full respect and opportunity to all
participants by all others.
Written
work is submitted in paper or "hard" copy, without cover pages or special
folders. Simply put your name and
course identification at the top of the first page and staple the upper left
corner. Papers are always paginated
(usually at the bottom and center of each page after the first), double-spaced,
and presented in clear 10- to 12-point type.
Parenthetical
annotation is now strongly recommended, though any form of annotation (foot- or
endnotes) and bibliography is acceptable for this course, provided that you use
it correctly and consistently. Probably
most appropriate for your work in the arts and humanities are standard guides
like the MLA Handbook or the Turabian
Manual for Writers.
At
the same time, Diana Hacker's Rules for
Writers (5th ed., 2003) summarizes MLA stylistic conventions,
outlines current grammatical practices and mechanical presentation, and offers
helpful guidelines for researching and writing papers. You may find it especially useful for your
work in the course this semester.
I
should also mention that the eleventh edition of Merriam Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary appeared this summer and now becomes the standard for university
work.
All required readings as well as some recommended items for the course
are on reserve in the McDermott Library.
Paperback books used extensively are also for sale, if you wish to
purchase them, both in the University Bookstore and at Off-Campus Books. In addition, shorter readings marked with an
asterisk (*) are available online at my Internet Web site. They are protected by a password I will give
you in class.
Please note that, although I
do not anticipate them, there may be some changes in the following schedule. If they occur, I will announce them in class
and post them on the syllabus at my Web site on the Internet.
SCHEDULE OF CLASS MEETINGS
& ASSIGNMENTS
25 Aug Introduction to the Course
Assignments:
Students new to UTD should familiarize themselves with the general
organization of the
McDermott Library this first week of the term. Anyone who has not read William Strunk and
E.B. White,
The Elements
of Style (4th ed., 1999)
should do so immediately.
27 Aug The Four Undergraduate Programs in Arts & Humanities
Arts & Humanities Art & Performance
Historical Studies Literary Studies
HISTORY
OF THE REVOLUTION: PEOPLE,
EVENTS, IDEAS, INSTITUTION AND INTERPRETATIONS
3 Sep Some General
Interpretations
Discussion of *Robert Darnton, "What Was
Revolutionary about the French Revolution?" The New York Review
of Books (19 Jan 1989): 3-10, and T.C.W. Blanning, The French Revolution: Class War or Culture
Clash?
Recommended: Gwynne Lewis, The French Revolution: Rethinking the Debate
William Doyle, The Oxford
History of the French Revolution
8 Sep Origins: The French Monarchy in Crisis
Discussion of Peter McPhee, The French Revolution 1789-1799,
Introduction and chs. 1-2, and of *The
Old
Regime and
the French Revolution, ed. Keith M.
Baker (Chicago, 1987), no. 8: Protests
of the Parlement of
Paris (March, 1776)
Recommended: P.M. Jones, Reform and Revolution in France:
The Politics of Transition, 1774-1791
William Doyle, The Origins
of the French Revolution (3rd ed.)
10 Sep Enlightenment & Revolution:
Alienation of the Intellectuals?
*Norman
Hampson, "The Enlightenment in France," The Enlightenment in National Context, ed. Roy Porter and Mikulas
Teich (Cambridge, 1981), 41-53; *Margaret C. Jacob, "The Enlightenment
Redefined," Living the Enlightenment
(NY and Oxford, 1991), 215-224; *Robert Darnton, "The High
Enlightenment and the Low Life of Literature," The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (Cambridge MA, 1982),
1-40; and *Roger Chartier, "Do Revolutions Have Cultural Origins?" The Cultural Origins of the French
Revolution (Durham NC, 1991), 169-192
Recommended: The Enlightenment: A Comprehensive Anthology,
ed. Peter Gay
Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment
Roy Porter, The
Enlightenment
15 Sep 1789-1792: The Common People and the Liberal Revolution
Discussion of McPhee, chs. 3 and 4
Recommended: Timothy Tackett, When the King Took
Flight
17 Sep Discussion of *Michael Fitzsimmons, "Privilege and
the Polity in France, 1786-1791," American
Historical
Review 92 (1987):
269-295 [McDermott Reference]
First
Writing Assignment: Outline of the Fitzsimmons article
Example of an outline: Stone
22 Sep War & Terror: The
Radical Revolution, 1792-94
Discussion of McPhee, chs. 5-7, Hugh Gough, The Terror in the French Revolution, and
of *The Old Regime
and the
French Revolution, ed. Keith M. Baker
(Chicago, 1987), no. 42: Robespierre's Report on the Principles
of Public
Morality (5 February 1794)
24 Sep The Failure of the Liberal Republic: 1794-1799
Discussion of McPhee, chs. 8 and 9
Recommended:
Suzanne Desan, "Reconstituting the Social after the Terror: Family, Property, and the Law in Popular
Politics," Past & Present
164 (1999): 81-121
29 Sep The Revolution & Human Rights: Some Documents
Discussion
of The French Revolution and Human Rights,
ed. and trans. Lynn Hunt
1 Oct First Library
Session in McDermott 2.524: The Reference Collection
6 Oct Women &
Feminism in the Revolution
Discussion
of *Jane Abray, "Feminism in the French Revolution," American Historical Review 80 (1975): 43-62 [McDermott Reference];
*Joan W. Scott, "French Feminists and the Rights
of 'Man': Olympe de Gouges's Declarations," History Workshop 28 (1989): 1-21; and *Olwen Hufton, "In Search of Counter-Revolutionary
Women," Women and the Limits of
Citizenship in the French Revolution (Toronto, 1992), 91-130
Recommended: Dominique Godineau, The Women of Paris and Their French Revolution
8 Oct Second Library
Session in McDermott 2.524: Reference Works and Research Aids for the
Arts and Humanities
INTERPRETATIONS
AND REPRESENTATIONS OF
REVOLUTION
13 Oct Political & Social Philosophies: The Revolution Controversy
15 Oct
Discussion
of Burke, Paine, Godwin, and the
Revolution Controversy, ed. Marilyn Butler, introduction and selections 2
(Price), 3 (Burke), 6 and 7 (Wollstonecraft), 9 (Priestley), 13 and 14 (Paine)
Recommended as
well: 11 and 12 (Young), 17 (Horsley), 18 (Watson), 21 (More), and 29 (The
Antijacobin)
Carol Blum, Rousseau and the Republic of Virtue: The Language of Politics in the
French
Revolution
15 Oct Second Writing Assignment:
Bibliography Due
20 Oct The Rhetoric of Revolution
Discussion of Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution, 1-51
22 Oct Third Writing Assignment: An Explication of Burke's Text [Example]
Artistic Revolution: Neoclassicism & Jacques-Louis David
Slide lecture with handout
on David's career
27 Oct Politics & High Art:
David as Jacobin Painter
Discussion of Jacques-Louis
David's "Marat," ed. William Vaughn and Helen Weston (Cambridge,
2000),
Introduction and chs. 1-3 (If you have time, read also ch. 5.)
29 Oct Art & Revolution:
The Imagery of Radicalism
Discussion of Hunt, 52-119
Recommended: Joshua Taylor, Learning to Look: A Handbook for the Visual Arts (2nd ed.)
Hannah Mitchell, "Art and the French Revolution," History Workshop 5 (1978): 123-145
3 Nov Drama
& Theater: Georg Büchner's
Revolution
5 Nov
Discussion of Georg Büchner, Danton's Death (1835), trans. Victor Price, whose introduction you
should also
read
Recommended: John Hardman, Robespierre (Profiles
in Power series)
10 Nov History & Film:
Andrzej Wajda's Revolution
12 Nov
Viewing and discussion of Andrzej Wajda's Danton (1982)
Read *Janina Falkowska, The Political Films of Andrzej
Wajda (Providence and Oxford, 1996), 181-187,
for a schema of the film’s twenty-three sequences.
Recommended: James Monaco, How to Read a Film, esp. chs. 1, 3, 4, and 5
*Mieczyslaw Szporer, “Andrzej Wajda’s Reign of Terror: Danton’s
Polish Ambiance,” Film Quarterly 37.2 (1983):
27-33
12 Nov Fourth Writing Assignment: An Interpretive Essay on Büchner's Danton
17 Nov Historical Biography:
Hampson's Revolutionary Leader
19 Nov
Discussion of *Norman Hampson, Danton [ Intro
1-3 4-6 7-8 9-10
]
and continued discussion of Wajda's film
19 Nov Second viewing of the Wajda film (for those who wish to see it
again) at 4:00 p.m. in Jo 3.534
(130 minutes)
24 Nov Music of the Revolution
Recordings
& informal lecture on music
during the revolution
Recommended:
J. A. Leith, "Music as an Ideological Weapon in the French
Revolution," Canadian Historical
Association
Annual Report 1966 (Ottawa, 1967):
126-140, and Laura Mason, "Ça ira
and the Birth of the
Revolutionary Song," History Workshop 28 (1989): 22-38
1 Dec Afterthoughts &
Course Evaluation
Final Writing Assignment: Comparative
Essay. Unfortunately, I can not
accept late papers. Please attach a
stamped self-addressed envelope, if you wish me to return the proposal with
comments as well as your marks for the course.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
School of Arts & Humanities
HUMA 3300: Reading & Writing Texts Fall, 2003
Topic: The French Revolution Gerald Soliday
First Writing
Assignment Due
17 September
An Analytical Outline
Your first writing assignment this term is an outline of
Michael Fitzsimmons's "Privilege and the Polity in France,
1786-1791." In no more than three
single-spaced (or six double-spaced) typed pages, your outline should capture
the major arguments Fitzsimmons makes in the article and also indicate some of
the supporting positions or evidence he presents.
Good advice on the preparation of outlines is found in a book
all students in arts and humanities should get to know: Norman F. Cantor & R. I. Schneider, How to Study History (Arlington Heights,
IL, 1967), 208-209. While you need not
follow all the formal devices of traditional outlines, you should observe a few
guidelines. First, as Cantor and Schneider
emphasize, the outline should present the author's arguments in clear, coherent
fashion and should not merely list keywords to jog the reader's memory of
them. Complete sentences are generally
preferable, though you need not always use them. Then, second, as you relate arguments to one another in the
outline, do observe the old convention that use of any subdivision implies that
there are two or more such units, never just one. In general, employ parallel construction with subdivisions.
Think of the outline as something you could take from your
files in six months to find a cogent presentation of Fitzsimmons's (not
necessarily your own) views. In that
"skeleton guide," as Cantor calls it, you should emphasize arguments
not facts and present them in clear, logically related form.
Second Writing Assignment Due 15 October
Bibliography
For this second assignment, you should decide on an issue,
theme, or question concerning the French Revolution that could be explored in a
paper of some fifteen pages, one that you could write over a semester while you
are also taking a couple other courses as well. While you will not be carrying out your proposed project, make it
a reasonably focused and practicable one.
Write a paragraph identifying the topic and indicating why you find it
of interest or importance.
The core of the assignment lies not in the proposal itself but
in the bibliography of some twelve to fifteen items you assemble for it. Divide your list into primary sources and
secondary works, with emphasis on materials available in the metropolitan Dallas
area. Use proper bibliographical form
and also indicate both the library in which each item may be found as well as
its call number. Do not "pad"
the bibliography. If you think an item
is likely to raise doubts in the instructor's mind about its relevance to your
topic, indicate briefly why you think it helpful. In a sense, then, you are providing an annotated bibliography,
though your comments concern the location and relevance rather than a
substantive evaluation of the titles listed.
Chances are that finding primary sources will present the
greatest difficulty, and I assume that you will include only a couple or three,
though more are welcome. Items
translated from French are acceptable for your purposes here, of course, and
you are also encouraged to consider nonverbal sources. Most of your list will be secondary works,
however, and you should include both books and articles.
Third Writing
Assignment Due
22 October
Explication of a Text
As item three in her collection on the "revolution
controversy" in England during the decade or so after 1789, Marilyn Butler
has presented excerpts from Edmund Burke's Reflections
on the Revolution in France. This
document provides the text for your third writing assignment, a three- to
four-page explication of the classic conservative rejection of the revolution.
Your goals are to identify Burke's major arguments and to
explain how they unfold idea by idea in his treatise. Even in this abridged version, the text itself is too long for
the word-by-word scrutiny you might normally encounter in the explication of a
short poem or prose passage. So, as in
an analytical outline, you have to sort out different assertions, assess their
relative importance, observe their interconnections, and then focus your
attention on clarifying their substance.
Once again, as in your previous assignment, you are asked not so much to
agree with or dispute the author's positions as to identify and clarify them
for your readers.
Write a short essay, then, that summarizes and elucidates
Burke's condemnation of the reform movement in England and the revolution in
France. Although some paraphrasing may
be necessary, make your explication an idea-by-idea commentary on the text. It should demonstrate your ability to
penetrate Burke's thought, to indicate just how he organized and developed his
views, and thus to capture the general meaning and tone he conveyed in his Reflections.
Fourth Writing Assignment
Due 12 November
Interpretive Essay
In an essay between five and
seven pages in length, discuss Georg Büchner's play, Danton's Death, as a commentary on revolutionary politics both in
1794 and in general. While this paper
is not an explication and should not proceed seriatim through the
"arguments" of the drama, do anchor your interpretation in the text
itself or in primary evidence quoted in the editor's introduction.
Final Writing Assignment Due
1 December
Comparative Essay
Over the past few weeks you have examined three
interpretations of Danton's character and role in the French Revolution: Georg Büchner's drama, Andrzej Wajda's film,
and Norman Hampson's historical biography.
In an essay of some ten to twelve pages in length, compare and contrast
the treatment of Danton and, by extension, the view of revolutionary politics
in these three works. From your
understanding of the texts themselves, what general goals and what artistic or
scholarly considerations seem to inform the interpretations? In what ways might political ideology, the
interpreter's time and locale, or the interpretive medium (drama, film,
historical research) have influenced these depictions of Danton and the revolution?
The paper is due in class on Monday, 1 December. Unfortunately, I cannot accept late
papers. Please attach a stamped
self-addressed envelope, in which I may return the essay with comments as well
as your marks for the course.