Whitman College General Studies Program
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Under Construction!!!! So far the only thing available for 2008-9 is the fall schedule of reading and editions; see links below. Everything else other than these links and the common course description is out of date until further notice
Here is a list of the editions and translations we are using for the FALL 2008.
To view a plain-text schedule of the readings for FALL ONLY,
without the Internet links, please click here.
This course is taught in many sections, but remains a single course common to all students.
Here are our Common Course Description and Common Procedures.
Schedule of Readings
8/29, W Gilgamesh, Tablets I-III. A good starting site is the University of Evansville's Exploring Ancient World Cultures, which facilitates comparison between various ancient cultures. A typical cuneiform tablet of part of the epic measures a mere 15 x 13 x 3 cm. See one here.
8/29 W 1st Coffee Talk! 7 P.M. Gaiser Auditorium, Hall of Science. Margo Scribner will talk about writing.
8/31, F Gilgamesh, Tablets IV-VIII. Some images have been put up by Laura Gibb (University of Oklahoma), at Myth-Folklore Online. Note especially depictions of Shamash (the sun god), Ishtar (goddess of love, sex and warfare), the monster Humbaba, and Gilgamesh and Enkidu slaying the bull of heaven.
9/3, M Gilgamesh, Tablets IX-XI. A comparison of Utanapishtim's flood narrative and the Noah episode(s) can be found at ReligiousTolerance.org, along with information on the Black Sea floods of ~8000 years ago which may have inspired these tales. (Digression: catastrophic floods also sculpted the landscape of Eastern Washington surrounding Whitman College. Read about glacial lake Missoula and the Missoula Floods at Nova's website ).
9/3 M Coffee Talk! 7 P.M. Anderson main lounge. Ruth Russo will talk about Gilgamesh.
9/5, W Herodotus, The Histories, pp. 3-45 (I.1-95). The Perseus Project at Tufts is an enormous database of materials on Greek culture including text, maps and other images.
9/7, F Herodotus, The Histories, pp. 49-61 (I.106-30), 95-98 (II.1-10), 109-119 (II.35-57), 170-89 (III.1-43). For more on Egyptian culture, see Minnesota State University's Egypt Web.
9/10, M Herodotus The Histories, pp. 197-210 (III.61-86), 413-439 (VII.1-60). A monument of Darius confirms Herodotus' account of his ascent to power; check out Jona Lendering's account of the inscription at Behistun.
9/12, W Herodotus The Histories, pp. 448-51 (VII.101-107); 456-64 (VII.128-45); 477-500 (VII.175-239). CAIS's gallery of images of Persepolis gives an idea of the grandeur of the Persian empire.
9/14, F Herodotus, The Histories, pp. 501-43 (VIII.1-120); 600-603 (IX.114-22). Here is a comprehensive Herodotus website , put together by John Kitson, a student at Bristol University.
9/17, M Euripides, Medea (entire). Here is an Introduction to Greek Tragedy from the Brooklyn College Core; the Core folks at Reed also have a good site on Greek Theater.
9/19, W Euripides, Medea. An outstanding academic site on the web for material on women in the Ancient World is Diotima, Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World.
9/21, F Euripides, The Bacchae (entire). For a red-figured vase portrayal of the myth, click here.
9/24, M Euripides, The Bacchae. The tragedies all came from Athens. The Ancient Theatre Archive is a "virtual reality tour" of many Greek and Roman theatres produced by Whitman's Tom Hines.
9/26, W Tragedy comparison. Tara Maginnis' costume site has some suggestions on Greek costume.
9/28, F Plato, Euthyphro. Here is an essay on Plato and His Dialogues from Evansville's Exploring Ancient World Cultures site.
10/1, M Plato, Symposium 1-47. Here is essay by John Thorp, University of Ontario, on The Social Construction of Homosexuality which considers the Greek context and the modern perspective of Foucault.
10/1, M Coffee Talk! 7 P.M., Lyman Lounge. Mitch Clearfield will talk about "Plato's Symposium and the Tragedy of Love."
10/3, W Plato, Symposium 48-60. Here is an ancient bust of Socrates.
10/5, F Plato, Symposium 61-77. The idealism presented by Diotima is related to the famous Allegory of the Cave from Plato's Republic, discussed here in notes by Marc Cohen at the Univ. of Washington.
10/8 M Fall Break
10/10, W The Tanakh, Genesis 1-11. Click here for a translation of the Babylonian creation myth.
10/12, F Genesis 12-22. Check out this on-line exhibit of Hurrian artifacts from the Semitic museum at Harvard.
10/15, M Exodus 1-15. Here is a detailed timeline for the history of Judaism from the Jewish Virtual Library.
10/17, W Exodus 16-23, 32. For more on Moses and the Exodus, see Washington State University's learning module.
10/19, F Job 1-27; 29-31. Brown Univ. has a nice page on the ancient Nabatean city of Petra.
10/22, M Job 38-42. For other ancient ways of dealing with stress, check out this article on brewing Sumerian beer.
10/24, W The Bible, New Revised Standard Version, The Gospel of Luke, 1-11.
The World Wide Study Bible comes from Calvin College. It contains handy access to several translations with associated religious commentary from an American Protestant tradition.
10/26, F The Gospel of Luke, 12-21; Christus Rex maintains a fine site on the Catholic Church and Catholic Art.
10/29, M The Gospel of Luke, 22-24. The Library of Congress has an on-line exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
10/31, W Paul, Romans, 1-8. For a collection of websites and articles on the New Testament, including the Gospels and Paul, see the New Testament Gateway.
11/2, F Paul, Romans, 9-end. PBS allows you to follow in Paul's footsteps around the Mediterranean
11/5, M Apuleius, The Golden Ass, I-III. Ben Slade, a graduate student at UIUC, has put up a site with lots of pictures here.
11/5, M 7 P.M. Kimball Lecture, Maxey Auditorium. Professor Keith Bradley of Notre Dame will speak on "The Universe of Love in The Golden Ass." Attendance is MANDATORY
11/7, W Apuleius, The Golden Ass, IV-VI. For help with Roman mythology, check out the BBC's site on detailing Roman religion .
11/9, F Apuleius, The Golden Ass, VII-IX. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's on-line collection has several images on their Highlights of Greek and Roman art page.
11/12, M Apuleius, The Golden Ass, X-XI. For a description of the Isis cult from the religion department at Kenyon, click here.
11/12, M 7:30 P.M., Coffee Talk! Jewett Main Lounge. Claire Valente on "Perpetua and Those Pesky Christians: Why did the Romans bother?"
11/14, W Vibia Perpetua, Perpetua's Passion, pp. 61-95. For a brief overview and web links, go to the Other Women's Voices page. The official website of the Catacombs, with information on early Christian worship and martyrdom in Rome, is here.
11/16, F Vibia Perpetua. Kent University's website has a mosaic and other early images based on the Passion.
11/19-11/23, Thanksgiving Break
11/26, M Augustine, Confessions 1-3. This site at Penn concerns Augustine.
11/28, W Augustine, Confession 4-6. This site at Calvin College concentrates on the Confessions.
11/30, F Augustine, Confessions 7. Here is a biography of Augustine from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
12/3, M Augustine, Confessions 8-9. Here is an artistic rendering of Augustine's conversion by the workshop of Fra Angelico (15th c.).
12/5, W Augustine, Confessions 10. Here is an image of a 16th-century woodcut of "God Enthroned" from a French translation of Augustine's City of God
12/7, F Wrap-up. And then to look ahead, here is a brief romp across the next millenium, provided by Andrea Dobson
12/12, W Final Exam, to be announced.
Return to the top .
1/14, M Machiavelli, The Prince, cc. 1-11. Ken Pennington at the Catholic University of America has brought together images to give you an idea of Machiavelli's Florence.
1/14, W Machiavelli, The Prince, cc. 12-20. For a quick overview of Machiavelli's other most famous work, the Discourses on Livy, read the entry from Stanford's Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
1/18, F Machiavelli, The Prince, cc. 21-26. The Victorian historian Thomas Macaulay defended Machiavelli from the charge of being "Old Nick" in a famous essay.
1/21, M Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday
1/23, W Shakespeare, Othello, Act 1. Go here for a virtual tour of the Globe Theatre.
1/25, F Shakespeare, Othello, Act 2. Interested in seeing Shakespeare? Go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
1/28, M Shakespeare, Othello, Act 3.
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet is an interesting site to visit.
1/30, W Shakespeare, Othello, Act 4. Here is an ultra-condensed version of Othello from Book-A-Minute Classics.
2/1, F Shakespeare, Othello, Act 5. Othello was remade as an opera (seen in this production by The Sacramento Opera) by Verdi.
2/4, M Descartes, Discourse on Method, parts 1-2. This site at St. Andrews has some background on Descartes and his work in math and physics.
2/6, W Descartes, Discourse on Method, parts 3-4. Here are some notes about Descartes and the Legacy of Mind/Body Dualism, from Bryn Mawr.
2/8, F Descartes, Discourse on Method, parts 5-6. Check here for an otherwordly view of Descartes.
2/11, M Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart, cc. 1-2; 7-14. For more on Galen's physiology and Harvey's response it it, try this article from Physiology Online.
2/13, W La Mettrie, Man a Machine (entire). La Mettrie was a physician, as you can see from his eulogy, by none other than Frederick the Great.
2/15, F La Mettrie, Man a Machine
2/18, M President's Day holiday
2/20, W Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, pp. 1-18. Here is a short biography of Rousseau from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
2/22, F Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, I. Here is an excellent electronic edition of the "Discours", but it is all in French, so be forewarned
2/25, M, Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, II.
2/27, W Kant, "What Is Enlightenment?" (entire). To get a .pdf, click here (access limited to Whitman community). You can listen to a podcast of a slightly different translation from Learn Out Loud here. Steven Palmquist has a catalogue of Kant web resources .
2/29, F What is Enlightenment/Comparison Day. For fun, check out the explanation of leap days at NASA.
3/3, M English Romantic Poetry: Wordsworth: "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud", "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold".; Keats: "Bright Star". Here is a collection of four Images of Romantic Art.
3/5, W English Romantic Poetry: Wordsworth: "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey". Here are several pages of pictures of the ruins of Tintern Abbey .
3/7, F English Romantic Poetry: Keats: "Ode to a Nightingale", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode on Melancholy"; Wordsworth: "Mutability". On-line: Shelley: Mutability. The Perseus Project at Tufts has a fine collection of Classical Greek vases, for instance this Attic Red piece from the collections of the Harvard Art Museums, dated to about 440 BCE, showing a satyr chasing a maenad.
3/10-3/21 Spring Break
3/24, M Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, pp. 54-97. Here's a site on Hegel to help with Marx's commentary.
3/25, T 8 P.M. (NOTE THE TIME CHANGE), Jewett Lounge. Coffee Talk: Paul Apostolidas on Marx.
3/26, W Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, pp. 98-101; Preface to a Contribution on the Critique of Political Economy, pp. 209-13. Here is The Marx/Engels Internet Archive.
3/28, F Marx , Communist Manifesto, complete. Here is the text of an 1879 Chicago Tribune article on an interview with Karl Marx.
3/31, M Marx, Communist Manifesto. Can one have a light-hearted take on Marx? The makers of the Manifestoon seem to think so!
4/2, W Bronte, Wuthering Heights, cc. 1-5. For handy dandy family trees of the characters, go to the course web page of Sara Selby at Waycross College.
4/4, F Bronte, Wuthering Heights, cc. 6-12. Meredith Birmingham has put together Bronte family information, with pictures, at The Bronte Family.
4/7, M Bronte, Wuthering Heights, cc. 13-20.
For more on gender, try the The Victorian Web.
4/9, W Bronte, Wuthering Heights, cc. 21-29. Here's a website from Brooklyn College devoted entirely to Emily Bronte.
4/11, F Bronte, Wuthering Heights, cc. 30-34. For pictures of the moors in Yorkshire, go here. Wuthering Heights has been voted the greatest love story of all time.
4/14, M Kafka, Metamorphosis, c. 1-2. For more on Kafka, look at The Kafka Project. Which character are you?
4/16, W Kafka, Metamorphosis, c. 3. Here is a nice site with pictures of the Journeys of Franz Kafka.
4/17 R Mandatory Lecture! Stanley Corngold, Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Princeton University, will speak on "Body Language: On Kafka's Metamorphosis," at 4 P.M. (NOTE THE TIME CHANGE!), Maxey Auditorium.
4/18, F Frayn, Copenhagen, Act I. For more information on Frayn and his play, including an interview, check out PBS' Copenhagen page.
4/21, M Frayn, Copenhagen, Act II.
4/23, W Morrison, Beloved, pp. 3-51 (to the end of the carnival). Check out the Kentucky Underground Railroad site for some historical background (courtesy of Kentucky Educational Television).
4/25, F Morrison, Beloved, pp. 52-124 (Beloved's dress in the water). Here is a page from "Voice of the Shuttle" on minority voices in literature written in English.
4/28, M Morrison, Beloved, pp. 125-195 (end of section one). Here is the text of "My Bondage and My Freedom" by Frederick Douglass.
4/30, W Morrison, Beloved, pp. 199-277 (end of section two). The Library of Congress has an on-line "resource guide for the study of black history and culture" at this site entitled "The African-American Mosaic".
5/2, F Morrison, Beloved, pp. 281-end. "Bartleby" has the text of W.E.B. DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk.
5/5, M Final Review. From the Secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, here is an essay on liberal education and its enduring relevance to society.
5/9 Final Exam 9-11 A.M.
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We maintain a small archive of the most recent versions of the Antiquity and Modernity reading list. Click on the appropriate year to view a plain-text, black-on-white, schedule of readings for that year.
Readings 2006-2007
Readings 2005-2006
Readings 2004-2005
Readings 2003-2004
This document was last updated June 17, 2008.
This page was created by Dana L. Burgess and is currently maintained by
Claire Valente; send any comments or suggestions to me.
This page has been accessed
since January 11, 2008.
