Here is a list of the editions and translations we are using.
To view a plain-text schedule of the readings,
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.
Unless otherwise noted, assignments are given by section, book, part, act, sura, or chapter, not page.Fall Semester 2009
Unit One
9/2 W Bhagavad Gita, 1-6. A good starting site, courtesy of the University of Evansville, is Exploring Ancient World Cultures, which facilitates comparison between various ancient cultures. The Bhagavad Gita is discussed, with resource links, here.
9/4 F Bhagavad Gita, 7-12. You can listen to the Gita online in Sanskrit (and other languages).
9/7 M Bhagavad Gita, 13-18.
9/9, W Homer Odyssey, 1-4. The Perseus Digital Library, at Tufts University, is an enormous database of materials on Greek culture including text, maps and other images.
9/11, F Homer, Odyssey, 5-8. Here, from the Images of History Archive at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, is an image of three gold drinking cups from the tholos tombs near Pylos.
9/14, M Homer, Odyssey, 9-12. A good site for pointers to Classics sites is the University of Chicago Classics Department Links page.
9/16, W Homer, Odyssey, 13-16. If you are interested in the mythological background, a good starting point is this classical myth page put up by the Department of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Victoria.
9/18, F Homer, Odyssey, 17-20. The Austrian Academy of Sciences maintains a page with fragments of Ancient Greek Music.
9/21, M Homer, Odyssey, 21-24. This site of images from Ancient Greece has good pictures of the citadel at Mycenae.
9/23, W Sappho, selected poems in multiple translations, on e-reserve at Penrose Library. To listen to Sappho in the original Greek, here is Stephen Daitz of CUNY reading the Hymn to Aphrodite.
9/25, F Sappho.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.
9/26 Sat. 2-4 P.M. Screening of City Lights, Maxey Auditorium. Students are required to attend at least one screening.
9/27 Sun. 7-9 P.M. Screening of City Lights, Maxey Auditorium.
9/28 M Chaplin, City Lights. The official Charlie Chaplin website can be found here.
9/29 T 7-9 P.M. Repeat screening of City Lights, Maxey Auditorium.
9/30 W Chaplin, City Lights. Chaplin was British by birth though he worked in America; the British Film Institute has rich resources on his life and career.
10/2 F Chaplin, City Lights. Watch Chaplin receive his honorary Oscar on Youtube.
10/5 M Free discussion or writing day
Unit Two
10/7 W The Tanakh, Genesis, 1-11. Alan Humm at the University of Pennsylvania has put up a translation of a Babylonian creation myth.
10/9 F Genesis, 12-22. Rogers Miles of the religion department at Whitman has collected various artists' impressions of the Binding of Isaac.
10/12 M Fall Break
10/14 W Euripides, The Bacchae (entire). Plenary session led by Elizabeth Vandiver in Cordiner Hall. Roger Dunkle of the Brooklyn College Core has put together a useful Introduction to Greek Tragedy.
10/16 F Euripides, The Bacchae. For a red-figured vase portrayal of the myth, courtesy of UT Austin, click here. For a review of a recent Scottish production, see the New York Times.
10/19 M New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), New Testament, The Gospel of Luke, 1-9:50. 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.
10/21 W The Gospel of Luke, 9:51-19:27. The Franciscans in Jerusalem have documented pictorially a variety of excursions through Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.
10/23 F The Gospel of Luke, 19:28-24. The Library of Congress has an on-line exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
10/26 M Ibn Ishaq, the life of Muhammad, bottom of p. 103 to p. 115, excerpt on e-reserve (as Ibn Hisham) AND The Qur'an, 1 (including other translations at www.altafsir.com) AND 96. Also look at the Arabic text and listen to sura 1 (various reciters available) at www.quranexplorer.com. Carl Ernst at the University of North Carolina maintains a Qur'an Study Page with more information on translation and recitation.
10/28 W The Qur'an, 2. Brannon Wheeler, at the US Naval Academy, has put together a collection of images of manuscripts of the Qur'an across the centuries.
10/30 F The Qur'an, 3 and 18. Islam has produced a rich culture, the variety of which is evident at the website for PBS' documentary, Islam, Empire of Faith.
11/2 M Free discussion or writing day
Unit Three
11/4 W Cicero, On Duties, I.1-120. Joseph Hughes at Missouri State has a detailed Cicero page, including some nice sources on ancient rhetoric.
11/6 F Cicero, On Duties, II. Watch various performances of part of Cicero's speech Pro Caelio courtesy of the classics department at UCLA.
11/9 M Machiavelli, The Prince, 1-11. Ken Pennington at the Catholic University of America has brought together images to give you an idea of Machiavelli's Florence.
11/11 W Machiavelli, The Prince, 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.
11/13 F Machiavelli, The Prince, 21-26. The Victorian historian Thomas Macaulay defended Machiavelli from the charge of being "Old Nick" in a famous essay.
11/16 M Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Dedication and Preface (pp. 1-18). Here is a short biography of Rousseau from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
11/18 W Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, I. Here is an excellent electronic edition of the "Discours", in French: get an idea of the original language!
11/20 F Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, II. Richard Hooker at WSU has provided a brief overview, setting the Discourse in the context of Rousseau's other works.
Thanksgiving Break
11/30 M Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, pp. 54-79. Terminological help can be found at The Marx/Engels Internet Archive's Encyclopedia of Marxism.
12/1 W Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, pp. 98-101; Preface to a Contribution on the Critique of Political Economy, pp. 209-13. Plenary session led by Zahi Zallouha, Cordiner Hall. Here is the text of an 1879 Chicago Tribune article on an interview with Karl Marx.
12/3 F Marx , Communist Manifesto, complete. Can one have a light-hearted take on Marx? The makers of the Manifestoon seem to think so!
12/7 M Gandhi, "The Message of the Gita," on e-reserve; Selected Political Writings, I, pp. 29-37, 40-64, 79-91. Listen to Gandhi speak in London in 1931.
12/9 W Gandhi, Selected Political Writings, II; Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail. Reverend King's "I Have a Dream" speech is a must see.
12/11 F Free discussion, synthesis, or review day
12/14 M 2-4 P.M. Final Exam
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Spring Semester 2009
Unit Four
1/20 W Plato, Symposium pp. 1-39. Here is an essay by John Thorp of the University of Western Ontario on The Social Construction of Homosexuality which considers the Greek context and the modern perspective of Foucault.
1/22 F Plato, Symposium pp. 40-60. Non-academics can make contributions too: here is data processor and Plato student Bernard Suzanne's take on Plato and His Dialogues from the Exploring Ancient World Cultures site.
1/25 M Plato, Symposium pp. 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 University of Washington.
1/27 W Augustine, Confessions, 1-3. From J.J. O'Donnell at Georgetown University, comes a good introduction to Augustine.
1/29 F Augustine, Confessions, 4-6. Here is a brief biography of Augustine from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
2/1 M Augustine, Confessions, 7. Augustine had read not Plato but Plotinus, whose ideas are discussed in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
2/3 W Augustine, Confessions, 8-9. Here is an artistic rendering of Augustine's conversion, by the workshop of Fra Angelico (15th c.).
2/5 F Augustine, Confessions 10. To get a sense of Augustine's influence on Catholic theology, go to the internet version of the old Catholic Encyclopedia.
2/8 M Shakespeare, Othello, I. Go here for a (slow-loading) virtual tour of the Globe Theatre.
2/10 W Shakespeare, Othello, II-III. Interested in seeing Shakespeare? Go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where Dan Donohue, Whitman class of 1988, played Iago in 2008 (and gave an audio interview on the experience).
2/12 F Shakespeare, Othello, IV. Othello was remade as an opera (seen in this production by The Sacramento Opera) by Verdi.
2/15 M President's Day
2/17 W Shakespeare, Othello, V. Here is an ultra-condensed version of Othello, from Book-A-Minute Classics.
2/19 F Galileo, Letter to Grand Duchess Christina. The Galileo Project has a site full of images and information on Galileo and his times.
2/22 M Descartes, Discourse on Method, 1-2. This site at St. Andrews has some background on Descartes and his work in math and physics.
2/24 W Descartes, Discourse on Method, 3-4. Here are some notes about Descartes and the Legacy of Mind/Body Dualism, from Bryn Mawr.
2/26 F Descartes, Discourse on Method, 5-6. Check here for an otherwordly Descartes.
3/1 M Kurosawa, Rashomon (screenings T.B.A.). PBS has featured Kurosawa in its Great Performances series.
3/3 W Rashomon
3/5 F Rashomon. Rashomon's long-reaching influence on film and television is evident still today.
3/8 M Frayn, Copenhagen, I. The National Arts Centre of Canada has put together a primer on quantum mechanics and the history of the atomic bomb for playgoers.
3/10 W Frayn, Copenhagen, II. For more information on Frayn and his play, including an interview, check out PBS' Copenhagen page.
3/12 F Free discussion or writing day
3/13-3/28 Spring Break
Unit Five
3/29 M Euripides, Medea (entire). The Core folks at Reed also have a good site on Greek Theater.
3/31 W Euripides, Medea. Tom Hines of Whitman's own theater department has put together the impressive Ancient Theatre Archive, a "virtual reality tour" of many Greek and Roman theatres.
4/2 F The Tanakh, Exodus, 1-15. For more on Moses and the Egyptian exile, see Washington State University's learning module.
4/5 M Exodus, 16-24, 32-34. Nova has done a program on the Exodus and its enduring legacy
4/7 W The Broken Spears, 1-5. One of the manuscipts Portilla draws on for his edition is the Codex Florentine.
4/9 F The Broken Spears, 6-10. For images of Aztec life, culture, and art, go to Latinamericanstudies.org.
4/12 M The Broken Spears, 11-15. Here's what Cortes wrote to Emperor Charles V describing Temixtitlan (Mexico City).
4/14 W Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, "Loa" to El Divino Narcisso. Dartmouth College's Department of Spanish and Portuguese has put together a detailed Sor Juana Project.
4/16 F Sor Juana, "Respuesta." More information, in Spanish, is at the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.
4/19 M Sor Juana, comparison. Mexico City has provided a brief account of city life in the 17th century, when Sor Juana lived.
4/21 W Voltaire, Candide, 1-13. Jack Iverson, Voltaire expert and Whitman professor, has a page of Candide resources here.
4/23 F Voltaire, Candide, 14-21. Here is a page on Voltaire and physicist Emilie du Chatelet.
4/26 M Voltaire, Candide, 22-30. Leonard Bernstein's Candide is described at his official website.
4/28 W Morrison, Beloved, I to the end of the carnival. Check out the Kentucky Underground Railroad site for some historical background (courtesy of Kentucky Educational Television).
4/30 F Morrison, Beloved, I from Beloved's appearance to her dress in the water. Here is a page from "Voice of the Shuttle" (a website woven by Alan Liu of the English Department at UC Santa Barbara) on minority voices in [American] literature.
5/3 M Morrison, Beloved, to the end of I. Here is the text of "My Bondage and My Freedom" by Frederick Douglass.
5/5 W Morrison, Beloved, II. 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".
5/7 F Morrison, Beloved, III. "Bartleby" has the text of W.E.B. DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk.
5/10, M Free discussion, synthesis, or review day. From John Churchill, Secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, comes an essay on liberal education and its enduring relevance to democratic society.
5/17 M Final Exam, 9-11 A.M.
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This document was last updated August 29, 2009. This page is currently maintained by Claire Valente; send any comments or suggestions to me.
