Welcome to the Course


Welcome to General Humanities II (not the best name for a course!), which I have subtitled, "Biography and Culture."  This course is designed to tell the story of Western culture from the Enlightenment to the late 20th century through the lives/works of 5 important artists: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jane Austen, Claude Monet, Langston Hughes, and Art Spiegelman.  Each one not only created art (whether novels, painting, music, or poetry) that has stood the test of time, but serves as a lens for examining their historical/cultural moment.  What I hope to do in this class is discover how the lives of each figure played into their works—and how their works, in return, became a record of how ordinary men and women lived, thought, and experienced the world around them.  The books in class are a mix of literature and biography, though each one is different enough to challenge how we look at each artist and period.  I hope you’ll enjoy seeing history through the eyes of ‘real’ people and trying to identify with their joys, frustrations, pains, and passions.   I look forward to reading, discussing, and learning from your own responses to these famous people and their revolutionary works.  

Be sure you have the following books, all of which are required for this course.  We'll start reading next week, in the order that they are listed below and on the syllabus (see course calendar for details).  

  • Gay, Mozart: A Life
  • Austen, Pride and Prejudice 
  • Heinrich, Monet
  • Hughes, Selected Poems
  • Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale 
 

Comments

  1. Casey Bear
    She seems snobbish and rich. Nicely dressed on a cold day. She is a young woman, no kids and no cares. She is wanting her picture made but not too happy with herself, lack of confidence. She is alone and self absorbed but well known.

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