Integrated Humanities: Early Modern World (1400-1900)

A historical, literary, and theological survey of works from six countries. The purpose of this course is to train students to become skilled and articulate thinkers and writers. Within the context of a regard for truth and a commitment to the imitation of Christ, students are challenged to hone their skills in logic, analysis, research, and eloquence in writing and discussion. They will learn how to write about both nonfiction and fiction. Students will be assigned weekly reading, videos, and relevant reading questions for class discussion. Two 500 word essays are assigned per quarter. Grades are given for first and final drafts and require one teacher conference per essay.

The goals of the course are to develop increasingly independent readers and competent analytical writers. During the year, students will also write creatively, formulating a dialogue, an original Shakespearean sonnet, and their own satire.

Course Objectives:

1. Move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review.
2. Recognize and use a range of diction from casual to formal, effectively employing a varied and discerning vocabulary.
3. Implement clear organization and development in both informal and formal writing.
4. Learn and master the revision process using peer review and teacher conferences.
5. Demonstrate understanding of citing primary and secondary source material using MLA standards.
6. Consider each work’s structure, style, theme, and purpose.

Texts:

• Letters and sonnets by Francesco Petrarch in Selections from the Canzoniere and Other Works, Oxford World’s Classics translated by Mark Musa
• Desiderius Erasmus, selections from the Anti-Barbarians, In Praise of Folly
• Martin Luther, Letter to the Christian Nobility
• Faustbuch, Doctor Faustus with The English Faust Book edited by David Wootton
• William Shakespeare, sonnets, Macbeth, Oxford School Shakespeare edited by Roma Gill
• Tartuffe by Jean-Baptiste Moliere, Harcourt edition translated by Richard Wilbur
• "A Modest Proposal” and “A Tale of the Tub” by Jonathan Swift, pdf
• Paradise Lost, Books 1,4,9, by John Milton, Modern Library
• Essay on Man, Epistle 1 and other poems by Alexander Pope, pdf
• Voltaire, select essays, “Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations,” pdf
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Penguin Classics edited by Richard Maxwell
• Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and Selected Letters and Speeches
• The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson, Oxford World’s Classics
• Persuasion by Jane Austen
• Victorian Poets: Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Rossetti
• The Death of Ivan Ilyich and other short stories by Leo Tolstoy, links and pdf

Supplements:

• The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan Payne and pdf
• The Office of Assertion: An Art of Rhetoric for the Academic Essay by Scott Crider

Sample Lesson