Prompt:
Imagine, for a moment, that your school English Department has asked for your help in tweaking the Great Books curricula. The current syllabus has been deemed outmoded, out-of-date, insufficient.
Your task is to add a text to Great Books
for Spring 2024 and explain
why—and
how—you would teach it in the classroom.
Defend
and
explain
your choice. Why this particular text? Does it overlap with themes from our class (—for example, origin stories; relations between gods and mortals; encounters with “Others”; structures of government and society)? Or, does it bring into conversation new, important thematic concerns that perhaps the class has been overlooking? What concepts does this text bring to the table that have otherwise been marginalized or ignored?
Your text can be from anywhere in the world, but it
must be written before 1650.
It must be printed matter; it cannot be something like a painting, or a musical score.
In your response, you will
need to compare it to one other text from this semester.
You might discuss how it amplifies themes from that earlier text—are the two proposing similar concepts about violence and justice? About honor and deceit, for example? Or, you might talk about how the text you select
challenges
a text from the course. Does your text offer a different perspective of love than Sappho’s? Does your text challenge Montaigne’s conceptions of colonialism? (You might even argue that your text should
replace
a text from the syllabus—tell us why.)
In your response, you will
need to explain how Baruch would teach this text: would you, for example, teach the entire thing, or sections?
What themes, concepts, or ideas would you highlight?
What kinds of writing would students do? What kinds of conversations would you expect to take place in the classroom? What kinds of questions might students discuss in groups, or in discussion?
This prompt gives you an opportunity to make connections between ideas and concepts in this class—but also to identify shortcomings and gaps. If you think there are certain subject matters or themes this class should highlight, this is a chance to present a text that might speak to those ideas.
4 full pages
Important:
One of the Books that we used: Book of Job, Plato Book VII and VIII
Book that I want you to write about for this paper: Ecclesiastes