Faculty Syllabus

Instructor: Kenneth Alewine, PhD Medical Humanities—University of Texas Medical Branch (2017)
Adjunct Associate Professor of the Humanities—ACC.

Email: kenneth.alewine@austincc.edu

A study of representative samples of literature, art, and music of various periods and cultures from the Renaissance to the present. The study of the interrelationships of the arts and their philosophies emphasizes an understanding of human nature and the values of human life.

COURSE OVERVIEW:

The Renaissance witnessed the rise of the artistic personality and rebooted a vast humanities project that has explored over the eras of time since, what it means to be human, what it means to be sick and well, and what it means to be creative as an artist, poet, dramatist, and composer. In this course we will study creative works in art, literature, and music, closely, and with the intention to understand them more deeply across multiple genres and eras.

GRADE RANGE:

A 90 - 100
B 80 - 89
C 70 - 79
D 60 - 69
F Below 60

GRADING FORMULA:

Discussion 30%

Assignments 10%

Quizzes 10%

Presentations 30%

Essay 20%

Total: 100%

Instructional Methodology

Participation:

This course is all about participation. Thoughtful and consistent participation is a very important part of the class. Each student is expected to be an active participant. Your presence is requested and required. This is the single most important component of the course. The class does not work well unless each student is an active participant in the course. If you were not usually the one to talk in class discussions in the past, don’t worry; this is a supportive venue where you will get an opportunity to practice participating. 

Study Questions for Class Discussion:

Each reading assignment will include several study questions to help direct your reading of the text and go beyond it. Careful thinking about the study questions while you are reading and before coming to class will help you form your thoughts and make class conversation easy and enjoyable. Otherwise, it becomes obvious when students do not read.

Discussion Boards:

Per each weekly class lesson you will have one discussion board assignment due at the end of the week on Sunday night at 11:59 PM. You will choose and answer only one question per lesson. The discussion boards must be at least 100 words for full credit.

Study Question Essay:

You must complete one Study Question Essay assignment at the end of the semester of at least 750+ words. See Course Calendar for due date. The assignment is submitted as a PDF or Word document via Blackboard, and we will go over the assignment in class before the due date. You should select a passage from the readings that you think addresses the study question you selected from the question pool for the essay assignment. Then, you should reproduce this passage, paraphrase it in your own words, and explain why that passage addressed the study question. Finally, answer any additional parts of the questions. So, your assignment should take the following form:

A quotation from the assigned reading, which helps answer the study question. (please also list chapter, page and/or line number)

A paraphrase, in your own words, of the quotation you selected

An explanation of why that passage in the text addresses the study question.

Your response to the personal reflection portion of the study question.

Please review the grading rubric on Blackboard to see how you will be graded on your assignment. This should be used to help guide your drafting of the assignment.

Presentations:

Throughout this semester, each student will complete three “Presentation” assignments in preparation for course meetings and discussions. In preparation for “Presentation” days you will (1) explore a list of great works that humans have created, (2) select a work that interests you, and (3) conduct research to learn about the work. On “Presentation” days, you will have an opportunity to share what you have learned with your classmates and learn about what they have discovered.

These assignments are designed to encourage students to explore works of cultural significance and broaden their cultural and historical knowledge base.

COURSE MATERIALS:

Landmarks in Humanities, 5th Edition, Gloria K. Fiero. McGraw-Hill, 2025. Landmarks in Humanities eBook via Connect / McGraw-Hill, accessible through the course BlackBoard site under “Humanities Textbook.”  ISBN10: 1260220753 | ISBN13: 9781260220759

Additional materials, activities, readings, music & media as related to each chapter from primary sources and the intellectual threads that emerge throughout the course.

Melancholia Studies
Renaissance Poetry, Music and Painting
Baroque Music, Painting, Literature
Enlightenment Period Science and Philosophy
Romantic Era Aesthetics, Poetry, Music and Art
Impressionist Painting and Music
Post-impressionist Painting and Symbolist Art and Poetry
Consciousness Studies, Philosophy of Mind
Modernist Poetry, Music and Art
Postmodernism, Philosophy, Literature, Music and Art

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:
A. Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.
B. Articulate how these works express the values of the individual and society within an historical and social context.
C. Articulate an informed personal response and critically analyze works in the arts and humanities.
D. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the influence of literature, philosophy, music, and the arts on cultural experiences.
E. Demonstrate an awareness of the creative process and why humans create.

GENERAL EDUCATION OUTCOMES:

1. Critical Thinking Skills – Students will develop habits of mind, allowing them to appreciate the processes by which scholars in various disciplines organize and evaluate data and use the methodologies of each discipline to understand the human experience.
2. Communication Skills – Students will communicate ideas, express feelings, and support conclusions effectively in written, oral, and visual formats.
3. Personal Responsibility – Students will develop habits of intellectual exploration, personal responsibility and physical well-being.
4. Social Responsibility – Students will demonstrate a global perspective toward issues of culture, society, politics, environment, and sustainability.

COURSE CALENDAR – HUMA 1302 (005) 34175

Introduction to the Humanities II
“Renaissance to the Present”
Professor: Kenneth Alewine, PhD.
TTh 10:30-11:50am | RRC Bldg. RRC8 - Rm. 8305.00

Note: This calendar is flexible and subject to modification as needed.  Please follow the calendar carefully online.  I will announce any major changes via Bb. Chapter readings due on the day they appear at start of class.

UNIT 1

Wk 1

Course Orientation

01/20 | L.0
Course Overview | Student intros. |
Review Syllabus | Course Calendar | Text: Landmarks in Humanities (LiH) | Video: A Brief History of Melancholy | Ekphrasis: What is visual narration? | Visual Analysis Activity–Melencolia I Dürer | Writing Prompt–“What is inspiration?”

Course Orientation

01/22 | L.1

Discuss Unit 1 Presentations, Topics | Video: Khan Academy Melencolia I Visual Analysis Activity–Melencolia I Dürer Writing Prompt–“What is Melancholy?” | Discuss Discussion Boards | Create Discussion Groups | Finish Student intros. |

Ch7. REBIRTH: THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE 1300–1600

Wk 2

EARLY RENAISSANCE
01/27 | L.2
Read: LiH Ch.7 (176-192) | Quiz #01 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Petrarch & the Plague, Yersinia Pestis |Boccaccio Decameron | Cimabue & Giotto: Painting Life | Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, “Prologue” | Ars Nova in Music | Medici Culture Machine | Marsilio Ficino: “Three Books on Life” | Pico della Mirandola | Botticelli Primavera, Birth of Venus | Florence Travelogue I | Discussion Item: Renaissance Things

HIGH RENAISSANCE

01/29 | L.3
Read: LiH Ch.7 (193-215) Quiz #02 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Leonardo as Painter: Mona Lisa, Annunciation | Leonardo as Musician: drawings, musical automata. | Milan Travelogue. Il Duomo, Leonardo’s vineyard. | Vasari, Lives of the Artists.  |  Michelangelo: David | Moses & the “terribilita” | Leonardo Paragone| Disegno vs. Colorito | Leonardo as Anatomist|Silver Lyre | Codex Atlanticus | The Automaton Drummer | Leonardo Paragone | Parmigianino, Self-Portrait Convex Mirror | Florence Travelogue II

Ch8. REFORM: NORTHERN RENAISSANCE & REFORMATION 1400–1650

Wk 3

NORTHERN RENAISSANCE
2/3 | L.4

Read: LiH Ch.8 (216-229) | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Studia Humanitatis | Polymath  | “Decoding Art.”  Dürer: Melencolia I (redux) Self-Portrait with Thistle & 1500 | Alchemy, Agrippa, & Dürer’s Melencolia I Lucas Cranach Melancholy Series | Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights| AI Bosch Shakespeare | Christopher Marlowe: TheTragical History and Life of Dr. Faustus

RENAISSANCE MEDICINE

2/5 |  L.5

Read: LiH Ch.8 (229-241) Quiz #03| Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Klibansky, Panofsky & Saxl: Saturn & Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion & Art | Printmaking Techniques | Rise of the Artistic Personality | Elementalism | 4 Temperaments | Hippocratic Revival: Theory of the 4 Humors | Leonardo da Vinci, Anatomist|silver lyre | Codex Atlanticus | The “Automaton Drummer” |Bruegel the Elder: Hunters in the Snow |Northern Music

Unit 1: Presentation Topic Sheet Due Sunday 8 February. @ 11:59pm

Ch9. ENCOUNTER: CONTACT & CLASH OF CULTURES 1400–1650

Wk 4

AFRICA

2/10 | L.6
Read: LiH Ch.9 (242-253) Quiz #04 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
GlobalTravel | European Expansion  | West Africa | Africa: Poetry, Oral Tradition, Griots Chanting | Music & Dance| Drum Cultures, Djembe| Musical Instruments | Live electronic in-class samples:  Balafon, Ngoni, Bolon | African Sculpture

Americas

2/12 | L.7
Read: LiH Ch.9 (254-261) Quiz #05 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
The Anasazi: cliff-dwellers, kivas |Music, Poetry Chumash, shamanism |Totems | Spirit Animals | Hopi myths, kachinas | Zuni, chthonic emergence | Maya, Aztec, Inca Culture & Art | Image Analysis Activity: Rock Art II | Ancient American West Travelogue II | Sparrow Flute Demonstration w/Ableton Live

Unit 1 Presentations Due February 17, 10:30am

Wk 5

UNIT 1 PRESENTATIONS

2/17 |

Presentations ⇋ Discussions

UNIT 1 PRESENTATIONS

2/19 |

Presentations ⇋ Discussions | Presentation Unit 1 Peer Review Discussion Board

UNIT 2

Ch10. BAROQUE: PIETY & EXPERIENCE 1650–1750

Wk 6

BAROQUE

2/24 | L.8
Read: LiH Ch.10 (262-273) Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Parmigianino, Self-Portrait Convex Mirror Mannerist Painting: El Greco | Italian Baroque| Pozzo | Music & Catholic Reformation | Bernini: Ecstasy of Saint Teresa | St. Teresa’s vision.| Gentileschi | Caravaggio | Robert Burton: The Anatomy of Melancholy | Ekphrasis Writing Activity: John Ashbery

NORTHERN BAROQUE

2/26 | L.9
Read: LiH Ch.10 (274-285) Quiz #06 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Baroque Medicine King  James Bible | John Donne | Metaphysical Poets | Metaphysical Conceit | “Sonnet 10” “No Man is an Island” | Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and severall steps in my Sicknes | John Milton: Paradise Lost | Miltonic Paradox | Black Fire, “Darkness Visible” | Vermeer | Rembrandt | Velázquez

Wk 7

ARISTOCRATIC BAROQUE

3/3 | L.10
Read: LiH Ch.10 (286-295) Quiz #07 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
 The birth of opera | Bach, Scarlatti & Handel 1685 | Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor | Handel & Oratorio | The Legend of Handel Composing Messiah | Handel’s Depression & Music | Bach: Church Musician & Well-tempered Clavier | Equal temperament | Harpsichord | Sonata, Suite, Concerto | Cremona String Instrument Live Samples |Vivaldi: Four Seasons

Ch11. ENLIGHTENMENT: SCIENCE & NEW LEARNING
1750–1800

ENLIGHTENMENT SCIENCE

3/5 | L.11
Read: LiH Ch.11 (296-307) Quiz #08 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
The Scientific Revolution | Kepler, Galileo | Political Philosophy| Reason & Rationality | Descartes | Cartesian Dualism | Body-minds | Kant, Ethics | Inventions: telescope, microscope

Wk 8

ENLIGHTENMENT ARTS

3/10 | L.12
Read: LiH Ch.11 (308-321) Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Slave Narratives | Pope | Voltaire & Swift | Satire | Hogarth’s Visual Satire|The English Malady Rococo Painting | Watteau, Fragonard | Rococo Sculpture | Genre Painting | Neoclassical Art | Ingres

ENLIGHTENMENT MUSIC

3/12 | L.13
Read: LiH Ch.11 (322-327) Quiz #09 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Viennese Classical School: Mozart & Haydn | Symphony, Quartet, Chamber Music | Sonata Form: Exposition-Development-Recapitulation | Symphony Orchestra | Making Beethoven | Japanese Way of Tea | Kintsugi

Unit 2: Presentation Topic Sheet Due Sunday, 15 March. @ 11:59pm

SPRING BREAK

3/16–3/20 | NO CLASS

Ch12. ROMANTICISM: NATURE, PASSION, & THE SUBLIME
1780–1880

Wk 9

IMAGINATION & THE SUBLIME

3/24 | L.16
LiH Ch. 12 (327-339) Quiz #10 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Edmund Burke: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas, of the Sublime & Beautiful
ProtoRomantics: William Cowper: The CastAway | Romantic Poets: Byron, Shelly, Keats | Coleridge: “The Automaton Poet,” Kubla Khan | Goethe: Faust, Sorrows of Young Werther | Mary Shelley: Frankenstein

ROMANTIC ART

3/26 | L.17
Read; LiH Ch. 12 (340-349) Quiz #11| Discuss Study Questions ⇋ Read Poe’s The Raven
Romantic Art | Caspar David Friedrich:Wanderer above the Sea of Fog | Blake| Goya: The Black Paintings | Delacroix |Whitman “When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” Transcendentalism | Poe: “The Raven” | Raven clip | Poe’s “The Raven” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven

Wk 10

ROMANTIC MUSIC

3/31 | L.18
Read: LiH Ch. 12 (350-357) Quiz #12 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Romantic Music E.T.A. Hoffmann; The Life & Opinions of The Tomcat Murr| Art Songs | Tone Poems |Program | Great Composers & Virtuosos: Schumann Beethoven | Schubert | Chopin | Paganini, Clara Schumann Rachmaninov | Wagner: Gesamtkunstwerk, Leit Motif | The Tristan Chord | General Chromaticism in Western Tonality, Shades of Schoenberg | Unit 2 Presentations Due April 2nd, 10:30am

UNIT 2 PRESENTATIONS

4/2 |

Presentations ⇋ Discussions

UNIT 3

Ch13. MATERIALISM: THE INDUSTRIAL ERA & URBAN SCENE  1850–1900

Wk 11

LITERARY ARTS

4/7 | L.19 ⇋
Read: LiH Ch.13 (357-366) Quiz #13 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋ Remaining Unit 2 Presentations
Darwin & Marx | Naturalism: Zola, Germinal | Frank Norris | Dostoevsky | Ibsen | Walt Whitman: “When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer” | Discuss Study Question Essay

Study Question Essay Due May 10th, 11:59pm

VISUAL ARTS

4/9| L.20
Read: Ch.13 (367-381) | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Visual Realism: Barbizon School | Courbet | Millet | Manet| Impressionism: Cézanne, Seurat, Monet, Renoir | Caillebotte | Toulouse-Lautrec | Japonaiserie in Paris | Ukiyo-e: Pictures of the Floating World Japanese Woodblock Printmaking | Art Nouveau

Post-Impressionism: Van Gogh & Gaugin | 23 December in Arles 1888 | Asylum at St. Remy | Dr. Gachet in Auvers-sur-Oise | Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Starry Night, Wheatfield with Crows | Van Gogh’s Japonaiserie Redux

Wk 12

SYMBOLISM IN MUSIC, POETRY, & ART

4/14 | L.21
Read: Ch.13 (382-384) | Do Discussion Board Question L.21  ⇋
Bizet, Pucinni: Verismo Opera
Van Gogh and the Floating World II. Starry Nights. Debussy: Whole Tone Scale | Arabesque No. 1 | Snowflakes are Dancing | Afternoon of the Faun | Symbolist Poets: Baudelaire Paris Spleen Mallarmé, Rimbaud | Symbolist Painting: Gustav Klimt | Synesthesia | Symbolism: “Forest of Correspondences” | Art Aesthetics: Wilde | Erik Satie: Gymnopédies | Furniture Music

Study Question Essay Due May 10th, 11:59pm

Ch14. MODERNISM: THE ASSAULT ON TRADITION
1890–1950

EARLY MODERNS

4/16 | L.22
Read: Ch.14 (385-402) Quiz #14 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Freud: Mourning and Melancholy | Freud and the Unconscious | Jung and the Collective Unconscious | Archetypes | Synchronicity| WW I | Schoenberg and the Unconscious: Atonality, 12-Tone Row | Serialism | Survivor from Warsaw | Pierrot Lunaire | Piano Suite Opus 25 | Counterpoint | Mann & Dr. Faustus | New Physics: Relativity & the Quantum

Unit 3 Presentations Due May 12th, 10:30am

Wk 13

MEDIA MODERNS

4/21 | L.23
Read: Ch.14 (403-407) Quiz #15 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Fauvism | Matisse | Mondrian | Expressionism; Munch, The Scream | Kandinsky: First Abstract Watercolor | Schoenberg, Kandinsky & Synesthesia | Painting and Music | Picasso and Cubist Revolution | TS Eliot: The Wasteland | Eliot & “nervous breakdown” | WB Yeats: The Second Coming | Metaphysical Art: Giorgio de Chirico | Early Surrealism: Dali | Magritte | Remedios Varo | Frida Kahlo

Study Question Essay Due Sunday, May 10th, 11:59pm

ART MODERNS

4/23 | L.24
Read: Ch.14 (408-419) Quiz #16 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
The New York School | Abstract Expressionism | Pollack | de Kooning | Action Painting | Color Field Painters | Mark Rothko | Rothko Chapel | Confessionalist Poets | Sylvia Plath

Unit 3: Presentation Topic Sheet Due April 26th @ 11:59pm

Ch15. GLOBALISM: INFORMATION COMMUNICATION, DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Wk 14

POSTMODERNS

4/28 | L.25
Read: Ch.15 (422-435) Quiz #17 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
French Intellectualism | Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir | Existentialism | Foucault | Derrida & Deconstruction | The Absurd | Racial Equality | Black Identity | Basquiat | Hispanic Voices | Human Genome | Science and Philosophy | String Theory

Unit 3 Presentations Due May 12th, 10:30am

MEDIA POSTMODERNS

4/30 | L.26
Read: Ch.15 (435-451) Quiz #18 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
The Postmodern in Literary Art | Italo Calvino | Vonnegut | Pynchon | Tim O’Brien | Postmodern War Fiction | Magical Realism | Bret Easton Ellis Less Than Zero | John Ashbery & the Language Poets | PostModernism in Art | Warhol & Pop Art | Rauschenberg | Frank Stella | New Media AI Art & Video | MidJourney | Back to the Prompt | Melancholia (2011) Dir., Lars von Trier

Study Question Essay Due Sunday, May 10th, 11:59pm

Wk 15

MUSIC POSTMODERNS

5/5 | L.27
Read: Ch.15 (452-462) Quiz #19 | Discuss Study Questions ⇋
Music & Chance | John Cage | Aleatory Music | 4’33” | I Ching | Microtonality & Minimalism | Ligeti | Steve Reich | Philip Glass | Koyaanisqatsi | Acousmatic Music | Pythagorean Veil | Choral Music & Opera | Benjamin Britten | Computer Music: Electro-Acoustic Music | Spatial Audio Ambisonics | Blues. Rock, Soul & Woodstock | The 27 Club | Melancholy & Pop Culture: Amy Winehouse, Juice WRLD, K-Pop, SHINee.

Study Question Essay Due Sunday, May 10, 11:59pm

Presentations Due May 12th, 10:30am

UNIT 3 FINAL WRAP

5/7 |

Early Presentations ⇋ Discussions,

Concluding Thoughts

Study Question Essay Due Sunday, May 10, 11:59pm

Wk 16

UNIT 3 PRESENTATIONS

5/12 | Presentations ⇋ Discussions

UNIT 3 PRESENTATIONS

5/14 | Presentations ⇋ Discussions