HUM 375 - Biography of a City: London
Welcome to the course. I have posted separately the Grading Policy, Marks, Requirements. That's required reading.
Welcome to "Biography of a City: London" a course offered by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Department.
I always prepare long course introductions, on the theory
that you've got the right to know what you're getting into: "truth in packaging"! But also, if you're unfamiliar with the American university tradition, reading this will give you an idea of the professor's values, how he marks, what kind of work he's looking for in this class.
Like most Humanities Department courses, the title tries to give room for interpretation to the greatest number of professors and students. Accordingly, each professor who teaches this course ventures into one or two clearings in this great forest, depending on his or her interests, education and abilities. We choose a part that will suggest the whole, and which will give you some methods with which to venture further into this endless forest on your own.
In this course, I'm using William Manchester's masterpiece, his Churchill biography, as the narrative thread. There's a lot of Churchill, whom you will discover to be a giant, complex character in the tradition of Falstaff and Prince Hal and Scrooge, someone larger than life. So many of you are taking this because you're on your way to London, that I spend a lot of time on the must-see sights, like the Tower and Westminster; but also the must-have experiences everyone tries to have visiting London: a Shakespeare play, the Constables and Turners in the museums, a visit to Gilbert and Sullivan. Not to experience these grand old touristy things would be like going to San Francisco and being too cool to visit the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown or the Castro. I'll use the familiar sites to bring out deeper lessons about English culture, "Englishness." We'll study Churchill's life in pursuit of that quality, "Englishness," and read George Orwell, that most English of novelists, a writer who is now eclipsing James Joyce as the 20th Century's greatest. I think we'll see Mrs. Miniver, too, and read Philip Larkin's poems. We'll see how it works out. This is an experimental course which evolves with the students' interests. Let's see what you like.
Notice: although courses in History and Political Science would deal with history and politics of the 19th century, this is Interdisciplinary Humanities and we study their cultures at home, as expressed in their literature and arts. This isn't a poly sci course. I do lots of history and architecture, as well as art and literature and music. (It's not wrong to have those other important interests, but they're fully addressed in other departments. You can already take courses on those topics there. And you should. This course complements those.)
The humanities course's goal, then: to give you a firm grounding in certain highly representative and influential versions of English culture, music and literature, balancing and augmenting the historical/political treatment of culture available elsewhere. A secondary goal is to prepare you more deeply for a trip or stay in London, so that you can experience it more fully, and continue learning there. If you've just gotten back from London, this course should draw together, in retrospect, what you experienced, and help you digest it and learn from it.
Truth in packaging, and a Warning Label: this is the first time in ten years that I've taught the course. Any Software 1.0 always has bugs in it. If you've just taken one of my other courses, prepare to be disappointed. This is the shakedown cruise. After taking my Ph.D. in this subject, and teaching it for most of the 1970s and 1980s, then teaching this course perhaps eleven times in five years, I published a book summing up what I'd discovered, quit the subject and went into Asian Studies around 1994. Now I'm returning to it, but with new interests and new lectures. In the past few years, preparing to revive this course, I went back to London and revisited all the sites, shot new slides, even tried some videotapes. I'm psyched! But there's always rough sailing on the shakedown cruise, and I doubt it'll rate more than a "Pretty Good."
METHODOLOGY: INTERDISCIPLINARY HUMANITIES
I've been trying to underline that the Interdisciplinary Humanities department is not the history, philosophy or political science department. We believe that when certain subjects or cultures flower into art objects, you can understand the even the history and politics better by considering those objects!
Of course, you have to learn how to "read" them. If you've never taken a course in this department before, you may need a little while to get the hang of it. To start, consider what Sir Kenneth Clark said at the start of his PBS series Civilisation. He quoted John Ruskin, who had claimed, "Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.
"Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last." Sir Kenneth said he thought that was true. "If I had to say which was telling the truth about society, a speech by a Minister of Housing or the actual buildings put up in his time, I should believe the buildings."
John Ruskin said elsewhere, "Tell me what you like, and I'll tell you who you are." You know this already. A lot of people will tell you, in all honesty, "I'm... a Christian... sort of a spiritual person." And where did you spend your vacation? "Vegas." What you like reveals more about who you really are, down there in your gut values, than what you claim about yourself-- even when you believe what you're claiming. When we study art objects, we're studying precisely what cultures liked-- and sometimes it tells a lot about them. (There are some supposedly Christian cultures, in fact, whose art is closer to Vegas.) In this department we study a culture's history and its philosophy, but we're careful to take a long look at what it likes. We'll look at carefully selected samples of both high art and popular art in this course. Popular art is very revealing. What people are willing to pay money for and admire just for fun without having it assigned can tell a lot about them!
THE MANNER OF THE COURSE
This course is fine for lower division students and non Humanities Majors. I have to say though, that our artists don't have a lot of sexual hangups, and frequently are out to challenge any that you yourself have.If you would never dream of taking a course in Human Sexuality, for instance, this course probably isn't for you.
This course's style is what the University officially terms "evolutionary": the course evolves with the students' interests. Starting with the questionnaire tonight I'll work at knowing your individual intellectual goals, then I'll alter the course to help you reach them.
I'll announce such changes well ahead of time in class, which is one reason attendance is required. If you're forced to miss a class, it's your responsibility to inquire if you missed any such updates or assignments.
After I've read what you've written about yourselves-- by
next week, say-- you'll get not a schedule but a "probable order of topics to be discussed." At the course's beginning we'll stick to it fairly closely; as your interests emerge and I tailor the course to you, we'll refer less and less to the "probable
order" sheet. Each class catches fire on certain topics and I try to help the class's interests unfold. Now I'm sure that sounds good, but be aware, folks, we'll pay a price: less clarity to the course outline. You may bring a book to class and find out we're not getting there till next week. Some students are from departments in which even the advanced courses are all geared to pre-printed readers. I let your inquiry, your understanding set the pace. The price we pay for freedom and flexibility will be a lack of comforting structure.
Speaking generally, in the humanities, we don't tell you what the answers are, we tell you what the big questions are. There's no one answer for all human conditions. Everyone comes up with a different one to fit themselves. You'll be encouraged to think for yourself.
MARKS
One important paper may require you to visit a museum on a Saturday or Sunday. You don't have to attend the lecture that I'll give there. That lecture will be optional but the paper won't be. Another paper will require you to attend some other event related to this course, probably a student play or opera if we're lucky enough to have them put one on. (Watching SFSU classmates try to sing that Olympic-level material is hair-raising, and when they do it, it's really cool.)
There will be a midterm and a comprehensive exam-- essays involving slides shown during the exam. If anyone wants to try to lock up an A by writing a fuller term paper, based on the museum trip or any other topic I approve, I will work with you, mark it, and figure it into your final mark as an extra credit in proportion to its length and difficulty.
There will be no early midterms or finals. Since class tests partly test you on the fact of class attendance, there'll be no make-ups. If you cut midterm class and miss a quiz that's an F on the quiz.
For undergraduates, there's a minimum of fifteen pages of evaluated prose (that total includes the pages you write on your midterms and finals, however-- it doesn't mean a fifteen page term paper) and for graduates, slightly more. Grads: you must see me immediately to arrange your extra assignment. There are no late or early finals and no incompletes for the course!
THERE ARE NO INCOMPLETES IN THIS COURSE. The "incomplete" mark has been misused, in recent years, like that "late exam." I'm trying to be fair to every student who did the work in the time allowed. No special treatment means no late exams and no incompletes.
GRADUATES: By departmental rule, you will have to do slightly longer projects and/or a short presentation. See me immediately. It's your responsibility to initiate and choose now.
MY EMAIL POLICY
Last year I tried a new email policy as an experiment and I'm sorry to say it hasn't worked out. Distance learning builds in distance.
First, my office hours were empty, and it was typically the people who most needed to see me in the office that were trying to get by with email. That was unexpected.
Second, I can't overlook that in two or three cases-- where I worked very hard trying to involve the student between classes using email-- those students actually started attending class less. That was the very opposite of what email was expected to achieve! My only guess is that some people are under such time pressure that if the professor seems to be willing to teach them the course through email, well, they'd much rather do that than commute to school. The truth is, though, email is a very poor substitute for personal face to face instruction. They won't really learn, and they could even fail. They must come to class.
So, back to the old policy, improved by what we've learned.
- I will continue to use email to notify people of events or opportunities. You can use email to alert me to an event, TV show, song or other object that I might want to share with the class that way. That has worked great! Email *is* good for something. Far fewer people got lost on the way to the museum last year, possibly because I was able to send the URL and even advise you guys to buy tix in advance.
- Do not use email to communicate with me for any other reason-- which means, don't use it to alert me about absences or excuses, but also don't use it for questions, clarifications and teaching in general. Not only is there still such a thing as a telephone-- now you all carry them 24/7. Call me up! Ask me in class! Office phone: 415-338-7428. My office hours are immediately following our classes, very convenient. MW 2-3, MW 855-925. Above all, I like to see people in the office. It's personal. It really works. HUM 530. Those of you who have been there know I even took out the computer and put in a comfortable couch for students, to make it a more relaxed, welcoming kind of place. You need to eat lunch, you can bring your lunch. I'll even give you a napkin and some fresh green tea.
- Unless I specifically request it, *papers* can no longer be submitted by email. You must make it TO CLASS and hand in the hard copy. I want to see you physically at school. Papers are late until they are presented in hard copy form at the office. No more email papers.
- What I said above does not mean that you can still send me email as long as you start it, "Dr. Leonard, I know you told us not to email you but...." Call me up. Come to the office. Slip a note under the door of HUM 530. What did people do in the dark ages before universal email, three years ago?
- I of course reserve the right to have an email conversation with anybody, including a student, if I think that's in the student's best interest.
This is always very important, but in a course like this, it's all-important.
Courtesy to other students is a requirement for attendance. (Studies have shown, for instance, that women are more frequently interrupted when they try to speak in class.) All students will be encouraged to speak and guaranteed the right to a courteous hearing. After all: We can only discuss the explosive and personal topics like sex and gender if everyone agrees that overbearing behavior won't be tolerated in debate. You have to raise your hand, have to wait to be called on, can't just shout things out no matter how passionately you believe them. (Or how angry you are at hearing a religious or political position you think false, even offensive.) This course's topic require us to talk about exactly those things nice people aren't supposed to mention at a dinner party!
It's distressing to realize now that in some of my favorite college classes-- the ones in which I was allowed to dominate the discussions-- my favorite profs weren't really doing their job. If you're the kind of student I was, I'd better ask your help, and patience, in advance. Everyone must get a chance.
By the same token, ignoring the student who has the floor by doing other school work or engaging in side discussions is rude. Any student speaking merits your attention, and his or her ideas merit your consideration. When an excellent student insults an average student this way it's worse. Shouldering other students aside who have raised their hand and waited their turn to speak is unacceptable.
Anyone who is routinely discourteous to the other students will be warned; if the discourteous behavior continues, that student will have to be dropped from the course. (That's never happened, but I'm leaving the possibility open.) You've been read these rules on the first night, and by continuing to attend, you agree to follow them. (Civilization, Freud said, is discontent.)
ARE YOU OFFENDED BY CERTAIN TOPICS? READ THIS PART CAREFULLY.
If a student signs up for one of our Human Sexuality courses, he or she thereby gives up the right to march out of class complaining they're being shown "dirty pictures."
There's a parallel with our course. Our writers and artists are often out to confront you with topics which make nice people uncomfortable. If frank discussion of sex, God, racial prejudices or ethnic or gender stereotypes makes you very uncomfortable, this isn't the course for you. We've no interest in offending anyone! Guideline: If you would never dream of taking a Human Sexuality course, for instance, you might feel uneasy, at times, here. We read masterworks which demand we re-examine our attitudes to religion, sex, race-- everything you're never supposed to mention in polite conversation. That's our job. We're professionals.
Are you a Romantic? Some of our writers and artists are. Romanticism championed love, beauty, honor, sex and the rights of the individual to joy-- particularly the joy of freedom. The Romantics are out to provoke us, out to shatter all easy assumptions about what men and women want. Students must be able to patiently consider all points of view, even alarming ones. Course requirement: In classes and papers we will practice the romantic value of personal freedom in its essence, free speech. Everyone's opinions will receive a courteous (if not always credulous) hearing.
A discussion of T.S. Eliot, for instance, may lead us to discuss attitudes to gender-- that is, what this culture thinks it means to be A Man, A Woman. We always try to relate the material to our lives, and in the course of that, many of us choose to share anecdotes and stories. (You don't have to, of course! But as you get to know each other, many people have relevant stories to share. Taking what you've learned home to your life and seeing if it fits what you've experienced is at the heart of being a real college student.) When we discuss topics that really matter to us, it's inevitable that, in the course of the term, we hear something we disagree with strongly. How strongly? Remember, some of us think abortion is murder, others think certain sex roles a form of violence, etc.
The 19th Century English Romantics were trying to shock some deeper sense into a materialistic culture that thought human beings were simple machines, payable with simple pleasures. The writers may even offend you. But announcing you're offended would be irrelevant-- just as if you were studying Variations in Human Sexuality. You're expected to be a professional here. If you choose to be in this course, you're agreeing to handle yourself professionally, almost clinically, in class, analyzing calmly ideas for which you may feel distaste. That's an important skill to have in a free society.
We're looking for people who can discuss these matters with each other frankly while keeping their professional balance and their sense of humor. Some of the best works we study use humor every chance they get-- these subjects sometimes cut so close to the bone only laughter can ease the tension.
But you're entitled to your personal tastes! If you suspect you'll be unbearably offended-- religiously, politically, personally-- do not choose this course. (Or ask me for more details so you can decide.) We're not here to hurt anyone's feelings.
No-one will be allowed to continue in class who refuses to allow other students to express their opinions, no matter how "offensive" he or she decides those opinions are. As a veteran of the American Civil Liberties Union I defend free speech. The
Constitution gives no-one the "right" not to be insulted, because the free flow of ideas is vital to our survival. One of our most distinguished professors, Betty Medsger, back from a year researching the neo-Nazis in Germany, concluded (I quote inexactly, from memory):
- "We have to help our students gain courage: the courage to let all ideas be expressed, even ideas we hate; and then the courage to oppose those ideas. We have to help students know the importance of not shutting each other up."
I dwell on this at such length because I don't want anyone to have a bad experience, and because I've learned that my courses, since they're discussion courses, depend on who shows up for them.
They rely so much on free discussion, it works almost like a dinner party: if the mix is right, it's great, if not, nothing can help it.
Having even one tense, doctrinaire person at the dinner table can kill the conversation and start everyone peeking at their watches. Once every few years we get just one or two people like that, and then it's like having to watch a shouting match between two true believers handing out leaflets in front of the Student Union. The years this course has worked, however-- it has been exciting. After all, these aren't bland, academic subjects! Far from it! We'll just have to wait and see.
OFFICE HOURS: "Please bother me."
"Please bother me" was a sign I saw on a reference librarian's desk. Students don't seem to realize that teaching one-to-one is the fun part. Also, the better I learn your interests, the better I can steer the classwork towards them.
Students have felt that office hours right before class and afterward, made me most accessible. Beyond that, I've spread my hours over the widest variety of times, so that students with almost any schedule can catch me in.
For greatest access, I am now holding two of my office hours per week online. It's okay to email me questions about the coursework. However: any requests to be excused or absent have to be done on the phone or face to face. Email is for intellectual matters. It's a chance for students who are somewhat shy to talk in class, perhaps from cultural reasons, perhaps from personal reasons, to ask me their questions.
But face to face is still by far the best way to teach. I'd like to see everybody at least once. If you come from a culture which makes you unfamiliar with the "office hours" concept, be sure to come! Don't let my manner scare you off, people from New York don't smile a lot. And a New York novelist-- man, that's INTENSE. I'm your coach, I want to see you.
The hours are posted outside my door, HUM 530. Appointments aren't required, but I always appreciate the advance notice. It's also a good way to avoid showing up on a day when I've suddenly been pressed into service on some committee. My office phone is 338-7428 and there's an answering machine. I return calls! Messages are best left in my mailbox in the Humanities Department office, hum 410-411. If it's very urgent, our excellent secretary, Ms. Annette Speed, can contact me at home. She's at 338-1830.
Well, now all the stern, official professor stuff has been said, and I can just say, Welcome to the course! I look forward to meeting you and to hearing your ideas. This is a special course and it always attracts some really special people.
London: The Bill of Fare
Leonard
I'll tell you assignments in class. To start, read pp 1-96 in Volume 1 of Manchester's Life of Churchill. Check back here from time to time for informational postings and help, as I decide what comes next.
We read some of the world's most exciting literature and see the world's most beautiful paintings. There are, as well, some great feature motion pictures capturing great performances related to our period.We're using the film as a way of teaching, so we rarely watch an entire film all the way through. There's no way you can watch the film at home and figure out what part of it I showed, and what I said about it after I showed it.
Among other works, strung along the narrative line of Churchill's life, we'll most likely cover:
Shakespeare, through parts of "Shakespeare in Love" and the classic Olivier films.
John Constable and "natural supernaturalism" in the arts
Turner and English romanticism
Carlyle, "genius" and the Hero-- a strange man and a prophet of the 20th century totalitarian states
Orwell, who analyzed those states. The cartoon and book of Animal Farm, the novel 1984.
The Visual Art of the 18th Century and 19th century including
Classicism and neo-classicism
Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough
Gilbert and Sullivan through selections from filmed operas
The Industrial Revolution hits, and how London becomes the world's first Industrial Age city.
Dickens on utilitarianism and the misery of the New City: the classic 1948 Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol.
(That's the menu, but there are, in passing, side dishes, hundreds of artists in many countries, along the way. Special projects available to satisfy private interests in artists or countries or movements we do not concentrate on or just your odd tastes.)