Revised Course Schedule: see below

To make up for Monday's missed class, I've revised the course schedule to make the rest of the class flow better--at least until Spring Break. Now we have more time to do what we need to, and you have a little extra time to write your first paper assignment, due on February 24th now. So follow this schedule instead of the one in your syllabus, since we've had to give up two days to Old Man Winter now. Hope to see you on Wednesday, when we'll finally take Reading Exam #1! 

REVISED SCHEDULE 

M 30                Class Cancelled for Weather 

 

FEBRUARY

W 1                  Reading Exam #1 in class

F 3                   Introduction to the Bhagavad Gita

 

M 6                  The Bhagavad Gita, Parts 1-4

W 8                  The Bhagavad Gita, Parts 5-9

F 10                 The Bhagavad Gita, Parts 10-14

 

M 13                The Bhagavad Gita, Parts 15-18

W 15                Reading Exam #2 in class 

F 17                 Film: TBA 

 

M 20                Film: Continued

W 22                Film Discussion 

F 24                 Creative Paper #1 due by 5pm [no class] 

M 27                Akutagawa, "Rashomon" & "In a Bamboo Grove"  

MARCH 

W 1                 Akutagawa, “The Nose" & "The Dragon"

 

MARCH

F 3                   Akutagawa, "Spider Thread" & "Hell Screen" 

 

M 6                  Akutagawa, "O-Gin" & "Loyalty"

W 8                  Akutagawa, "The Life of a Stupid Man"

F 10                 Reading Exam #3 

 

13-17                Spring Break

Reading Exam #1 and Next Week

Remember that there's no new reading for Monday's class, but instead, we're going to have our first Reading Exam over the Tao te Ching. Please bring your book to class, because I expect you to use it to quote from on the exam.

The exam will consist of a choice of short essay questions, and is nothing that should surprise or freak you out. As long as you've read, listened in class, and done the responses, you should be fine. 

On Wednesday I'll introduce our next book, The Bhagavad Gita, so you don't have to read anything from it yet. I'll assign the first reading for Friday's class. 

See you next week! 

For Wednesday (?): Tao te Ching, Verses 65-81

 

Here are your last questions for the Tao te Ching, which will be due Wednesday, OR, if the university closes for snow, on Friday. But let's assume we'll all be able to meet on Wednesday until we hear differently.

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: Bruce Lee was a staunch advocate of the Tao te Ching, and claimed that it worked very harmoniously with the martial arts. Which poem might have specifically inspired him? Also, how can the Tao help someone defeat an opponent mentally as well as physically? 

Q2: Though the Tao te Ching often advises against attachment and emotions such as anger and desire, Verse 67 claims that "I have three treasures that I cherish and hold dear/the first is love...With love one is fearless." How can love be one of the most important qualities in cultivating the Tao when selfish attachment/desire to the world brings confusion?

Q3: We've talked a little about how applicable these poems are for a college student, and why they might be the ideal introduction to the intellectual journey of higher educaiton. What poem do you think would function as the best College 101 advice for an incoming student (and why)?

Q4: One final paradox: the Tao te Ching often says that knowledge must begin with the self, and yet in Verse 72, it states, "The Sage knows himself, but not as himself/he loves himself, but not as himself/he honors himself, but not as himself." If you're not your self, who are you? What do you love/focus on? What else are you? Does this poem, or a related one, explain? 

For Monday: Tao te Ching, Verses 48-64

Remember, I'll give you a break from questions this weekend, but we WILL do an in-class writing response for Monday. Below are some ideas you might look out for as you read:

* Consider how the poems discuss the idea of attachment: what is right and wrong attachment? Is all attachment (or relationships) flawed? Would having children and helping the people you love be a form of attachment, too?

* How does denial 'give' you something? Is it a contradiction to 'gain without giving'? Don't you have to relinquish something (or sacrifice something) to get something, even the Tao?

* What do you think is the "Mother of the World" that the poems often refer to? Tao? Heaven? or something else?

* What do you think the phrase "be aware of your own awareness" means? Isn't that like "looking at your own looking"?

* What does it mean that you should see the Tao as a person, a family, a country, and a world? How can it be all of these things individually (even if it creates all of them respectively)?

* Why does the Tao always caution you against speaking--or speaking too much? What is specifically wrong with speaking? Do you think writing is the same way?

* How does the universe reveal itself to you? Don't you have to seek it?

* How can difficulty be an opportunity, especially if it limits your opportunities?

For Friday: Tao te Ching, Verses 22-47

Read the range of 22-47 for Friday's class, but remember, you don't have to read one poem after another like chapters in a novel. You can do that, or you can skip around, reading the first lines and waiting for one to capture you. Sometimes what I like to do is read the even poems, then go back later and read the odds. Just try to read a few poems very closely, even if you skip around a bit.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: As I mentioned in class, some versions break Verses 1-37 into "The Book of Tao," and Verses 36-81 into "The Book of Te." Do you see any obvious difference in poems 38-47 that would suggest that something has changed? Or do they seem to be variations of the same themes we've already encountered?

Q2: In Western culture, we have a famous adage that goes, "you can't love others until you love yourself." Do you think the Tao te Ching would agree with this? If so, why? What verse seems to explain why this is a more important step than simply loving and serving others?

Q3: In Verse 41, the poet seems to be talking about education itself--perhaps even our modern notion of college. How might this describe an experience you yourself have observed in a classroom? Why might some people take a great effort to know certain material while others simply mock it? Why does the poem suggest that this is a very "Tao" experience?  

Q4: It seems that one of the main purposes of the Tao te Ching is to lead the reader to a larger understanding of the world and their place within it. But so much of the advice says to ignore wisdom, avoid the sages, and speak as little as possible. So where does one find "the Way" if you can't walk it or speak of it? How DO you become enlightened with such a philosophy? Where do you find it? What do you study? Where do you go? 

For Wednesday: Tao te Ching, Poems 1-21

NOTE: If you still don't have the book, you can use this link to read the poems. It's not as good or useful as our translation, but it will at least help you do the reading: https://www.organism.earth/library/document/tao-te-ching

For Wednedsay, read poems 1-21 in the Tao te Ching, and try to read at least some of them more than once. Then answer TWO of the questions below, but also use them as a general outline to think about the poems and consider what ideas they might be trying to convey to us (and what makes such strange poems simply fun to read!).

(Answer TWO): 

Q1: Jonathan Starr, the translator, leaves a few words untranslated, such as "Tao" and "Wu," among others. Why do you think he does this? Do the poems help us understand what these terms might mean? Or is there a reason he wants them to remain mysterious?

Q2: As we discussed on Friday, a poem often attempts to use new metaphors (rather than the ones we use every day) to help us see the world from a new perspective. Discuss a metaphor in one of the poems that did exactly that: helped you appreciate something in a new way, or made you think about something normal abnormally. 

Q3: Many of the poems, notably Verse 14, repeat ideas such as"Eyes look but cannot see it/Ears listen but cannot hear it/Hands grasp but cannot touch it/Beyond the senses lies the great Unity--/invisible, inaudible, intangible" (16). If "it" cannot be seen or touched or heard, then how can we find it? Or know it? Where are we supposed to find truth or enlightenment if we can't use our senses to grasp it? Do other poems shed more light on this dilemma?

Q4: Which poem did you find the hardest to understand? Why do you think this is? Discuss a line or an idea in the poem that seems to create a wall to your understanding.

Welcome to the Course!

Welcome to our Global Literature class for the Spring 2023 semester! Remember, you won't need to check Blackboard at all for this course: all the assignments and materials will appear here and/or in class. This is really designed as a virtual bulletin board for the class, and you don't have to leave comments or interact with the site in any way. If you need to ask a question outside of class, always e-mail me instead at jgrasso@ecok.edu. 

Be sure to get the five books for class as soon as possible, since we'll start our reading next week. The five books, in order of reading, are:

* Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching (the edition I ordered at the bookstore is very readable, though you can use any translation if you have another)

* The Bhagavad Gita (again, I recommend the Penguin edition by Mascaro)

* Akutagawa, Rashomon and Other Stories (only the Penguin edition will have the exact stories we're reading for class)

* Naipaul, The Mystic Masseur (only one version) 

* Satrapi, The Complete Persepolis (it's a comic book, so there's only one version)

Look forward to exploring this exciting, strange, enigmatic, exhilarating literature with you!