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Instructor of record:
Carol Neel, Department of History, Palmer 233
Phone 389-6527, e-mail cneel@coloradocollege.edu
Office hours 8:30-9:30, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Further course staff:
Jessy Randall, Tutt Library, Special Collections
Phone 389-6668, e-mail jrandall@coloradocollege.edu
Steve Lawson, Tutt Library, Humanities
Phone 389-6857, e-mail slawson@coloradocollege.edu
Daryl Lindsay-Alder, Tutt Library, Reference
Phone 389-6669, e-mail Daryl Lindsay-Alder@ColoradoCollege.edu
Aaron Cohick, Press at Colorado College, Taylor Theatre
Phone 389-6376, e-mail Aaron.Cohick@coloradocollege.edu
Student mentor:
Kate Vukovich
Phone 515-802-1117, e-mail Kate.Vukovich@ColoradoCollege.edu
Course description and requirements
During these two blocks, students will explore changing technologies of writing from Mediterranean antiquity to our own times, asking how books have shaped knowledge and power in successive cultures. Classroom discussion will address primary texts and images, works by people of the past, in cultural context, with emphasis on the way the historical moments they represent understood manuscript, printed and e-texts to convey truth. Secondary readings will introduce students to critical perspectives on the relationship between the past and present of technologies of knowledge. A continuing theme will be how books have mediated human beings’ relationship with the natural world: ancient natural histories, medieval bestiaries, and works of modern science and fantasy.
The Press at Colorado College and Tutt Library will be integral to student’s experience in this exploration. Class participants will design and print a collaborative beast-book with the support of Aaron Cohick, Printer, at the College’s letterpress studio. Using the library’s Special Collections, and with the help of Curator Jessy Randall and Humanities Librarian Steve Lawson, the History Department’s librarian-liaison Daryl-Lindsay-Alder, they will develop research projects on the illustration and commentary on real and imaginary animals from papyrus scrolls to graphic novels.
During Block 1, students will complete one brief response paper and two individual critical essays, as well as a group study for combined oral and written presentation. During the second block, each will craft an individual research paper improved by group critique, and collaborate in the design and printing of a contemporary response to the medieval bestiary model. Class and workshop discussion will be an important element in the course throughout. Assessment will be based one half on discussion/workshop contribution/collaborative projects and one half on individual written submissions. Papers, when due, will be submitted to the College's PROWL website in electronic form for peer critique and, as well, in hard copy to the instructor's "in" box in the History suite by the stated deadline. All work submitted must be prepared according to the Colorado College Honor Code and acknowledge that compliance in writing.
Course materials
The following books, listed here in order of their appearance in the syllabus, are available for purchase in the Colorado College Bookstore. Some of the texts represented in these editions are available in other translations, but it will be helpful if class members use the same translations so that we can refer to specific pages and passages during our discussions. If students avail themselves of discounted prices from Web merchants, they should be careful to find the editions listed:
The following further works and excerpts will be available on the course’s PROWL website:
The following website will be a resource for group research:
Aberdeen Bestiary (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/)
The following films will be subjects for common discussion; copies for review will be available from the instructor:
Tom Moore and Norah Twomey, dirs. The Secret of Kells (2009
Jean-Jacques Annaud, dir. The Name of the Rose (1986)
Jon Amiel, dir. Creation (2009)
François Truffaut, dir. Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Gary Hustwit, dir. Helvetica (2007)
Schedule of readings, meetings, written work and presentations
Discussion session will regularly be at 9:30 in Palmer 233, unless otherwise noted. Printing workshops will be as scheduled at the Press at Colorado College in Taylor Hall. Other enrichment sessions will be as noted below.
BLOCK 1
Week 1 (9/3)
Monday
Discussion: Thinking about books, print, and the history of the book
10:30am--class meeting after Convocation
1pm--introduction to Tutt Library with Steve Lawson (Tutt Library reference section)
Tuesday
Discussion: Thinking, language, and reading
Reading (posted on PROWL): Ong, Chartier
1pm—introductory Press session (Taylor Theatre)
Wednesday
9:30am--Writing workshop with Tracy Santa, Writing Center director (Tutt Library, TLC3)
Discussion (after writing session): Ancient books and ancient literatures
Reading (posted on PROWL): Roemer, Hesiod
Thursday
Discussion: Ancients and the natural worldReading: Pliny 3-73
3pm--two-page paper due: Do you think your generation has a harder or an easier time imagining the past than people who gre up without electronic resources?
Friday
9:30am–noon—individual paper conferences
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Week 2 (9/10)
Monday
Discussion: Animals, humankind, and ethics
Reading: Pliny 74-127
First individual essay due in class (750 words): Choose one among the animals Pliny describes? How does this ancient author's account of this creature fit with his understanding of humankind's place in the natural world?
Tuesday
Discussion: Between ancient and medieval worlds
Reading: Plato (in Boethius volume) 97-106; Boethius 3-32
1pm—GROUP A Press studio, typesetting and project introduction (Taylor)
Wednesday
Discussion: Fate, nature, and responsibility
Reading: Plato (in Boethius volume) 107-114; Boethius 32-77
Thursday
Discussion: Pagans, Christians, and books
Reading: Augustine (in Boethius volume) 123-138; Boethius 78-93
1pm—GROUP B Press studio, typesetting and project introduction (Taylor)
Friday
Film: Secret of Kells
Second individual essay due in class (1250 words): Does Boethius's conversation with Lady Philosophy work in its own terms? That is, is it consoling?
Week 3 (9/17)
Monday
Discussion: Early medieval books
1pm--Research preparation session1pm, Tutt Special Collections, with curator Jessy Randall
Reading: Clemens and Graham 3-69
Tuesday
Discussion: Appreciating the Aberdeen Bestiary
Preparation: Exploration of Aberdeen Bestiary website and reading of entire mansucript text in translation
1pm--Letter forms workshop with calligrapher Pat Musick
Wednesday
Small-group meetings on Aberdeen bestiary project
Reading: Clemens and Graham 67-70, 135-178
1pm bibliography and research skills sessions with Daryl Lindsay-Alder (Tutt Library, TLC 2)
Thursday
Small-group meetings and individual conferences on printing project progress, individual writing, and Block 2 individual research papers
1pm--Manuscript leaf workshop with calligrapher Pat Musick
Friday
Discussion: Later medieval books and the medieval world view
Reading: Clemens and Graham 208-221; Book of Secrets 3-61
Week 4 (9/24)
Monday
Changing stories, changing nature
Reading: Book of Secrets 62-112
Brownies and a movie, 6pm: Name of the Rose
Tuesday
Small group meetings
1pm—Press check-in on printing project (Taylor)
Wednesday
8:30 breakfast
Group presentations on the Aberdeen Bestiary
Discussion: Do we now know more about books and beasts--or less?
BLOCK BREAK
BLOCK 2
Week 1 (10/1)
Monday
Discussion: Beginning again, the Renaissance
Reading (posted on PROWL): Petrarch, “Ascent”
1:30pm--Lecture, "Apocalypse New! A Brilliant New Manuscript of the Commentary of Beatus," by Prof. Roger Reynolds, University of Toronto
Tuesday
Discussion: Between medieval and modern
Reading: Greenblatt 1-109
1pm--Press studio: content decisions made, sign-up for typesetting sessions
Wednesday
Discussion: Modernity and old books
Reading: Greenblatt 110-181
Thursday
Individual research paper conferences
1pm--Press studio: final project text written and images due 1pm; Group A typesetting and image-making
Friday
Discussion: Science, texts, and the modern vision
Reading: Greenblatt 182-263; Two Renaissance Book Hunters (posted on PROWL)
Week 2 (10/8)
Monday
Discussion: Printing as revolution
Reading: Eisenstein xiii-120
1pm--Departure from Tutt Library parking lot for Cheyenne Mountain zoo talk and tour
Tuesday
Discussion: Reformation, social change, and city life
Reading: Eisenstein 123-285
1pm--Press studio: Group B typesetting and image-making
Wednesday
Discussion: Printed science
Reading: Eisenstein 286-258; Johns (posted on PROWL)
4pm--Visitor Glenn Olsen speaking in Shove Chapel on "Christopher Dawson's Christian View of History"
Thursday
Individual research paper preparation
7pm--Visitor Fred Hagstrom speaking in WES Room, Worner Center
Friday
Discussion: Enlightened reading
Reading: Voltaire (entire text)
Week 3 (10/15)
Monday
Discussion: Another natural world?
Reading: Darwin 3-7, 60-127
1pm film: Creation
5pm--Press deadline: all type set, proofed, and corrected; image blocks made; printing sessions sign-up complete.
Tuesday
Discussion: Publishing new science, with guest John Horner (Psychology)
Reading: Darwin 478-507, individual research onthe ending of Darwin's work
1-7pm--Press studio: small-group printing sessions as scheduled
Wednesday
Individual research and conferences
1-7pm--Press studio: small-group printing sessions as scheduled
Thursday
Film and discussion--Helvetica
3pm--Complete final individual paper draft due at Press in multiple copies for small-group exchange
1-7pm--Press studio: small-group printing sessions as scheduled
Friday
Discussion: Seeing today's animals and people in texts and contexts
Reading: Haraway 3-42, 69-93, 275-300
11:30-1:00pm--Pizza-fueled paper workshop
Week 4 (10/22)
Monday
Discussion: The future of the Book, the future of books
Presentation by senior guest Rachel Johnson on wolves and mankind in the European imagination
Reading: Darnton (entire text)
1pm film: Fahrenheit 451
Tuesday
Small-group oral exams based on prepared questions
1pm--Press studio: binding session
Wednesday
Research papers due 10am
10am--Wayzgoose (Taylor)
ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
This course's research tools sessions will introduce students to many web-based collections useful for the preparation of assignments and further exploration. It will also urge critical techniques for the assessment of WWW sites. The following solid websites are a beginning to useful web research:
for Mediterranean antiquity--Perseus, at Tufts
for the European Middle Ages--the Labyrinth, at Georgetown
for an individual bestiary--the Aberdeen Bestiary
for further medieval manuscripts, including beast material--the Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
for the modern world--the Modern History Sourcebook, at Fordham
for the history of the book in particular--the Digital Scriptorium, at Columbia; Vivarium, at the Hill Monastic Museum and Library
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The images at the head of this syllabus are from a twelfth-century manuscript bestiary preserved in Oxford at the Bodleian Library and from Albrecht Duerer's famous printed image of the rhinoceros, of which many copies survive.
