HONR 2000 SECTION 1: Heros and Monsters in World Literature - Kristina Gibby
The hero’s journey is a common theme in world literature dating back to the earliest written works. From the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey to Star Wars and Harry Potter, this theme has captivated humanity on a global scale. What makes this theme so appealing across time and space? How do we relate to heroes and how do their quests illuminate our own life “journey”? These heroes are often foiled by monsters and other villains. What makes these antagonists effective opponents? What must the hero do/become to defeat them? Is there a cost? Is the hero so different from the monster? How do women appear in these texts? How do heroines compare to their male counterparts? What makes a woman “monstrous” in these ancient societies? We will consider these questions and more as we explore cultures and literatures from around the world, from ancient Mesopotamia to classical Japan to Renaissance Spain through the lens of heroes and monsters.
HONR 2000 SECTION 3: THE LEGACY OF MOUNT VESUVIUS – Daniel Honors
Mount Vesuvius, in what is now Italy, produced a catastrophic eruption in the year 79 AD. The eruption buried several Roman towns, most famously Pompeii and Herculaneum. While the eruption killed thousands of people and was clearly a major disaster, it also preserved buildings, artworks, food, jewelry, and even people and animals in a way that provides a unique glimpse into a 2,000-year-old culture. In this class we will learn some of the science of volcanoes and why that eruption was so explosive, and we will explore many of the elements of Roman culture that have been revealed by excavating the remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
HONR 2000 SECTION 4 and 5: CLASSICS – Rick McDonald
The books we will be reading are more than “Classics”; the people who wrote “the Classics” read and often revered the works you will be studying. These texts have had a broad impact on literature and thought in the western world. There are many works which are their equal in artistry, but these works constitute some of the best literature that the western world has ever created. They were enjoyed and respected by their contemporary audiences and their effects are often just as strong today.
Every work we are reading will be a translation of a great work from another (often ancient) culture. Changes from one language to another and one culture to another sometimes require greater concentration on our part, but you will find that most of what these works have to say is timeless and easily applicable to segments of our world today.
When you complete this class you will be that much more an educated individual. You will have participated in a reading process that began by at least 19 B.C.E. and which has been observed through the Renaissance and quite obviously up until today. This should make us proud. The world changes and what is important sometimes does as well, but the issues important to the contemporary audiences of these works are not that far removed from our own interests: War, love, inhumanity, suffering, faith, honor, compassion, fairness, power, damnation, redemption, and salvation.
We will be reading a significant amount for each class, and class discussion and thought are a very important aspect of this course.
HONR 2000 SECTION X01: Sports and History – Brendan McCarthy
Description: This section of Ancient Legacies will investigate the role of sports in societies throughout history and the way scholars use modern sports to better understand the past. We will focus on art and literature, modern and ancient, as we explore major issues like creating communities through competition, using competition to establish social hierarchies, and the physical effects of life on the human body.
As we work through the class, you will create a digital project working as a group. Much of your work in this class will be building up that project.
Ancient Legacies HONR 2000 – 001, Heroes and Monsters in World Literature - Kristina Gibby; TR 10 -11:15 AM
The hero’s journey is a common theme in world literature dating back to the earliest written works. From the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey to Star Wars and Harry Potter, this theme has captivated humanity on a global scale. What makes this theme so appealing across time and space? How do we relate to heroes and how do their quests illuminate our own life “journey”? These heroes are often foiled by monsters and other villains. What makes these antagonists effective opponents? What must the hero do/become to defeat them? Is there a cost? Is the hero so different from the monster? How do women appear in these texts? How do heroines compare to their male counterparts? What makes a woman “monstrous” in these ancient societies? We will consider these questions and more as we explore cultures and literatures from around the world, from ancient Mesopotamia to classical Japan to Renaissance Spain through the lens of heroes and monsters.
Ancient Legacies HONR 2000 – 002, Pre-Columbian Societies in the Americas - Mark Lentz; TR 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM
In this course students will explore how pre-Columbian societies in the Americas developed indigenous concepts of history, geography, astronomy, writing, mathematics, calendrics, and medicine, as well as their own creation and origin stories in relative isolation from most of the world before 1492. By examining writings from and about pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the US Southwest, students will better understand the cultural legacy of Americas that pre-dates the arrival of Europeans. Through their study of selected works on Puebloan, Mayan, Incan, and Aztec (among others) creation legends, histories, and writing systems, students will not only come to understand the ideas, questions, and methodologies that are central to the world views of these ancient traditions but will also develop their own independent, critical, and creative thinking. By practicing these skills in in-class discussions and through their writing, students will have the opportunity to reflect on how the search for knowledge in the past can inform our pursuit of understanding in today’s world. As an honorscourse, this seminar emphasizes reading and analyzing original sources by the people who lived in the Americas before and after the Conquest.
This class, reconceptualized for a hybrid modality, will meet once a week. Additionally, students will keep up with readings, participate in on-line discussions, and view additional lectures and video clips.
To understand these processes through a relatable case study, the Spring 2027 section of this class will include a travel-study component following the route taken by two friars, commonly remembered as Dominguez and Escalante. It uses a historical event, the 1776 expedition by two New Mexican friars through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, to expose students to different cultures in the US Southwest. It will create a venue for student interaction with the living Native American cultures with longstanding roots in the area and the histories of their ancestors. Following the Dominguez and Escalante route ties the history of Utah with these ancient Southwest cultures as we end the trip in the northernmost point reached by these intrepid friars, Provo, Utah.
Ancient Legacies HONR 2000 – 003 and 004, What Are "Ancient Legacies?" - Ruen-chuan Ma; TR 2:30 - 3:45 PM and 4-5:15 PM
This section of Ancient Legacies takes an intercultural and interdisciplinary approach towards understanding important works of literature, philosophy, and art from before 1600. What are “ancient legacies” and how do they have bearing on contemporary society? By seeking to uncover the ways in which the past is relevant to the present, working with the very idea of “legacies” transcends temporal and spatial boundaries.
The main goal of this course is to examine recurrent, resonant ideas through time and across different cultures, and in doing so, foster an appreciation of how and why these ideas become influential and remain relevant. For example, in reading the Trials of Joan of Arc alongside the Chinese poem The Ballad of Mulan, what can we learn about the representation of female identity, specifically women heroes? More broadly speaking, what can we learn from reading ancient and medieval works alongside their contemporary adaptations? We will read works that are familiar because of their place in the western canon (Dante's Inferno, Chaucer’sCanterbury Tales) and works that, while less widely read, provide fascinating avenues of insight into the literature of the past (e.g., Refugee Tales, an adaptation of the Canterbury Tales set in modern-day Britain). We will cover a wide range of themes that include, but are not limited to, religion and spirituality, learning, social commentary, and encounters with foreign cultures.
Ancient Legacies HONR 2000 – 005, The Theory of Alchemy - Bruce Wilson; MW 2:30 - 3:45 PM
Alchemy is a theory of how matter behaves. The core ideas were formulated by 340 BCE and widely established by 100 CE. Those ideas benefited from a rich crafting tradition across many cultures; it did not grow from a vacuum.
It was born in China, India, Persia, Greece, the Lavant, and Egypt. It was nourished by pantheists, Christians, Gnostics, Muslims, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Hindus, agnostics, atheists, and again by Christians. Alchemists describe their work in voluminous writings and images, using fanciful, allegorical, descriptive, mythic, religious, magic, cosmic, cryptic, esoteric and intentionally confusing language.
Alchemy never worked, but it’s the longest-believed theory we’ve ever had in science. The alchemists wrote voluminously, and we still don’t know what they did in their labs. How did something that never worked live on so long in so many cultures?
This course is more a study of cultures, from ancient to modern, than it is a study of a science. It’s a study of the nature of humanity more than the study of matter. We’ll look at the many influences alchemy received, and the very many influences alchemy had on other cultures, including our own.
And we’ll examine which cultures alchemy bypassed, and why these cultures had no place for the ideas of alchemy. And we’ll examine what aspects of alchemy are found in our culture. The ideas behind alchemy are common to humanity, thus we carry alchemy with us still.
