Download MODULE OUTLINE Modern Liberal Arts University of Winchester

MODULE OUTLINE
Modern Liberal Arts
University of Winchester
Semester 2 2015-16
LA 1006 Learning from the Renaissance
Thursdays 3pm MB1 (week 6 MCT1)
Derek, Nigel, Becky, Tom
Module leader: Rebekah Howes
Module Learning Outcomes
Demonstrate engagement with texts and ideas relevant to the Renaissance
Demonstrate reflection on experiences and the wider contexts in which they take place
Communicate experiences of texts and ideas as appropriate
Show knowledge and understanding of specialist terminology
Demonstrate requisite research skills in gathering, summarizing and presenting evidence including proficiency
in referencing and academic conventions
Introduction
There are so many aspects of the Renaissance that have shaped the ideas that we employ
today, and often we simply take them for granted without really comprehending their
origins. You will see over the course of the module that the Renaissance was a remarkable
time, not least because it gave freedom and expression to literary and artistic cultures, to
music, to political theory, and to science, perhaps not seen in Europe since the ancient
civilizations of Greece and Rome.
As far as Liberal Arts are concerned, the Renaissance marks something of a watershed. From
Antiquity (for example, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle), the liberal arts had gradually
become codified into the trivium and quadrivium. Over the 1500 years or so, there had been
a tendency to reduce the liberal arts to compendia of knowledge – a bit like having text
books replace primary sources – and by the time of the Renaissance there was a growing
dissatisfaction with this canon of higher education, and especially with the dialectical
wrangling of the Scholastics. Against this, humanism and the fine arts mounted a serious
challenge to the dominance of Aristotelianism.
We hope you enjoy learning about one of the most important and influential periods in
European history.
Weekly sessions
Week 1
(RH)
Florence (lecture)
References
Alberti, L. B. (2004) On Painting, London: Penguin Classics.
Brown, A. (1999) The Renaissance, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.
Bruckner, G. A. (1983) Renaissance Florence, Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Burckhardt, J. (1944) The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy,
Oxford: The Phaidon Press.
Cassirer, E., Kristeller, P. O. & Randall, J. H. (eds.) (1948) The
Renaissance Philosophy of Man, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dante, (1984) The Divine Comedy vol. 1: Inferno, London: Penguin
Classics, trans. Mark Musa.
Dante, (2002) The New Life, New York: New York Review Books.
Holmes, G. (1969) The Florentine Enlightenment 1400-50, London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Latham, C.S. (1891) A Translation of Dante’s Eleven Letters, Houghton,
Mifflin and Company; available at
http://www.archive.org/details/atranslationdan02aliggoog
Nauert, C. (2006) Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Week 2
Beginnings… Humanism needs ‘humanity’
(NT)
Reading
Jaeger, W. (1973) Paideia The Ideals of Greek Culture, vol. I, pp. xxiixxv, 280, 286-291.
J. Kraemer, (1984) ‘Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam’, pp. 135140.
Heidegger, ‘Letter on Humanism’, in Basic Writings, pp. 224-5.
Gellius Attic Nights, 13.17
Cicero, Pro Archia, 8-11
Cicero, On Duties, pp. 21-3
Dante, Monarchy, pp. 3-9, 13, 19-21
Gilson, Dante and Philosophy, pp. 162-167
Pico della Mirandola, On The Dignity of Man, pp. 4-5
Ficino, Meditations on the Soul, p. 26
Kristeller, (1961) Renaissance Thought, pp. 6-11, 20-3.
Kimball, Orators and Philosophers, pp. 77-82
Wider reading
Cicero, De oratore, III, xv, 56-8
Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, pp. 57-61
Bauman, Human Rights in Ancient Rome, pp. 25-7
Campana, A. (1946) ‘The Origin of the Word “Humanist”’, Journal of
the Warburg and Courthold Institutes, vol. 9, pp. 60-73.
Proctor, Defining the Humanities, pp. 212-214
Tubbs, Philosophy and Modern Liberal Arts Education, pp. 40-4.
Week 3
(NT)
More Beginnings… Renaissance history and the Arab Golden Age
Reading
Baghdad & Florence
Mommsen, ‘Petrarch’s Conception of the “Dark Ages”’, pp. 237, 2401.
Timelines
Masood, Science and Islam, pp. 217-22; 175-181.
McGinnis & Reisman, Classical Arabic Philosophy, pp. xvii-xix.
Al-Khalili, The House of Wisdom, pp. 15-17; 33-7; 44-8; 68-73; 801;124-7; 171; 201-3; 223-6; 217-21; 229-31.
Lyons, The House of Wisdom, pp. 60-1; 62-4; 70-4; 77; 142-5; 156;
197-201.
Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance,
pp. 1-3; 16-18; 66-7; 194-9; 231-3; 250-1.
Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture, pp. 1; 13; 54-60; 89; 97-8; 110111; 152-5.
Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, pp. 203-6; 253260.
Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, (completed in 1377) pp. vii; 371-5;
428-31.
Also, ‘Visions of Islam in Renaissance Europe,’ George Saliba,
http://www.columbia.edu/~gas1/project/visions/visions.html
‘The Islamic Foundation of the Renaissance,’ Hugh Bibbs
http://www.medievalhistory.net/scientia.htm
Wider Reading
Nicholson, A Literary History of the Arabs
Starr, Lost Enlightenment.
Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century
Rosenthal, The classical heritage in Islam
Turner, Science in medieval Islam: an illustrated introduction.
Bloom, J & Blair, S. Islam: a thousand years of faith and power
J. Kraemer, (1984) ‘Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam’, Journal of
the American Oriental Society, 104.1.
Kraemer, J.L. (1992) Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam.
Week 4
(NT)
Read yourself to self-perfection
Reading
Bruni, The Study of Literature (in Kallendorf, 2008).
Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Europe, pp. 81-7
Proctor, Defining the Humanities, pp. 3-24, 172-5, 212-214
Petrarch, Letters, III. 18; XXII. 2; XVI. 14
Petrarch, On His Own Ignorance and that of Many Others, pp. 102-5
(in Cassirer, Kristeller & Randall Jr, 1948)
Melanchthon, (1999) Orations, pp. 33-4, 44, 66, 81
Melanchthon, (1988) In Praise of the New School, pp. 60-3
Vergerio, The Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth, pp.
14-25
Guarino, A Programme of Teaching and Learning, pp. 155-7
(both from Kallendorf, 2008).
Wider reading
for a critique of Burckhardt’s famous view of the Renaissance
discovery of the individual, see:
J.J. Martin, (2002) ‘The Myth of Renaissance Individualism’ (and use
his Further Reading suggestions)
S. Greenblatt, (1980) Renaissance self-fashioning
R. Porter, (1997) Re-writing the Self, chapter 1, pp. 17-28.
JJ Martin, (2004) Myths of Renaissance Individualism.
Week 5
(NT)
Petrarch, death, alienation and the turn inward
Reading
Proctor, Defining the Humanities, pp. 25-42
Howard, ‘Renaissance world-alienation’ (in Kinsman, 1974).
Petrarch, Letters, I. 1; IV. 12; V. 5; VII. 12; VIII. 7, and p. 182 (IV.2)
Petrarch, Secretum, book 1.
Auerbach, Dante, Poet of the Secular World, p. 176.
Week 6
Art: Getting Perspective (RH)
Reading
Brown, A. (1999) The Renaissance, Harlow, Pearson, pp. 53-61.
Burckhardt, J.(1960) The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, New
York: The New American Library, Inc. pp. 121-7; 321.
da Vinci, L. (2008) Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, p. 105.
Gombrich, E.H. (1989) The Story of Art, Oxford: Phaidon Press Limited
Vasari, G. (2008) The Lives of the Artists, Oxford, Oxford University
Press, pp. 3-6; 47-58; 277-283.
Wider reading
Hegel, G.W.F. (1974) Hegel’s Aesthetics, Oxford, Oxford Clarendon
Press pp872 – 882
Nahm, M. (1975) Readings in philosophy of Art and Aesthetics,
London: Englewood Cliffs pp3-5
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/unit11/unit11.h
tml
Kemp, M. (1990) The Science of Art, Yale University Press
Edgerton, S. (2009) The Mirror, the Window, and the Telescope: How
Renaissance Linear Perspective Changed Our Vision of the Universe
USA: Cornell University Press
Gombrich, E.H. (2000) Art and Illusion: v. 6: A Study in the Psychology
of Pictorial Representation, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Kemp, M. (2006) Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature
and Man, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Kemp, M. (2004) Leonardo: revised edition, Oxford: Oxford University
Press
Lester, T. (2011) Da Vinci's Ghost: The untold story of Vitruvian Man,
London: Profile Books Ltd
Mcewen, I.K. (2003) Vitruvius: Writing the Body of Architecture, USA:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Vitruvius (2009) On Architecture, London: Penguin Group
Vasari, G. (2008) The Lives of the Artists, Oxford, Oxford University
Press
Week 7
Music (RH)
Reading
Boethius (1989) Fundamentals of Music, New Haven & London: Yale
University Press p. 2
Dunwell, W. (1962) Music and the European Mind, London, Herbert
Jenkins, pp. 101-111.
Ferguson, K. (2008) Pythagoras, New York: Walker Publishing
Company, Inc. pp. 64-5.
Ficino, M. (1997) Meditations on the Soul, Rochester, Inner Traditions
International, p. 59.
James, J. (1993) The Music of the Spheres, New York: Copernicus pp 34
Mellers, W. (1980) Bach and the Dance of God, London, Faber and
Faber pp 3- 9.
Mellers, W. (2002) Celestial Music, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press pp
26 and 28
Week 8
Machiavelli’s The Prince (TN)
Reading
Machiavelli. 1961. The Prince. Penguin Books.
Wider Reading
Benner, Erica. 2013. Machiavelli's Prince: A New Reading. Oxford
University Press.
Berlin, Isaiah. 1979. Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas.
Hogarth Press. [Ch on 'The Originality of Machiavelli']
Coyle, Martin. (Ed.) 1995. Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince": New
Interdisciplinary Essays. Manchester University Press.
DeAlvarez, Leo Paul S. 1999. The Machiavellian Enterprise: A
Commentary on The Prince. Nothern Illinois University Press.
Skinner, Quentin. 2000. Machiavelli: A Very Short introduction. Oxford
University Press.
Week 9
Machiavelli’s The Prince (TN)
Reading
Machiavelli. 1961. The Prince. Penguin Books.
Wider Reading
Benner, Erica. 2013. Machiavelli's Prince: A New Reading. Oxford
University Press.
Berlin, Isaiah. 1979. Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas.
Hogarth Press. [Ch on 'The Originality of Machiavelli']
Coyle, Martin. (Ed.) 1995. Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince": New
Interdisciplinary Essays. Manchester University Press.
DeAlvarez, Leo Paul S. 1999. The Machiavellian Enterprise: A
Commentary on The Prince. Nothern Illinois University Press.
Skinner, Quentin. 2000. Machiavelli: A Very Short introduction. Oxford
University Press.
Week 10
is power (DB)
Sir Francis Bacon: Ensuring the future security of the State: knowledge
Reading
selections from Novum Organum and the essays
Wider reading
Bacon, F. (2013) Physical and Metaphysical Works: including the
Advancement of Learning and Novum Organum London: ULAN Press
Bird, A. Philosophy of Science London UCL Press
Couvalis, G. (1997) The Philosophy of Science London: SAGE
Eliar-Feldon, M. (1982) Realistic Utopias: the Ideal Imaginary Societies
of the Renaissance Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Murphy, P. (2003) Evidence, Proof, and Facts: a book of sources
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Peltonen, M. (1996) The Cambridge Companion to Bacon Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Price, B. (ed.) (2002) Francis Bacon's 'The New Atlantis': New
Interdisciplinary Essays Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Urbach, P. (1986) Francis Bacon’s Philosophy of Science: an account
and a reappraisal La Salle: Open Court
Vickers, B. (1968) Francis Bacon and Renaissance Prose London:
Thames & Hudson
Week 11
Michel de Montaigne (DB)
Reading
‘On Cannibals’
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/montaigne/montaigneessays--2.html
A short overview is available here
http://www.enotes.com/topics/cannibals
Wider reading
Corrigan, T. (2011) The Essay Film: from Montaigne, after Marker
Oxford: Oxford University Press
De Certeau, M. (1997) Heterologies: discourse on the other
Minnesota: University of Minneapolis Press; see ‘Montaigne’s ‘Of
Cannibals’: The Savage ‘I’’
Frame, D. (1958) The Complete Works of Montaigne: essays, travel
journal, letters London: Hamish Hamilton
Frame, D. (1965) Montaigne: a biography London: Hamish Hamilton
Grady, H. (2002) Shakespeare, Machiavelli, and Montaigne: power
and subjectivity from Richard II to Hamlet Oxford: Oxford University
Press
Kenny, A. (1993) Renaissance Thinkers Oxford: Oxford University Press
Korhonen, K. (2006) Textual Friendship: the essay as impossible
encounter, from Plato and Montaigne to Levinas and Derrida Anherst,
N.Y.: Humanity Books
Langer, U. (2005) The Cambridge Companion to Montaigne
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Rawson, C. J. (2001) God, Gulliver, and Genocide: barbarism and the
European imagination, 1492-1945 Oxford: Oxford University Press
Rendall, S. (1992) Distinguo: reading Montaigne differently Oxford:
Clarendon Press
Assessment
Assessment 1: (50%)
Title: Using evidence from texts, describe some of the characteristics of Renaissance
humanism
(1750-2000 words; deadline: (Thursday Week 7 25th February) given to Catherine in the
Office by 3.30pm).
Assessment 2: (50 %)
Title: you will choose from the list of essays that develops between weeks 6-11, or you can
contact a tutor if you have an idea for a title of your own
(1750-2000 words; deadline (Thursday Week 12 31st March) given to Catherine in the Office
by 3.30pm).
Use Harvard Referencing
We attempt always to return work within 3 working weeks (15 days working days).
References & wider reading for weeks 1-5
Al-Khalili, J. (2011) The House of Wisdom, New York: Penguin.
Alberti, L. B. (2004) On Painting, London: Penguin Classics.
Auerbach, E. (2007) Dante, Poet of the Secular World, New York: New York Review of Books.
Bantock, G.H. (1980) Studies in the History of Educational Theory vol. 1, London: George
Allen & Unwin.
Bauman, R.A. (2012) Human Rights in Ancient Rome, London & New York: Routledge.
Bloom, J & Blair, S. (2002) Islam: a thousand years of faith and power, Yale, Nota Bene.
Brown, A. (1999) The Renaissance, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.
Bruckner, G. A. (1983) Renaissance Florence, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bruni, L. (2001) History of the Florentine People volume 1, Cambridge Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press, ed. J Hankins.
Burckhardt, J. (1944) The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Oxford: The Phaidon Press.
Burke, P. (1999) The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy, Cambridge: Polity
Press.
Campana, A. (1946) ‘The Origin of the Word “Humanist”’, Journal of the Warburg and
Courthold Institutes, vol. 9, pp. 60-73.
Cassirer, E., Kristeller, P. O. & Randall, J. H. (eds.) (1948) The Renaissance Philosophy of Man,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cassirer, E., Kristeller, P. O. & Randall, J. H. (eds.) (1948) The Renaissance Philosophy of Man,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cicero, (1923) ‘Pro Archia’, in Orations, Loeb Classical Library: Harvard University Press.
Cicero, (1991) On Duties, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cicero, (1998) The Nature of the Gods, Oxford: Oxford World Classics.
Cicero, De Oratore, Book III
http://pages.pomona.edu/~cmc24747/sources/cic_web/de_or_3.htm
Copenhaver, B.P. & Schmitt, C.B. (1992) Renaissance Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Dante, (1984) The Divine Comedy vol. 1: Inferno, London: Penguin Classics, trans. Mark
Musa.
Dante, (1996) Monarchy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dante, (2002) The New Life, New York: New York Review Books.
Dawson, C. (2010) The Crisis of Western Education, Washington: The Catholic University of
America Press.
De Ridder-Symoens, H. (ed) (1996) A History of the University in Europe, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Erasmus, D. (1983) The Essential Erasmus, New York: Meridian.
Ficino, M. (1997) Meditations on the Soul, Rochester: Inner Traditions.
Gellius, Attic Nights
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/home.html
Gilson, E. (1963) Dante and Philosophy, New York: Harper Torchbooks.
Grafton, A. & Jardine, L. (1986) From Humanism to the Humanities, Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.
Greenblatt, S. (1980) Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, Chicago,
University of Chicago Press.
Gutas, D. (1998) Greek Thought, Arabic Culture, London, Routledge.
Hainsworth, P. (2010) The Essential Petrarch, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Haskins, C.H. (1927) The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, London, Harvard University
Press.
Heidegger, M. (1993) Basic Writings, London, Routledge.
Holmes, G. (1969) The Florentine Enlightenment 1400-50, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Ibn Khaldun, (2005) The Muqaddimah, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Jaeger, W. (1973) Paideia The Ideals of Greek Culture, vol. I, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Kallendorf, C.W. (2008) Humanist Educational Treatises, Harvard University Press.
Kaufmann, W. (1995) The Future of the Humanities, New Brunswick & London: Transaction
Publishers.
Kennedy, H. (2004) When Baghdad Rules the Muslim Empire, Cambridge, DaCapo Press.
Kimball, B. (1986) Orators and Philosophers, New York, Teachers College Press.
Kinsman, R.S. (1974) The Darker Vision of the Renaissance, Los Angeles, University of
California.
J. Kraemer, (1984) ‘Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam’, Journal of the American Oriental
Society, 104.1.
Kraemer, J.L. (1992) Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam, Leiden, Brill.
Kristeller, P. O. (1961) Renaissance Thought: The Classic, Scholastic, and Humanist Strains,
New York: Harper Torchbooks.
Kristeller, P.O. (1990) Renaissance Thought and the Arts, Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
Kristeller, P.O. (1992) Medieval Aspects of Renaissance Learning, New York: Columbia Press.
Latham, C.S. (1891) A Translation of Dante’s Eleven Letters, Houghton, Mifflin and Company;
available at http://www.archive.org/details/atranslationdan02aliggoog
Laurie, S.S. (1969) Studies in the History of Educational Opinion from the Renaissance, New
York: Augustus M Kelley Publishers.
Levy, B.S. (ed) (1972) Developments in the Early Renaissance, Albany: SUNY Press.
Lyons, J. (2009) The House of Wisdom, London, Bloomsbury.
McGinnis, J. & Reisman, D.C. (2007) Classical Arabic Philosophy, Indianapolis: Hackett
Publishing Co.
Martin, J.J. (2002) ‘The Myth of Renaissance Individualism,’ in A Companion to the Worlds
of the Renaissance, ed. G. Ruggiero, Oxford, Blackwell.
JJ Martin, (2004) Myths of Renaissance Individualism, Basingstoke, PalgraveMacmillan.
Masood, E. (2009) Science and Islam, London, Icon Books.
Melanchthon, P. (1988) A Melanchthon Reader, New York: Peter Lang.
Melanchthon, P. (1999) Orations on Philosophy and Education, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Mirandola, P. (1998) On The Dignity of Man, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co.
Mommsen, T. E. (1942) ‘Petrarch’s Conception of the Dark Ages’, Speculum, Vol. 17, No. 2,
pp. 226-242.
Nauert, C. (2006) Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Nicholson, R.A. (1907/2008) A literary History of the Arabs, New Delhi, Kitab Bhavan.
Pater, W. (2010) Studies in the History of the Renaissance, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Petrarch, F. (2005) Letters on Familiar Matters 3 volumes, New York: Italica Press.
Petrarch, F. (2010) Secretum, Richmond: One World Classics.
Porter, R. (ed.) (2007) Rewriting the Self: Histories from the Renaissance to the Present,
London, Routledge.
Proctor, R.E. (1998) Defining the Humanities, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Robinson, J. H. (1970) Petrarch; The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters, New York:
Haskell House Publishers Ltd.
Rosenthal, F. (1992) The classical heritage in Islam, London, Routledge.
Saliba, G. (2011) Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance,
Massachusetts, MIT Press.
Starr, S.F. (2013) Lost Enlightenment, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Turner, HR, (1997) Science in medieval Islam: an illustrated introduction, Austin, University
of Texas Press.
Vasari, G. (2008) The Lives of the Artists, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Woodward, W.H. (1906) Studies in Education during the Age of the Renaissance, 1400-1600,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Websites
PETRARCH
Petrarch – by JH Robinson
http://www.archive.org/stream/petrarchfirstmod00petrrich/petrarchfirstmod00petrrich_dj
vu.txt
also
http://faculty.mdc.edu/jmcnair/Joe26pages/francesco_petrach.htm
This site has a wealth of resources of Petrarch’s writings
http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/petrarch.html
Websites for Florence
Dome structure
http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/sijpkes/arch374/winter2001/sfarfa/ensayo1.htm
Brancacci Chapel
http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Firenze/Brancacc
i%20Chapel.htm
Brunelleschi on perspective
http://timelinewritingwiki.wikispaces.com/Brunelleschi-+Linear+Perspective
Ghiberti’s Doors
http://artistsworkbench.blogspot.com/2009/05/artistic-unpartnership-that-ushered-in.html
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/italy/florence/ghibertiparadise/ghibertiparadise.html
Ideal City attributed to Alberti
http://www.italia-online.co.uk/article.php/Ideal_City
Dante – Vita nuova
http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/TheNewLife.htm
http://www.elfinspell.com/DanteNewLife1.html
Dante – Convivio
http://www.poetryintranslation.com/klineasconvivio.htm
Dante – De vulgari eloquentia (to buy, in english)
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Dante-De-Vulgari-Eloquentia-DanteAlighieri/9780521409230
Dante – De monarchia
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2196&chapter
=203185&layout=html&Itemid=27
all Dante texts
http://www.greatdante.net/texts.html
Dante’s Letters
Latham - http://www.archive.org/details/atranslationdan02aliggoog
Toynbee http://www.archive.org/stream/epistolaeletters00dantuoft/epistolaeletters00dantuoft_djv
u.txt
(note: the slightly later version – Toynbee – does not include the letter to Guido da Polenta
as actually written by Dante, though it was included in the Latham version, [and it only
summarizes the letters].)
Library Scene in Se7en
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbLGfJecWyE&feature=related
MODERN LIBERAL ARTS MARK SCHEME
We want you to be very clear about how we will mark your work and that means you must know with each
assessment what you are expected to do. We hope that this does not mean you will feel that you have to write
to a formula. We are trying to build in considerable freedom to your assessments; but as the term ‘liberal arts’
conveys, in every freedom there is a discipline, and in every discipline there is a freedom; together, we hope,
they constitute the struggle of learning.
There are (often but not always) two types of essays in MLA: the first assessment title in a module will most
often be set by the tutor and will be restricted to texts explored in the first weeks. The second assessment title
can be tutor-led, or chosen from a list of titles, or can be negotiated individually; this varies according to the
tutor and the module. This assignment can explore wider issues, employ wider reading, or explore a single
issue in depth. Students will bear some responsibility for the references consulted in the second essay,
increasing through years 1, 2 and 3.
Tutor-set assessments (disciplina)
Student/tutor-set assessments (libertas)
1st module essay
2nd module essay
Marks for
 depth of understanding specialist
Marks for
 depth of understanding of texts






terminology
depth of understanding of set texts
depth of understanding of ideas/concepts
evidence by quotation
answering the question
correct referencing
word limit






depth of understanding and application of
ideas/concepts
evidence-based critical arguments
depth/breadth of reading (depending on
the question)
answering your own question
correct referencing
word limit
Note the difference between essays 1 and 2: the first one is marked only on your understanding of texts; the
second one is marked on understanding, on your own reading, and your emerging critical voice. Be careful
here; being critical does not mean just giving your opinions. It means making a case based on evidence from
your reading, using ideas and concepts from texts. It does not mean you have to fight for one side of an
argument or another… ambivalence will be treated with great respect. But for every essay, remember this: if
we (and you) get the title right, then by answering the question you will be doing exactly what is required.
Over years 1, 2 and 3 the levels of your work are raised by using increasingly challenging texts, ideas, concepts
and writers, and by the way you are able to employ ideas, concepts and writers from other modules across the
degree in increasingly sophisticated ways.
For all essays, then
Depending on the question you will need to




Demonstrate reflection on module material and the wider contexts from across the degree which
might impact upon it
Communicate experiences of texts and ideas as appropriate
Show knowledge and understanding of specialist terminology
Demonstrate requisite research skills in gathering, summarizing and presenting evidence including
proficiency in referencing and academic conventions.
For essay 1
Depending on the question you will need to





Show careful reading of primary sources
Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works
Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives
Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as
appropriate
Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with issues raised in the module.
For essay 2
Depending on the question you will need to





Show an ability to employ theorists critically in relation to issues
Show an ability to use concepts as critical tools in discussing issues and questions as appropriate
Show an ability to employ theoretical perspectives as critical tools
Therein, to develop a critical voice informed and deepened by appropriate use of theory as
critique.
Sustain a critical relationship to ideas related to the module
It is often hard to explain in generic terms how any particular essay could have been improved. But, cautiously,
we can say the following:
In general,
a 3rd (40-49%) may have ignored the question, may have not given much evidence of reading, may have clumsy
sentence structure, but will still have made a bona fide attempt at the work.
a 2.2 (50-59%) will have provided evidence of reading, quotations where appropriate, clear sentence structure,
attended to the question or title, but not related the material in ways which synthesise more developed and
complex thinking.
a 2.1 (60-69%) will have evidence of reading through effective selection of quotation, being able to make
specific points, and to relate material together to make broader and/or deeper and more complex
observations. At the higher end, it may have been able to relate material from across modules, or across the
degree as a whole, to synthesise separate ideas and issues into more holistic comments, ideas and problems.
The questions addressed will be getting ever more difficult and important, including those that are asked
without being answered.
a 1st (70-100%) will make a little go a long way. Quotations may carry implications beyond their precise
content; sentences will be clear but able to refine complex ideas succinctly; most importantly, it will be able to
combine the microcosm of its subject matter with the macrocosm of its place in the wider context, and these
contexts will be drawn form the overall, experience of the degree, growing obviously from years 1 to 3. No
inaccuracies of grammar or sentence construction, and no referencing mistakes are expected here. The voice
of the essay will be in control of difficult material throughout. Above all the questions asked and addressed will
be compelling in their difficulty and import.
Module evaluations (previous year)
No evaluations were forthcoming via email this year. The module however went well. Essays were
good and introduced students to important concepts that are returned to in the following years.
General feedback in sessions throughout the semester was good. We anticipate no major changes
for the following year because it works well as it stands and as a group taught module.
Catalogue summary
This module introduces students to themes and personalities that were central to the period of
Western history called the Renaissance. It will provide students with an historical overview of key
events, as well as looking at the relation of the Renaissance to other historical periods. It will also
look more deeply into selected ideas with a view to illustrating their significance both within the
Renaissance and beyond. Central to the approach of the module will be to illustrate ways in which
the Renaissance holds an ‘educational’ import both within itself and in terms of a legacy. Where
appropriate, tutors will relate the material to both ancient and more modern issues and ideas. The
module aims to increase student knowledge and understanding of the Renaissance but also to draw
out its fundamental import for the notion of education in its widest sense. Many of the ideas
introduced in this module will be returned to in years 2 and 3.