Thinking about the Self

English 102B || Thinking about the Self || Winter 2013 || TuTh 11:00-12:20p||

What is the self? A simple yet very difficult question. The “self” can be defined as “a permanent subject of successive and varying states of consciousness.” On the other hand, we speak of “a former self” or say "I feel like my old self,” as if the self varies from one time to another. In this course we will read 3 fictions that centralize the representation of a self—John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, 1678 (a spiritual allegory), Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, 1719 (a fictional travel account), and Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, 1741, (a novel written in letters). We will also study some philosophical treatments of the self by Augustine, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, and David Hume (selections from the web).
Students will write a very short paper and a longer paper and take a final. Students will also write informally to discover their own thinking. And students should expect to write drafs of the papers due.

Course Information || Short Paper Page || Longer Paper Page || Final Page || Mail Archive || Message Board

What's new?New Due Date: Drafts of Longer Paper: Thursday, 3/7

DATE

If you want to ADD or DROP the course, please see me after class. You can also email me for a drop code.

In class today

What is listed in this column is the material assigned for this day.

Everything about the course is set up to provide context for your thinking. In fact, the course itself only works if it both invites and requires your thinking.

Supporting Materials

Please always check out the study questions.

Week #1

Tuesday, 1/8

Introduction to course:AJVS
Augustine
Rene Descartes
Thomas Hobbes
David Hume
Thinking about the self: see SQ Introduction

--Augustine, Confessions, (397 CE)
--Descartes, Meditations (1641)
See also Montaigne, Essays: "Of Repentance"

Thursday, 1/10

The SELF that emerges in spiritual autobiography: John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (1678). Read to page 42.

Allegory: OED definition

Typology

*Pilgrim's Progress, SQ

Declaration of Breda

Explanation of the Declaration of Breda

Clarendon Code

Earlier restrictions on religious expression: "Directions Concerning Preachers" (1622)

--Galatians 4:21-31

"Religious dissent in England"

Just in case you want to check it out, here is a link a JSTOR article from 1912 about about non-conformity under the Clarendon Code.

Week #2

Tuesday, 1/15

Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress. Read pp. 42-106.

Look up further definitions of typology and see handout (please print).

If your last name begins with A, B, or C, please make an entry on the Bunyan forum of the messageboard. If your last name begins with E, F, or G, please respond to a Bunyan entry on the messageboard.

--The story of Hagar & Ishmael

--The story of H & I in Genesis

Thursday, 1/ 17

Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
Finish (!) reading The Pilgrim's Progress.

Chapbooks