Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Summer 2018 - HUM 340 D200

Great Cities in Their Time (4)

Class Number: 4224

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    May 7 – Aug 3, 2018: Mon, 1:30–5:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Aug 10, 2018
    Fri, 12:00–3:00 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An exploration of the cultural and intellectual accomplishments of a specific city that achieved prominence in a particular time period, and had substantial impact and influence on human civilization. Examines the political, social, religious, and cultural factors that help to explain a city's significance and investigates the achievements of its citizens. This course may be repeated for credit. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Edinburgh


“Auld Reekie” or “The Athens of the North”? Edinburgh’s contrasting nicknames reflect a deep duality in the soul of the Scottish capital, where a whole range of identity conflicts have been historically concentred between Gaelic and Anglophone, national and British, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, subaltern and imperial. This doubleness is famously expressed in Edinburgh’s architectural complexion, divided between the steep, twisting wynds and closes of the Old Town, and the rationally ordered elegance of the New Town, a physical emanation of the Scottish Enlightenment which remains one of Europe’s most recognizable and beautiful urban areas.

Our work this term will take in all the major chapters of Edinburgh’s history nerve-centre of the precarious medieval state, musical and literary flashpoint of the Northern Renaissance, battleground of the Reformation . . . incubator for the contemporary genre of “Tartan Noir.” We’ll focus, however, on the Enlightenment and early nineteenth century, when the city’s pent-up contradictions exploded into a cultural efflorescence that made Edinburgh the intellectual pacemaker of the world.

Grading

  • Attendance and participation 10%%
  • First paper 15%%
  • Research paper 20%%
  • Reading quizzes and in-class writing 15%%
  • Midterm 20%%
  • Final exam 20%%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

James Buchan, Capital of the Mind: How Edinburgh Changed the World (Birlinn 2007) 978- 1841586397

James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, ed. Ian Duncan (Oxford World’s Classics 2010) 978-0199217953

James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, ed. Ian Duncan (Oxford World’s Classics 2010) 978-0199217953

Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped (any edition)

*All other readings will be posted to Canvas or otherwise made available by the instructor.


Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS