Description:
A current book series at Oxford University Press, a recent series
of articles by contemporary novelists in the New York Times Book
Review, and an hour-long special on MTV, all devoted to the deadly
sins, demonstrate the lasting impact of this systematization of
morality on western thought within both elite and popular culture
for the last millennium and a half. This interdisciplinary class
will investigate the origins of the idea of a systematized list
of chief vices which emerged in the ethical writings of monks
in the Egyptian desert in the fourth century; the medieval developments
of this idea in literature and the arts in monastic, courtly,
and university environments; its transmission in late-medieval
popular and vernacular forms, especially in England, and in the
literature of the English Renaissance; and its adaptations in
modern literature, art, and music.
Requirements:
Students will be responsible for the content not only of the reading
assignments, but also of our discussions in class. Regular attendance
and participation in the discussions of all texts are prerequisites
for passing the course. You may also expect brief quizzes on all
reading assignments. Three unexcused absences will adversely affect
the final grade for the course. The final grades for the course
will be composed of individual performance in four areas:
1) An oral presentation (ca. 10-15 minutes) representing the fruits of your initial research on a topic which will either be assigned to you or which you will choose yourself after consultation with me. All Topic Descriptions (1 page; typewritten; double-spaced; with 1-inch margins, and your name the top of the page; and carefully proofread) are due on September 11th. The grade on the Topic Description will account for about 10 percent of your final grade. Two or three students may wish to work together on a series of oral presentations of related topics or literary texts and/or intellectual documents to be held at successive class meetings. The presentation should be open-ended and should encourage questions from the rest of the class. The grade on the presentation will account for about 15 percent of the final grade.
2) A brief book report (2-3 pages; typewritten; double-spaced; with 1-inch margins, page numbers, and your name on every page; and carefully proofread) of one or two major studies of the topic or text on which your report is based, due on the date of the oral report. The grade on the synopsis will account for about 15 percent of the final grade.
3) A short paper (5-7 pages; typewritten; double-spaced; with 1-inch margins, page numbers, and your name on every page; and carefully proofread) to be handed in one week before the oral presentation. The paper will include an annotated bibliography of 3-5 items which you will have read in preparation for giving the report and writing the paper (for all questions of documentation and references, follow the guidelines available at: http://www.public.asu.edu/~dedalus/guidetostyle/index.html). The short paper for all reports to be held after November 1st will be due on October 30th. The short paper will serve as the basis for your term paper. The grade on the short paper will account for about 20 percent of the final grade.
4) A term paper (10-15 pages; typewritten; double-spaced; with 1-inch margins, page numbers, and your name on every page; and carefully proofread) in which all of your research on the topic, and all of your own brilliance, are formulated carefully and in the scope which the subject demands. Term papers must be turned in to me - together with the copy of the short paper you handed in to me which I returned to you with my handwritten comments on it - in class at the latest on December 4th. The grade on the term paper will account for about 40 percent of the final grade.
Required Texts:
Reader [available in the ASU bookstore]:
1. Richard Newhauser. "Introduction: Cultural Construction
and the Vices." In The Seven Deadly Sins: From Communities
to Individuals. Ed. Richard Newhauser. Studies in Medieval
and Reformation Traditions: History, Culture, Religion, Ideas,
vol. 123. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2007. Pp. 1-9.
2. Evagrius Ponticus. The Praktikos. Chapters on Prayer.
Trans. John Eudes Bamberger. Cistercian Studies Series, 4. Spencer,
MA: Cistercian Publications, 1972, reprint 1981. Pp. 16-26 [the
eight evil thoughts].
3. Lester K. Little. "Pride Goes before Avarice: Social Change
and the Vices in Latin Christendom." The American Historical
Review 76,1 (1971): 16-49.
4. Prudentius. Psychomachia. Trans. H. J. Thomson.
In Prudentius, vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library, 387. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1949, reprint 1969. Pp. 290-301 [pride
v. humility].
5. Martin of Braga. De ira. Trans. Claude W. Barlow. In Iberian
Fathers, vol. 1. Washington, DC: Catholic Univ. of America Press,
[1969]. Pp. 59-69.
6. Geoffrey Chaucer. "The Parson's Tale." In The Canterbury
Tales. Trans. Ronald L. Ecker and Eugene J. Crook. Palatka, FL:
Hodge & Braddock, 1993. Pp. 530-64 [vices and contrary virtues].
7. William Langland. Piers Plowman. Trans. A. V.
C. Schmidt. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1992. Pp. 42-63, 270-79
[B.5: sins' confession]
8. John Bossy. "Moral Arithmetic: Seven Sins into Ten Commandments."
In Conscience and Casuistry in Early Modern Europe.
Ed. Edmund Leites. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, Paris: Editions
de la maison des sciences de l'homme, 1988. Pp. 214-34.
9. Poggio Bracciolini. On Avarice. Trans. Benjamin
G. Kohl and Elizabeth B. Welles. In The Earthly Republic:
Italian Humanists on Government and Society. Ed. Benjamin
G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, with Elizabeth B. Welles. Philadelphia:
Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1978. Pp. 241-89.
10. Edmund Spenser. The Faerie Queene. Ed. Thomas
P. Roche, Jr., with C. Patrick O'Donnell, Jr. London: Penguin,
1978, reprint 1987. Pp. 79-91, 1085-88 [procession of sins]
11. Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. The Seven Deadly Sins
of the Petty Bourgeoisie. In The Rise and Fall of
the City of Mahagonny and The Seven Deadly Sins of the Petty Bourgeoisie.
Ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim. Trans. W. H. Auden and Chester
Kallman. New York: Arcade, 1996. Pp. 67-83.
12. Thomas Pynchon [et al.], Deadly sins; illustrations by Etienne Delessert. New York: W. Morrow, 1993. [available on Reserve, Hayden Library]: originally published in The New York Times Book Review: Thomas Pynchon, "Nearer, My Couch, to Thee" (June 6, 1993, pp. 3, 57); Mary Gordon, "The Fascination Begins in the Mouth" (June 13, 1993, pp. 3, 31); John Updike, "Even the Bible is Soft on Sex" (June 20, 1993, pp. 3, 29); William Trevor, "Remembering Mr. Pinkerton" (June 27, 1993, pp. 3, 25); Gore Vidal, "The Most Unnerving Sin" (July 4, 1993, p. 3); Richard Howard, "Avarice, 1849: A Distraction" (July 11, 1993, p. 3); A. S. Byatt, "The Sin of Families and Nations" (July 18, 1993, pp. 3, 25-26); Joyce Carol Oates, "The One Unforgivable Sin" (July 25, 1993, pp. 3, 25).
1. T 8/21 - Introduction: The syllabus, documentation and style,
plagiarism
2. Th 8/23 - What is Sin?
3. T 8/28 - Sins as Cultural Constructions [read for today
selection 1]
4. Th 8/30 - The Sins on MTV
5. T 9/4 - Origins: Monastic Culture [read for today selection
2]
6. Th 9/6 - Accidia (Sloth)
7. T 9/11 - Sin and Social Change [read for today selection
3]; All Topic Descriptions Due Today
8. Th 9/13 - No class
9. T 9/18 - Aristocratic Society [read for today selection
4]; Student report _____________________; Student report _____________________
10. Th 9/20 - Superbia (Pride); Student report _____________________;
Student report _____________________
11. T 9/25 - Medieval and Classical Cultures [read for today
selection 5]; Student report _____________________
12. Th 9/27 - Ira (Wrath); Student report _____________________
13. T 10/2 - Academic Culture; Systems of Vices and Virtues;
Student report _____________________
14. Th 10/4 - Invidia (Envy); Student report _____________________
15. T 10/9 - Sin and Confession [read for today selection 6];
Student report _____________________
16. Th 10/11 - Peasant/Bourgeois Society [read for today selection
7]; Student report _____________________
17. T 10/16 - Accidia (Sloth); Student report _____________________
18. Th 10/18 - No class
19. T 10/23 - The Seven Deadly Sins and Modernity I [read for
today selection 8]; Student report _____________________
20. Th 10/25 - Ambiguity and Moral Theology [read for today selection
9]; Student report _____________________
21. T 10/30 - Avaritia (Greed); Student report _____________________;
All Short Papers Due Today for reports to be held after November
1st
22.Th 11/1 - The Seven Deadly Sins and Modernity II [read for
today selection 10]; Student report _____________________
23. T 11/6 - Gula (Gluttony); Student report _____________________
24. Th 11/8 - Vices as Virtues [read for today selection 11];
Student report _____________________
25. T 11/13 - Luxuria (Lust); Student report _____________________
26.Th 11/15 - Rethinking Sin I [read for today selection 12, first
four essays]; Student report _____________________
27. T 11/20 - Rethinking Sin II [read for today selection 12,
last four essays]; Student report _____________________
Th 11/22 - No class: Thanksgiving vacation
28. T 11/27 - New Sins?; Student report _____________________;
Student report _____________________;
29. Th 11/29 - Student report _____________________; Student report
_____________________; Student report _____________________;
30. T 12/4 - Epilogue; All Term Papers Due Today