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LITERATURE HUMANITIES
Fall 2019

Dalia Inbal
di2121@columbia.edu
Office location 307 Hamilton Hall

Course Description
From the Lit Hum website: Lit Hum, as it is commonly known, is designed to enhance students’
understanding of main lines of literary and philosophical development that have shaped western
thought for nearly three millennia. Much more than a survey of great books, Lit Hum encourages
students to become critical readers of the literary past we have inherited. Although most of our
Lit Hum works (and the cultures they represent) are remote from us, we nonetheless learn
something about ourselves in struggling to appreciate and understand them. Why did these works
cause previous generations to value them so highly? In what ways are our authors in
conversation with each other? How are these books relevant to our lives? In the end, what do we
gain from them? These questions offer just a sample of the kinds of provocation that Lit Hum is
meant to arouse. Students should not expect Lit Hum to teach them what these texts are about.
Rather, it asks students to join a small group of classmates to raise questions and debate answers.
Lit Hum seminars should fascinate, delight, and confound. Our hope is that students will return
to these books, their beauty, and the profound questions they raise over the course of their lives.
Core Questions
“An unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato, Apology, 38a).
How ought we to live? Our Lit Hum readings asks us to explore radically different moral
universes. What do we learn about ourselves in doing this?
Here’s a few of the many questions raised in our Lit Hum readings: How do the power and
agency of human beings differ? Why are some people (e.g., women, servants) denied agency?
How do the interests of the individual conflict with those of the family or community? What role
does story-telling and word manipulation play in life? Do stories get at the truth? Is there a
natural way of being human or is human nature constructed? How is gender constructed? What
are righteousness and virtue? Is there any good that comes from suffering in life? Is there a truth
and, if so, what is necessary to find it? Do we find it through emotions or reason, community or
conflict?
In asking us to consider these sorts of questions, Lit Hum encourages us to compare our own
assumptions and values to the radically different ones expressed in our readings. It demands that
we examine ourselves in relation to our past.

Readings
Books for the course can be purchased at the Columbia University bookstore. Please purchase
the correct editions. All standard Lit Hum books are also on reserve at Butler Library, in room
208.
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Course Requirements
1. Attendance, preparation, and participation: A combination of weekly written responses (see 4.
below), quizzes, and most importantly class participation will count for 30% of your final grade.
The success of this course depends on the active and considerate participation of all
students. You must come to class and be prepared. You must bring your book.

2. Exams: There will be a mid-term and final examination, the former counts for 15%, the latter
for 20% of your grade.

3. Papers: There will be two papers. The first will be 3 (double-spaced) pages and will count for
15% of your grade, the second will be 5 (double-spaced) pages and worth 20% of your grade.
We will talk more about specific assignments for the first two papers and your own possible
paper topic choices as we move through the syllabus, but you should mark places as you read
that are particularly interesting, confusing, or troubling to you. These often generate the best
paper topics.

4. Weekly response papers to be posted on Courseworks by Monday night. Pick a passage, idea,
conflict or character that you found intriguing and write around 250 words about it. You are
expected to read everybody’s postings before class. You can refer to other postings in your
posting.

Class policies

If you need to miss class (for illness or any other reason), please email me in advance to let me
know.
Core Policy on Student Attendance: Students are expected to attend every session of their Core
classes. In the event that a student must miss a class due to religious observance, illness, or
family emergency, instructors are expected to provide students with the opportunity to make up
any missed work. Instructors may also encourage (though not require) that students complete
additional assignments to help make up for lost class participation. Whenever possible (in the
case of religious holidays, for example), students should provide advance notification of absence.
Students who miss class without instructor permission should expect to have their grade lowered.

Core policy on academic integrity: Columbia College is dedicated to the highest ideals of
integrity in academia. Therefore, in Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization, any
instance of academic dishonesty, attempted or actual, will be reported to the faculty chair of the
course and to the dean of the Core Curriculum, who will review the case with the expectation
that a student guilty of academic dishonesty will receive the grade of "F" in the course and be
referred to dean's discipline for further institutional action.

Please do not use your computers, cell phones or any other electronic devices during class. If, for
any particular reason, you have to use any electronic device, come talk to me.
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Lit Hum Website

Before we discuss a text, check out the Biographies and Historical Contexts for the assigned text
and have a look at the Explorations. Find the site at:
http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/lithum (it requires a UNI).


LITERATURE HUMANITIES: FALL 2019

st
T Sept. 3: Homer, Iliad (1 day, books 1-6)

nd
R Sept. 5: Homer, Iliad (2 day, books 7-12)

rd
T Sept. 10: Homer, Iliad (3 day, books 13-18)

th
R Sept 12: Homer, Iliad (4 day, books 14-24)

T Sept. 17: Sappho, Lyrics (1 day)

st
R Sept. 19: Homer, Odyssey (1 day, books 1-8)

nd
T Sept. 24: Homer, Odyssey (2 day, books 9-16)

rd
R Sept. 26: Homer, Odyssey (3 day, books 17-24)


st
T Oct. 1: Genesis (1 day, chapters 1-36)

nd
R Oct. 3: Genesis (2 day, chapters 37-50)

T Oct. 8: Job and Song of Solomon (1 day)

st
R Oct. 10: Herodotus, The Histories (1 day, Bk. 1.1-140 (Croesus; Gyges; Solon; Cyrus, p. 3-
64 [61 pp.]; Bk. 2.35-45, 2.112-20 (Egyptian customs, Helen in Egypt, p. 108-14; p. 137-41 [10
pp.])

nd
T Oct. 15: Herodotus, The Histories (2 day, Bk. 3.1-38 (Cambyses, p. 169-186 [18 pp.]); Bk.
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7.1-58, 7.100-5, 7.201-39 (Xerxes, p. 404-28; p. 438-41 [27 pp.]); (Thermopylae, p. 475-488 [14
pp.])

st
R Oct. 17: Aeschylus, Oresteia (1 day, Agamemnon)

nd
T Oct. 22: Aeschylus, Oresteia (2 day, Libation Bearers, Eumenides)

R Oct. 24: Midterm Exam

T Oct. 29: Sophocles, Antigone (1 day)


R Oct. 31: CONTEMPORARY CORE: Parks, Father Comes Home from the Wars (1 day)

T Nov. 5: NO CLASS (Election day)

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R Nov. 7: Plato, Symposium (1 day, pages 1-44)

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T Nov. 12: Plato, Symposium (2 day, pages 45-77)

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R Nov. 14: Virgil, Aeneid (1 day, books 1-4)

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T Nov. 19: Virgil, Aeneid (2 day, books 5-8 & Monday Posting)

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R Nov. 21: Virgil, Aeneid (3 day, books 9-12)

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T Nov. 26: Ovid, Metamorphoses (1 day, 1.1-567 (Proem; the creation; Lycaon and human
depravity; the Flood; the rebirth via Deucalion and Pyrrha; Apollo and Daphne: 28 pp.); 3.339-
510 (Echo and Narcissus: 7 pp.); 6.1-312 (divine retribution and/or vindictiveness as illustrated
by Arachne and Niobe: 15 pp.); 10.243-297 (Pygmalion: 3 pp.))

R Nov. 28: NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)

nd
T Dec. 4: Ovid, Metamorphoses (2 day, Ovid’s Trojan War [12-13.622] 61 pp. & Monday
Posting)

rd
R: Dec. 6: Ovid, Metamorphoses (3 day, ‘little Aeneid’ [13.623-14.621]: 68 pp.); 15.745-879
(apotheosis of Julius Caesar; Ovid’s epilogue: 6 pp.).

Friday, Dec. 13, 1-4 pm: LH Final exam

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Fall 2018 Texts:

Homer, Iliad (Chicago, tr. Lattimore)
Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (Vintage, tr. Carson)
Homer, Odyssey (Norton, tr. Emily Wilson)
New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha
Herodotus, The Histories (Oxford, tr. Waterfield)
Aeschylus, Oresteia (Aeschylus II, Chicago, tr. Lattimore)
Sophocles, Antigone (Sophocles I, Chicago, tr. Lattimore)
Parks, Father Comes Home from the Wars (Theater Communications Group)
Plato, Symposium (Hackett, trs. Nehamas, Woodruff)
Virgil, Aeneid (Bantam, tr. Mandelbaum)
Ovid, Metamorphoses (Penguin, tr. Raeburn)

Spring 2019 Texts:

New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha
Augustine, Confessions (Oxford, tr. Chadwick)
Dante, Inferno (Bantam, tr. Mandelbaum)
Montaigne, Essays (Penguin, tr. Cohen)
Shakespeare, Macbeth (Oxford)
Cervantes, Don Quixote (Harper Collins, tr. Grossman)
Milton, Paradise Lost (Modern Library)
Austen, Pride and Prejudice (Oxford)
Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (Vintage, trs. Volokhonsky, Pevear)
Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Harcourt)
Morrison, Song of Solomon (Vintage)

Student Resources

The Writing Center 
 The Center is in 310 Philosophy Hall (212) 854-3886
uwp@columbia.edu
 To learn more about what happens in a Writing Center consultation, see
http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/uwp/writing-center/faq

Academic Success Programs http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/asp
 212-854-3514

asp@columbia.edu
 ASP provides a network of comprehensive programs and services that
assist students in enhancing and maximizing their academic potential through academic advising,
academic skill-building, career seminars, personal counseling, and mentoring opportunities. ASP
also provides individual and group tutorials and skills-based workshops to students who desire
additional academic support services.

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Counseling and Psychological Services https://health.columbia.edu/counseling-and-

psychological-services
 Columbia: 212-854 2284 Barnard: (212) 854-2092
 Emergency: 212-
854-2878
 Counseling and Psychological Services supports the psychological and emotional
well- being of the campus community by providing counseling, consultation and crisis
intervention — all of which adhere to strict standards of confidentiality. CPS offers free
psychological counseling - short-term individual counseling, couples counseling for students and
their partners, student life support groups, medication consultation, training and emergency
consultation - to all undergraduate and graduate students who have paid the Health Service Fee.
Urgent medical or mental health concerns are prioritized by the medical and counseling services
of Columbia Health: 212-854-2878


Disability Services https://health.columbia.edu/disability-services
 212-854 2388

disability@columbia.edu
 The Office of Disability Services (ODS) empowers students with
disabilities to realize their academic and personal potential by facilitating equal access and
coordinating reasonable accommodations and support services for eligible students. This
approach is consistent with the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act and emphasizes
student ability and independence. (Students seeking accommodations or support services from
ODS are required to register with the office.)


Student Services for Gender-Based and Sexual Misconduct

http://sexualrespect.columbia.edu/
 (212) 854-1717 ssgbsm@columbia.edu
 Student Services
for Gender-Based and Sexual Misconduct manages the disciplinary procedure for reports of
gender-based and sexual misconduct where students are alleged to have engaged in behavior.
The Assistant Director is a neutral administrator in the disciplinary process. This person is
responsible for coordinating the disciplinary process and for working with all involved parties.
The Assistant Director does not determine whether a policy violation occurred. This individual
also serves as the Deputy Title IX Coordinator focusing on reports of gender-based misconduct
involving situations in which a student is the respondent.


Rape Crisis/Anti-Violence Support Center Peer Advocacy: (212) 854-HELP (4357) Main Line:
(212) 854-4366
 Barnard College: 3009 Broadway, 105 Hewitt Hall
 Columbia University:
2920 Broadway, 700 Alfred Lerner Hall
 Peer Advocates assist survivors by accompanying
them to the hospital, health services, the police, public safety, court, campus disciplinary
proceedings and other resources. They also help survivors make informed decisions about
reporting and disciplinary options.