First-Year Writing Seminar: Contemplation and Culture

Semester and Year	FA 2012
Course Number	FIRST-UG385
Section	001
Instructor	Jean Gallagher
Days	Tue,Thu
Time	11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement

Notes/Restrictions

Open to Gallatin first-year students only.

Description

There is a significant body of cultural work that seeks to describe the experience or results of contemplation or meditation, offer instruction in its various methods, or to induce or encourage a contemplative state. This course will examine texts and images from a number of fields (including spiritual autobiography, sermons, psychological studies, philosophical writing, painting, and poetry) and from a range of religious and philosophical traditions (Christian mysticism, Daoism, Buddhism, Sufism), which represent some aspect of contemplative experience. Readings may include works by James Austin, Karen Armstrong, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, Simone Weil, William James, Rainer Maria Rilke, William Blake, Eihei Dogen, Lao-tzu, Walt Whitman, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gary Snyder, Dante Alighieri, Jelaluddin Rumi, and Basho; visual art may include work by Duccio, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Wassily Kandinsky, and Bill Viola. Writing in the course will include a daily journal (which will include observations of assigned readings or images), four shorter essays (4-5 pages), and a longer critical essay (6-8 pages).

Syllabus

FIRST-UG385

Course Type

First-Year Program: Writing Seminars (FIRST-UG)