Summer 1999

Senior Perspective Course
SRP435 (also ENG 435, PHL 435)

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ECONOMICS: CRITICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF COMMERCIAL LIFE

Core (A) Curriculum Requirement

Certified Writing Course

CLICK HERE FOR NAMES AND PICTURES OF STUDENTS IN THIS CLASS

GENERAL INFORMATION

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Drawing on contemporary work in critical theory, literary criticism, aesthetics, and rhetoric, this course examines the relations of philosophy, economics, and literature through an assessment of the representation of economic phenomena in selected literary and philosophical texts. The course will explore 1) how an analysis of such texts can reveal underlying social forms such as private property, the commodity, wage labor, and capital; and 2) how these ethically consequential forms tie in with problems of poverty, unequal distributions of income and wealth, overconsumption and depletion of natural resources, competition and conflict, and social instability.

TEXTS

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1) Writing Journal (30%)

Students will be required to write a minimum of 1-2 pages (approx. 250-300 words per page) before each class session (except the first and last). The writing should be in essay style and addressed to discussion of the issues raised by the readings assigned for that particular class. While the precise emphasis of the writing will be up to each student, the instructor will provide a variety of questions intended to motivate thought and reflection (see online study questions for each reading). Students are invited to answer any of those questions and to formulate and pursue questions of their own. All writing however must be clearly relevant to the assigned readings and the concerns of the class. Journal pages may be hand- or typewritten but must be neat and easily legible. Journal entries will be submitted to the instructor at each class period. Notice that the journal writing will constitute the basis for the term paper.

2) Term Paper (30%)

Students will be asked to submit a term paper (approx. 10-15 pages) focused on personal reflection on the issues treated in the course and offering a revision and integration of the writing done in the journal. Papers may concentrate on one or more of the texts and can include close readings and analysis of given passages. Term papers should concentrate on an attempt to answer one or more of the guiding questions of the course and should constitute extensions and revisions of the writing done in the portfolio. Specially encouraged is consideration of the ethical implications of the course's explorations and of the ways in which interdisciplinary study illuminates the subject matter.

3) In-Class Work and Participation (40%)

In addition to the writing portfolio, the instructor will assess and grade each student's overall involvement, development, and accomplishment in the course. This grade will take into account all aspects of a student's performance, including attendance, class participation, class preparation, contributions, effort, attentiveness, interest, improvement, responsibility, etc.

4) Make-up Work, Attendance and Other Policies

Make-ups/extensions for a missed deadline will only be given in cases of documented serious illness or other valid, non-frivolous excuses such as documented participation in official University sports or academic/service events (it will be up to the instructors to determine and decide on the acceptability of an excuse). An attendance measurement will be calculated equal to the percentage of total class time attended. The course grade may not exceed that percentage (i.e. if the student attended only 75% of the class time, the course grade may not be higher than 75 or C, on a 0-100 point scale where 90-100 = A, 87-89 = B+, 80-86 = B, 77-79 = C+, 70-76 = C, 60-69 = D, and 0-59 = F). Notice also that, at the discretion of the instructor, any student missing more than 30% of the total class time may fail the course. All students in the class are expected to observe the University's guidelines on student conduct as described in Creighton University's Student Handbook (see "Code of Conduct," and especially the section on "Academic Misconduct" dealing with problems of plagiarism, cheating, etc.).

READING AND DISCUSSION SCHEDULE

Click here for Course's Guiding Questions and Concerns

(Click on the individual subjects for study questions. These questions will guide class discussions and should also be used as the basis of the writing for the portfolio)

Mon Jun 07

Wed Jun 09

Mon Jun 14

Wed Jun 16

Mon Jun 21

Wed Jun 23

Thu Jun 24

Mon Jun 28

Wed Jun 30

Thu July 01

Mon Jul 05

Wed Jul 07

Fri Jul 09