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Teaching Company - Understanding Literature and Life
Some of the Teaching Company courses require more attention than others. For instance, I dug up the supplementary materials for The History of the English Language, whereas I'm merely listening to the CDs on Mozart and not even bothering to skim the attached coursebook. Three of them - Religious Wars in Europe, Henry VIII, and English History Tudor-Stuart - will be listened to in conjunction not with their own recommended readings, but with my pre-selected 19-book self-study reading.
But then I started looking at the coursebooks for Understanding Literature and Life, and *blink* Dang! Professor Arnold Weinstein is taking it all very seriously. In the coursebooks, Dr. Lerer ended the History of English lecture notes with "you should have learned" questions and suggestions for comparison. In Science Fiction, Prof. Rabkin provides a couple "Questions to Consider," like Is there, in your opinion, such a thing as fact? Considering Verne's questioning of our construction of facts.
In Literature and Life, Prof. Weinstein is outright giving quizzes. Cumulative essay question quizzes, three per lecture.
Explain, according to Blake, what comprises the voyage from innocence to experience in the modern world.
Compare and contrast Baudelaire's treatment of women in "The Little Old Women" with Whitman's depiction of city crowds in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry."
Summarize how "The Road Not Taken" offers a vision of the past contrary to that represented in Oedipus.
Give examples of where Bronte uses a fairytale environment to create a horrific effect.
Given that the course itself will take a significant effort to even listen to - it's 64 lectures, roughly 32 hours of audio alone - it's surprisingly tempting to actually treat this particular one exactly like a class and make a point of not only doing the reading but the homework.
That would make this one class a year-long project, if not longer, (life would have to come first!) but... it's really tempting.
But then I started looking at the coursebooks for Understanding Literature and Life, and *blink* Dang! Professor Arnold Weinstein is taking it all very seriously. In the coursebooks, Dr. Lerer ended the History of English lecture notes with "you should have learned" questions and suggestions for comparison. In Science Fiction, Prof. Rabkin provides a couple "Questions to Consider," like Is there, in your opinion, such a thing as fact? Considering Verne's questioning of our construction of facts.
In Literature and Life, Prof. Weinstein is outright giving quizzes. Cumulative essay question quizzes, three per lecture.
Explain, according to Blake, what comprises the voyage from innocence to experience in the modern world.
Compare and contrast Baudelaire's treatment of women in "The Little Old Women" with Whitman's depiction of city crowds in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry."
Summarize how "The Road Not Taken" offers a vision of the past contrary to that represented in Oedipus.
Give examples of where Bronte uses a fairytale environment to create a horrific effect.
Given that the course itself will take a significant effort to even listen to - it's 64 lectures, roughly 32 hours of audio alone - it's surprisingly tempting to actually treat this particular one exactly like a class and make a point of not only doing the reading but the homework.
That would make this one class a year-long project, if not longer, (life would have to come first!) but... it's really tempting.