Syllabus | Spring 2020
Coming Up
Palimpsest of Past and Present: Tenochtitlan/Mexico City
Mon 27 Jan
Assignment
- Davíd Carrasco, Chapter 2 “Aztec Foundations: Aztlan, Cities, People,” The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction (E-book)
- Gallery: Tira de la peregrinación / Boturini Codex (c. 1530-1541).
Lecture: “WE WALKED A LONG TIME TO GET HERE; WE HAVE BEEN HERE FOREVER.”
Nathalia King
Wed 29 Jan
Assignment
- Translations of folios 1-18r, Codex Mendoza, ed. Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), Vol. IV, 7-41 (blank pages omitted). [suitable for printing]
- Facsimiles of folios 1-18r (color images), Codex Mendoza, Vol. III, 9-43 (blank pages omitted). [large file; best viewed on computer screen]
- Facsimiles of folios 18v-19r, 37v-38r, 45v-46r, Codex Mendoza, Vol. III, 44-45, 82-83, 98-99.
- Translations of folios 18v-19r, 37v-38r, 45v-46r, Codex Mendoza, Vol. IV, 42-43, 80-81, 96-97.
- Recommended: Carrasco, “Aztec Expansion Through Conquest and Trade,” The Aztecs, chapter 3. (E-book)
Lecture: "Representing Mexica Imperialism: the Codex Mendoza"
David Garrett
Fri 31 Jan
Assignment
- Barbara E. Mundy, “Mapping the Aztec Capital: The 1524 Nuremberg Map of Tenochtitlan, Its Sources and Meanings,” Imago Mundi 50.1 (1998), 11-33.
- “The Birth of Huitzilopochtli, Patron God of the Aztecs,” Native Mesoamerican Spirituality, ed. Miguel León-Portilla, (New York: Paulist Press, 1982), 220-225.
- Gallery: Templo Mayor and city of Tenochtitlan
- Recommended: Carrasco, “Cosmovision and Human Sacrifice,” The Aztecs, chapter 4. (E-book)
Lecture: “Mapping the Cosmos at the Templo Mayor”
Margot Minardi
Course Logistics
REQUIRED TEXTS:
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Poems, Protest, and a Dream: Selected Writings, trans. Margaret Sayers Peden (New York: Penguin Books, 1997).
- W.E.B. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
- Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Vintage International, 1980).
- Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York: Harper Perennial, 2006).
- David Levering Lewis, ed., The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader (New York: Penguin, 1994).
- Alain Locke, ed., Survey Graphic; Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro (Baltimore: Black Classic Books, 1980).
- Jean Toomer, Cane (New York: Liveright, 2011).
The following book includes required readings for some days and recommended readings for others. You may purchase it at the bookstore or access it for free as an e-book via the library website:
- Davíd Carrasco, The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 20011) [E-book].
Additional readings are available on e-reserves and through online galleries, accessible via links embedded in the syllabus below. You will need your Reed username and password to access these texts. Please bring a copy of the day’s reading assignment to class each day. The library has on reserve a limited number of each required text.
CONFERENCE ASSIGNMENTS:
Humanities 110 is a yearlong course, and students are generally expected to remain in the same conference throughout the year. The Registrar assigns all students to conferences at the beginning of the year. Thereafter students may change conferences only due to academic schedule conflicts and only with the authorization of the course chair, Margot Minardi. Any student who wishes to initiate such a change should contact Prof. Minardi for the appropriate form. No conference changes are permitted after the second week of the term. Continuing students granted a schedule change and returning students adding Hum 110 for spring only will be assigned to conferences based on available slots; requests to move into a particular conference or time slot generally cannot be honored.
PAPERS, WRITING ASSIGNMENTS, AND EXAMINATIONS:
Three course-wide papers will be assigned in the spring semester, due at the times designated on the schedule of readings and lectures. Individual conference leaders may assign additional writing. If the due date for an assignment conflicts with a religious holiday or obligation that you wish to observe, please consult with your conference leader. A four-hour final examination for the spring semester will be given at the end of the semester; date and time to be announced. Rescheduling of the final exam will be allowed only for medical reasons.
DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS:
If you have a documented disability requiring accommodations, please contact Disability Support Services. Notifications of accommodations on exams, papers, other writing assignments, or conferences should be directed to your conference leader. Notifications of accommodations regarding lectures can be directed to the chair of the course, Margot Minardi. You are advised to consult with your conference leader about how your accommodations might apply to specific assignments or circumstances in this course.
RESOURCES FOR SUPPORT:
Your conference leader is your first line of support for any questions you have about the course. Please also be sure to explore the Hum 110 website for additional information. The Course Resources page provides brief introductions to upcoming readings and suggestions for how to approach them. The Writing in Hum 110 page provides tips on the writing process.
The Writing Center is a particularly valuable resources for Hum 110 students working on papers. You can get help with all stages of the writing process from peer tutors at the Writing Center, which is located in the Dorothy Johansen House. Drop-in help from writing tutors is available Sunday through Thursday, 7:00-10:00 p.m.; additional hours will be held in Trillium multipurpose room during weeks that a paper is due.
For additional information about support resources available to you on the Reed campus, please see Student Life’s Key Support Resources for Students.
If you have questions that aren’t answered here, please consult your conference leader or email Hum110@reed.edu.
Schedule of Readings and Lectures
Week 1
Palimpsest of Past and Present: Tenochtitlan/Mexico City
Mon 27 Jan
Assignment
- Davíd Carrasco, Chapter 2 “Aztec Foundations: Aztlan, Cities, People,” The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction (E-book)
- Gallery: Tira de la peregrinación / Boturini Codex (c. 1530-1541).
Lecture: “WE WALKED A LONG TIME TO GET HERE; WE HAVE BEEN HERE FOREVER.”
Nathalia King
Wed 29 Jan
Assignment
- Translations of folios 1-18r, Codex Mendoza, ed. Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), Vol. IV, 7-41 (blank pages omitted). [suitable for printing]
- Facsimiles of folios 1-18r (color images), Codex Mendoza, Vol. III, 9-43 (blank pages omitted). [large file; best viewed on computer screen]
- Facsimiles of folios 18v-19r, 37v-38r, 45v-46r, Codex Mendoza, Vol. III, 44-45, 82-83, 98-99.
- Translations of folios 18v-19r, 37v-38r, 45v-46r, Codex Mendoza, Vol. IV, 42-43, 80-81, 96-97.
- Recommended: Carrasco, “Aztec Expansion Through Conquest and Trade,” The Aztecs, chapter 3. (E-book)
Lecture: "Representing Mexica Imperialism: the Codex Mendoza"
David Garrett
Fri 31 Jan
Assignment
- Barbara E. Mundy, “Mapping the Aztec Capital: The 1524 Nuremberg Map of Tenochtitlan, Its Sources and Meanings,” Imago Mundi 50.1 (1998), 11-33.
- “The Birth of Huitzilopochtli, Patron God of the Aztecs,” Native Mesoamerican Spirituality, ed. Miguel León-Portilla, (New York: Paulist Press, 1982), 220-225.
- Gallery: Templo Mayor and city of Tenochtitlan
- Recommended: Carrasco, “Cosmovision and Human Sacrifice,” The Aztecs, chapter 4. (E-book)
Lecture: “Mapping the Cosmos at the Templo Mayor”
Margot Minardi
Week 2
Mon 3 Feb
Assignment
- “Beginning of the Songs,” “A Song of Green Places, an Otomi Song, a Plain One,” and “Another to the Same Tone, a Plain One,” in Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs, trans. John Bierhorst (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1985), 134-139.
- Aquiauhtzin of Ayapanco, “Warrior Women of Chalco,” Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World, (Norman: University of Nebraska Press), pp. 255-282
- Recommended: Davíd Carrasco, Chapter 6 “Wordplay, philosophy, sculpture” The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction (E-book)
Lecture:
Laura Leibman
Wed 5 Feb
Assignment
- Florentine Codex book 12, in We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, ed. and trans. James Lockhart (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1992, 108-172.
- Bernal Díaz, The Conquest of New Spain, trans. J. M. Cohen (London: Penguin, 1963), 284-307.
- Recommended: Carrasco, “Fall of the Aztec Empire,” The Aztecs, chapter 7. (E-book)
Lecture: "The Fall of Tenochtitlán and the Creation of Colonial Mexico"
David Garrett
Thu 6 Feb
Optional lecture
“The Colors of the New World”
Diana Magaloni,
6:00 PM, Psych 105
Fri 7 Feb
Assignment
- Introduction to the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, Mesolore. This site also includes an interactive recreation of the whole Lienzo de Tlaxacala. The numbers on the image correspond to annotations; click on them to see the description. To hide these numbers, click on “Hide Highlights” in the lower lefthand corner.
- Gallery: Lienzo de Tlaxcala
- Bernal Díaz, The Conquest of New Spain (London: Penguin, 1963), 85-88.
- Recommended: Carrasco, “Women and Children: Weavers of Life and Precious Necklaces,” The Aztecs, chapter 5. (E-book)
Lecture:
Carmen Ripollés (Portland State University)
Week 3
Mon 10 Feb
Assignment
- “Sacrifice of Isaac,” in Nahuatl Theater Volume I: Death and Life in Colonial Nahua Mexico, eds. Barry D. Sell and Louise M. Burkhart (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 2004), 147-163.
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, “Loa to Narcissus,” in Poems, Protest, and a Dream, 195-239.
Lecture:
Lucía Martínez Valdivia
Wed 12 Feb
Assignment
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, “First I Dream,” in Poems, Protest, and a Dream, 77-129.
Lecture: "SOR JUANA'S "FIRST DREAM" AND BAROQUE POETICS"
Ariadna García-Bryce
Fri 14 Feb
Assignment
- “Excerpt from the Nahuatl Story of the Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, 1649” in Mesoamerican Voices: Native-Language Writings from Colonial Mexico, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Guatemala, ed. Matthew Restall, Lisa Sousa, and Kevin Terraciano (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 196-201.
- In Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Poems, Protest, and a Dream:
- “Reply to Sor Filotea,” 1-75.
- “Redondilla 92: A Philosophical Satire,” 148-151.
- Decimas 130, 132 (p. 165)
- Sonnet 161 (p. 179)
Lecture:
Laura Leibman
Sat 15 Feb
Saturday, February 15, at 5:00 PM in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Week 4
Mon 17 Feb
Assignment
- Magali M. Carrera, “Locating Race in Late Colonial Mexico,” Art Journal 57.3 (1998): 36-45.
- John Tutino, “Terms of Analysis: New Spain in Spanish America,” introductory maps, and “From Mexica Capital to Silver Metropolis, 1350-1770,” in Mexico City, 1808: Power, Sovereignty, and Silver in an Age of War and Revolution (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2018), xiv-xxiv, 21-34.
- Gallery: casta paintings
Lecture:
Laura Leibman
Wed 19 Feb
Assignment
- Selections from The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, ed. Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2002).
- José Maria Morelos, “Sentiments of the Nation” (1813), 189-191.
- Agustín de Iturbide, “Plan of Iguala” (1821), 192-195.
- Editors of El Tiempo, “A Conservative Profession of Faith” (1846), 220-225.
- Mariano Otero, “Considerations Relating to the Political and Social Situation of the Mexican Republic in the Year 1847” (1847), 226-238.
- Gallery: Diego Rivera, National Palace mural (c. 1929-1935)
Lecture: “Turning Points: Mexico in the Nineteenth Century”
Margot Minardi
Fri 21 Feb
Assignment
- Gallery: Diego Rivera, National Palace mural (c. 1929-1935)
- 1857 and 1917 Constitutions, side by side (link coming soon)
- “The Plan de Ayala” (1911), in John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1970), 400-404.
- Zapata and Villa in Mexico City, 1914, 120 seconds (video)
Lecture: "Modernity and Revolution"
David Garrett
Week 5
Mon 24 Feb
Assignment
- Gallery: muralism (link coming soon)
- “Manifesto of the Syndicate of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors” (1923-1924), in Mexican Muralism: A Critical History, ed. Alejandra Anreus, Leonard Folgarait, and Robin Adèle Greeley (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 319-321.
- Robin Adèle Greeley, “Muralism and the State in Post-Revolution Mexico, 1920-1970,” in Mexican Muralism: A Critical History, 13-36.
Lecture:
William Diebold
Mon 24 Feb
FILM SCREENING
Los Olvidados/The Young and the Damned
7:00 PM, Vollum Lecture Hall
Wed 26 Feb
Assignment
- Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned), directed by Luis Buñuel (1950).
- Cesare Zavattini, “Some Ideas on the Cinema,” Sight and Sound 23.2 (1953): 64-69.
- Luis Buñuel, “The Cinematic Shot,” “Découpage, or Cinematic Segmentation,” and “Cinema as an Instrument of Poetry,” in An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis Buñuel, trans. Garrett White (Oakland: University of California Press, 1995), 125-141.
Lecture:
Marat Grinberg
Fri 28 Feb
Assignment
- Nancy Deffebach, “Introduction,” María Izquierdo and Frida Kahlo: Challenging Visions in Modern Mexican Art (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015), 1-34.
- Gallery: María Izquierdo
- Gallery: Frida Kahlo
Lecture:
Gail Sherman
Week 6
Mon 2 Mar
Assignment
- Elena Poniatowska, Massacre in Mexico (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991), vii-xvii, 3-23, 173-231.
- Pages vii-xvii, 3-23 (Text only)
- Pages 173-231 (Images only)
- Elena Poniatowska, La Noche de Tlateloco (Biblioteca Era, Mexico, D.F. 1971), (Images only)
Lecture:
Jan Mieszkowski
Wed 4 Mar
Assignment
- Mónica Mayer, “On Life and Art as a Feminist,” n.paradox 9 (1998), 47-58 (scroll through Spanish version to get to English version).
- Alberto McKelligan Hernández, “Mónica Mayer, The Clothesline,” Smarthistory.org, 2 May 2019.
- Alberto McKelligan Hernández, Mónica Mayer Powerpoint slides.
Lecture:
Alberto McKelligan Hernández (Portland State University)
Thu 5 Mar
Optional lecture
“From Teotihuacan to Tenochtitlan: The Biggest Cities in the Ancient New World”
Michael E. Smith
7:00 PM, Vollum Lecture Hall
Fri 6 Mar
Assignment
- Selections from Subcomandante Marcos, Our Word Is Our Weapon: Selected Writings, ed. Juana Ponce de León (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001).
- “Fourth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle” (1996), 78-81.
- “Mexico City: We Have Arrived. We Are Here: The EZLN.” (2001), 155-162.
- “The Story of the Questions” (1994), 413-416.
- Zapatista Army of National Liberation, “6th Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle” (June 2005).
Lecture: “The Inconvenience of Revolution: Zapatismo, Cynicism, Dignity and Memory”
Christian Kroll
Week 7
Aesthetics and Politics: Harlem
Mon 9 Mar
Assignment
- Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, in Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900, 2nd ed., ed. Jacqueline Jones Royster (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016), 46-68.
- Booker T. Washington, “The Atlanta Exposition Address,” in Up from Slavery (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003), 141-151.
- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, chapter 3.
Lecture:
Pancho Savery
Tue 10 Mar
Optional lecture
“Fighting Prison Nation: The Nation of Islam's Challenge to Criminalization"
Garrett Felber
4:45 PM, Psych 105
Wed 11 Mar
Assignment
- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, chapters 1 and 2.
Lecture:
Nathalia King
Fri 13 Mar
Assignment
- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, chapters 10 and 13.
- W. E. B. Du Bois, “Credo,” “A Litany in Atlanta,” “Religion in the South,” “The Church and the Negro,” “Pontius Pilate,” “The Color Line and the Church,” and “Will the Church Remove the Color Line?” in Du Bois on Religion, ed. Phil Zuckerman (Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 2000), 43-44, 65-89, 99-100, 157-159, 169-179.
Lecture:
Vaughn Booker (Dartmouth College)
Sat 14 Mar
Saturday, March 14, at 5:00 PM in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Week 8
Mon 16 Mar
Assignment
- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, chapter 14.
- Zora Neale Hurston, “Spirituals and Neo-Spirituals,” in The Sanctified Church (Berkeley, Calif.: Turtle Island, 1983), 79-84.
- Alain Locke, “The Negro Spirituals,” in The New Negro, ed. Locke (1925; rpt. New York: Touchstone, 1992), 199-213.
- James Weldon Johnson, “O Black and Unknown Bards,” in The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis, 282-283.
- Deacon A. Wilson and Congregation, "Certainly, Lord" (1926)
- Marian Anderson, “Go Down, Moses” (1924)
- Paul Robeson, “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?” (1936)
- Hosea Williams and Selma Marchers, “Steal Away” and “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” (1965)
- Moses Hogan Chorale, “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?” (c. 2000)
Lecture:
Mark Burford
Wed 18 Mar
Assignment
- Jacob Lawrence, Migration Series (1940-1941), Phillips Collection.
- Browse the thumbnails, including the titles (titles are visible if you hover the mouse over an image). Then, explore the full series (60 panels) panel-by-panel, starting with panel 1. You can advance to the next panel by clicking the down arrow below “panel 1” on the upper right of the screen.
- Gallery: W.E.B. Du Bois data portraits.
Lecture: "MOVING THE PERCEPTION OF THE COLOR LINE: JACOB LAWRENCE’S “MIGRATION SERIES”
Nathalia King
Fri 20 Mar
Assignment
- James Weldon Johnson, “The Making of Harlem,” in Survey Graphic, 635-639.
- Saidiya Hartman, “A Note on Method,” “Mistah Beauty: the Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Woman, Select Scenes from a Film Never Cast by Oscar Micheaux, Harlem, 1920s,” “Revolution in a Minor Key,” “Wayward: A Short Entry on the Possible,” and “The Anarchy of Colored Girls Assembled in a Riotous Manner,” in Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval (New York: Norton, 2019), xiii-xvi, 192-202, 216-256.
Lecture: "Harlem, New York"
Margot Minardi
Sat 21 Mar
Spring Break
March 21-March 29
Week 9
Mon 30 Mar
Assignment
- W.E.B. Du Bois, “Credo” and “Souls of White Folk,” in Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, (New York, Schocken Books), 3-4, 29-52. (link coming soon)
- W.E.B. Du Bois, “Returning Soldiers,” in The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis, 3-5.
- Alain Locke, “The Concept of Race as Applied to Social Culture,” in The Philosophy of Alain Locke: Harlem Renaissance and Beyond (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989), 187-199.
Lecture:
Paddy Riley
Wed 1 Apr
Assignment
- Universal Negro Improvement Association, “Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World” (1920).
- Amy Ashwood Garvey, “The Birth of the Universal Negro Improvement Association,” in The Pan-African Connection: From Slavery to Garvey and Beyond, ed. Tony Martin (Dover, Mass.: Majority Press, 1983), 219-226.
- Marcus Garvey, “Africa for the Africans” and “Liberty Hall Emancipation Day Speech,” in The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis, 17-28.
Lecture:
Radhika Natarajan
Fri 3 Apr
Assignment
- Black and Tan (1929), 18:12 minutes, (movie)
- Listening assignment: TBD
Lecture:
Peter Steinberger
Week 10
Mon 6 Apr
Assignment
- Toomer, Cane, 3-75.
Lecture:
Pancho Savery
Wed 8 Apr
Assignment
- Toomer, Cane, 76-160.
Lecture:
Dustin Simpson
Fri 10 Apr
Assignment
- Survey Graphic: TBD
Lecture:
Paul Hovda
Week 11
Mon 13 Apr
Assignment
- In The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis:
- Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” 91-95.
- George S. Schuyler, “The Negro-Art Hokum,” 96-99.
- Helene Johnson, “Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem” and “Poem,” 277-278
- Langston Hughes, “The Weary Blues,” 260-261.
Lecture:
Dustin Simpson
Wed 15 Apr
Assignment
- In The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis:
- Gwendolyn Bennett, “Song,” 221–222, “Hatred,” 223.
- Claude McKay, “The Tropics in New York,” 292, “The Desolate City,” 294-296.
- Anne Spencer, “Lady, Lady,” 299.
Lecture:
Jan Mieszkowski
Fri 17 Apr
Assignment
- Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1-115 (chapters 1-12).
- Zora Neale Hurston, “What White Publishers Won’t Print,” in I Love Myself When I Am Laughing...And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader, ed. Alice Walker (Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1979), 169-173.
Lecture:
Gail Sherman
Sat 18 Apr
Saturday, April 18, at 12:00 AM in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Week 12
Mon 20 Apr
Assignment
- Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, 116-193 (chapters 13-20).
Lecture:
Paul Vadan
Wed 22 Apr
Assignment
- Ellison, Invisible Man, 1-108 (chapters 1-4).
Lecture:
Sonia Sabnis
Fri 24 Apr
Assignment
- Ellison, Invisible Man, 109-230 (chapters 5-10).
- W. E. B. Du Bois, “The Negro and the Warsaw Ghetto” (1952), in The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois Reader, ed. Eric J. Sundquist (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 469-473.
Lecture:
Marat Grinberg
Week 13
Mon 27 Apr
Assignment
- Ellison, Invisible Man, 231-355 (chapters 11-16).
Lecture:
Pancho Savery
Wed 29 Apr
Assignment
- Ellison, Invisible Man, 356-478 (chapters 17-22).
Lecture: “And Saying No and Saying Yes, Saying Yes and Saying No: Unambiguous Ambivalence in Invisible Man”
Lisa Steinman
Fri 1 May
Assignment
- Ellison, Invisible Man, 479-581 (chapter 23-epilogue).