Fall 2026 Syllabus
Books for purchase
- Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (Norton)
- Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano (Random House)
- Kant, Basic Writings (Modern Library)
- Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History (Hackett)
- Popkin, A Short History of the French Revolution (Prentice-Hall)
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Major Political Writings (Univ. of Chicago)
- Rousseau, Politics and the Arts (Cornell Univ. Press)
- Shelley, Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (Oxford)
- Smith, Adam, The Essential Adam Smith (W. W. Norton & Company)
- Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Penguin)
- Wordsworth, Major Works (Oxford)
- and additional readings available via each class section’s moodle.
Hum 221 is organized around three units:
Unit 1: Encountering the European Enlightenments: Weeks One to Seven.
In this unit we will explore the multifaceted world of literature, aesthetics, criticism and philosophy that constituted what has been called "The Enlightenment." Students will explore examples of early journalism, as well as texts by authors including Daniel Defoe, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, and Olaudah Equiano. How might we define or understand "the Enlightenment"?
Unit 2: Do Books Make Revolutions? Weeks Eight to Ten.
This unit examines the world of the French Revolution and considers the relationship between the world of ideas and the material world of political change. We will read the appeals made by participants in the French Revolution, including the Abbe Sieyes and Maximilien Robespierre, and the arguments of critics of the Revolution like Edmund Burke. We also explore the Revolution's implications for ideas of human rights through the writings and actions of figures like Mary Wollstonecraft and Olympe de Gouges.
Unit 3: Legacies of Enlightenment and Revolution in Early 19th-Century Literature and Philosophy. Weeks Eleven to Thirteen.
This unit explores the various ways in which western European poets, novelists, artists and thinkers grappled with the legacies of the French Revolution and renegotiated their relationship to the ideas of the Enlightenment. Readings will include the poetry of William Wordsworth, the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and the literary imaginings of E.T.A. Hoffmann and Mary Shelley.
Detailed syllabus
For each section’s detailed syllabus please visit the class moodle for Section 1 or Section 2.
Course outcomes
Hum 221-222 are courses that can be used to satisfy Group I or Group II requirements. After completing the course students will be better able to:
- Understand how language or other modes of expression (symbols, images, sounds, etc.) work , make an argument, present a vision, convey a feeling, and/or convey an idea;
- Analyze and interpret a text, whether a literary or philosophical text, or a work of the visual or performing arts;
- Evaluate arguments about texts;
- Analyze social, political or economic institutions, cultural formations, languages, structures, and/or processes;
- Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social change and/or the relationship between individual and society;
- Evaluate data and/or sources.