HUM 211 Syllabus ~ Open Campus, Winter 2002
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Hum 211 Instructor: Cora Agatucci
Office Location: Deschutes 14 (Bend campus)
Office Hours: See current Schedule & by appointment
Office Phone & Voicemail: (541) 383-7522
Mailbox: Modoc 226 (Humanities Dept. Office, Bend campus)
Electronic mail: cagatucci@cocc.edu
or within COCC FirstClass: Cora Agatucci
Fax:  (541) 330-4396

  Hum 211 Course Information webpage - please review for:

CRN Registration information

Course Prerequisites, including required computer, e-mail, and internet access & capabilities

Required Texts: Available for purchase from COCC Bookstore on site, online, by phone or fax:

1.  Achebe, Chinua.  Things Fall Apart.  Expanded edition with notes. London: Heinemann, 1996.
2.  Achebe, Chinua, and C. L. Innes, ed.  African Short Stories: Twenty Short Stories from Across the Continent.  Oxford, UK: Heinemann, 1985.
3.  Dangarembga, Tsitsi.  Nervous Conditions. 1988. Seattle, WA: Seal Press.

Required Readings: ONLINE Hum 211 Course Pack. Ed. Cora Agatucci.  Bend, OR: Central Oregon Community College,  2002.  NOTE:  You do not have to purchase a course pack for Hum 211; instead, required Hum 211 Course Pack readings will be freely accessible on the Hum 211 course web site.
HUM 211 Online Course Pack - Table of Contents:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/index.htm

Required Film Viewings: All students must meet 3 times on Bend Campus (Boyle 156) during Winter 2002 to view required African Films - For dates, see Hum 211 Course Plan

1.  Kouyate, Dani, dir. Keita: The Heritage of the Griot. Burkina Faso, 1994.
2.  Soloman, Frances Anne, dir. I Is a Long-Memoried Woman. UK,1990.
3.  Teno, Jean-Marie, dir. Afrique: Je Te Plumerai (Trans. Africa, I Will Fleece You). Cameroon,1992.
Plus excerpts from other in-class videos to be shown during regular televised class meetings.

Welcome to Hum 211 MIC/WIC*!

Transfer Credits:  As explained in the Hum 211 Course Information webpage, Hum 211 is one course in the Non-European Cultures and Literatures sequence and may be taken for A or B-list Humanities credits, and is approved for MIC (Multicultural-Infusion Course) and WIC (Writing in Context of specific disciplines) transfer credits.

Course Description: In Hum 211, we will study significant works of traditional oral arts (or "orature"), and modern literature and film, drawn from the rich diversity of Africa south of the Sahara, as an introduction to the rich creative achievements of Africa's language artists.  To help us cross cultural boundaries and experience these imaginative worlds from African perspectives, we will approach these works as creative expressions of their cultural contexts--of their historical periods and cultural traditions, intellectual movements and aesthetic values, authors' biographies and socio-political realities.  The continent of Africa is vast and diverse, with 750-to-2000 languages and ethnic groups (depending on how you classify them), but this one-quarter introductory course will lay a solid foundation for cross-cultural African studies in the humanities.  Students will have opportunities to investigate further specific African topics of personal interest.  For an overview of course topics and day-by-day schedule of assignments, see Hum 211 Course Plan.  

Course Competencies (or Learning Objectives):  Hum 211 and course assignments have been designed to help students achieve the nine core competencies or learning outcomes stated below.  Introduction to significant works of subSaharan African language arts (orature, literature, and film), representing a diversity of peoples and cultures from key historical periods, will enable the Humanities 211 student to:

A. Build knowledge of language arts and cultures different from one’s own:

1. Identify distinctive characteristics, genres, periods, themes of traditional and modern African orature, literature, and film (e.g., proverb wisdom, call-and-response, praise-poetry, African griot traditions, colonial and post-colonial African "response" literature, anti-apartheid resistance arts)

2. Situate individual African texts in their contexts, and analyze significant ways that these texts reflect or represent those contexts (e.g. cultural values and beliefs, intellectual and creative traditions, historical and biographical backgrounds, social and political realities).

3. Evaluate the limitations and benefits of studying African works in cross-cultural translation (e.g., across one or more different languages; across oral and literate-based cultures; and/or across orature, literature, film).

B. Apply this knowledge to cross-cultural comparative analysis

4. Identify and analyze significant cross cultural differences and similarities--among different African texts and their cultures; between African language arts/cultures and one’s own; and/or between African works and cultures and those of other non-Western groups.

5. Examine the effects of individual and culturally-determined factors (such as race, gender, class, nation, biases of information sources, prior cross-cultural experiences) on one’s own and others’ responses to African texts and cultures.6. Identify topics of personal interest, unanswered questions, controversial claims and alternative viewpoints arising from one’s cross-cultural comparative study for further research and investigation.

C. Construct and communicate persuasive cross-cultural interpretations

7. Formulate responses and interpretations using varied strategies and resources (e.g., active reading/viewing skills; self-reflection, critical and empathetic thinking, oral discussion and writing, multiple perspectives, comparative analysis, and interdisciplinary knowledge).

8. Create a persuasive cross-cultural interpretation of an African text that integrates ethnorelative perspectives and analytical criteria appropriate to African language arts and their cultural contexts.

9. Communicate one’s interpretations in informal and formal writing, using relevant, well-selected evidence from African texts and their cultural contexts to support one’s points.

10.  Avoid plagiarism by using an acceptable academic style (e.g. MLA) to cite direct quotations, paraphrases (indirect quotations), and summaries taken from primary and secondary sources.

--Cora Agatucci, July 1999; Rev. January 2003

Course Grading

Assignments and Grading Criteria will be explained in more detail in class, 
and Assignment directions will be webposted online.
See HUM 211 Course Plan (Winter 2002) for week-by-week assignments & deadlines

 "I am, however, encouraged by a keen sense
of WORLD LITERATURE as the one great heart
that beats for the cares and misfortunes of our world,
even though each corner sees and
experiences them in a different way."
--Alexander Solzehnitsyn, Nobel Lecture, 1970

Statement on Plagiarism

Proper citations and documentation of any sources that you quote, paraphrase, and/or summarize in your writing are required whenever you borrow the words, facts, and/or ideas of others. Note well that even putting others’ ideas into your own words still means you are borrowing, and you need to give credit where credit is due. To avoid plagiarism source(s) must be cited and documented, both . . .

(a) at the point in your papers where the borrowing occurs (using parenthetical citations for most documentation styles), and
(b) in a list of all sources cited given at the end of your papers

Plagiarism—intended or not—is considered a serious academic violation of intellectual property rights, and may earn your written assignment an automatic "F" or worse. 
Quick and acceptable ways of citing your sources in Humanities 211 assignments will be discussed further in class.

Any student with a documented disability (e.g., physical, learning, psychological, vision, hearing) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must inform the College as soon as possible.
If you require any assistance related to disability,
contact the Disability Services Office
located in Boyle Education Center, call (541) 383-7580,
or send e-mail to Steve O'Brien: sobrien@cocc.edu

I look forward to working with and learning from you this term! ~Cora

 HUM 211 Open Campus Course Information - Winter 2002
HUM 211 Home Page Syllabus Course Plan Online Course Pack TV Meetings Assignments 
 

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URL of this page:  http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/syllabus.htm
Last Updated: 28 August 2005  

This webpage is maintained by Cora Agatucci, Professor of English, 
Humanities Department, Central Oregon Community College
I welcome comments: cagatucci@cocc.edu
© Cora Agatucci, 1997-2002

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