Lyman Grant
Teacher and Writer
Creative Writing Classes
ENGL 2307 Poetry
ENGL 2307 Prose
Humanities Classes
HUMA 1301
HUMA 1302 Essays
HUMA 1302 Final Project
Caravan of Wonder
Personal YouTube Site
The Poetry Gym
HUMA 1302 Discussion Questions
After reading Chapters 19 and 20 in your textbook, select one of the following questions to answer in a response of between 250 and 400 words.
Focus on one or two of the ideas presented by Martin Luther, John Calvin, or other Protestant ministers and discuss how those ideas affected or are reflected in one or two works by Van Eyck, Bosch, Durer, Grunewald, or Brueghel. Use your own words and not those of the text, but discuss with specific references to one or more works mentioned in the chapter.
Discuss the view of human nature as presented by Christian Humanists (such as Erasmus and Thomas More), satirists (such as Cervantes and Rabelais) and writers like Montaigne and Shakespeare. You need focus only on one (or two) of the writers and their works as presented in the text. What do these writers find admirable? What do these writers find disappointing? Do their assessments still ring true today?
Identify some qualities of the Mannerist style and discuss how these qualities are illustrated in works by Michelangelo, Parmigianino, Tintoretto, El Greco, Caravaggio, or Gentileschi. Please avoid merely copying observations and language from the textbook. What do you notice in one or two of these works. How do you react to the exaggerated style? What is your reaction to this intensity?
Consider the works of Bernini and Pozzo can you find ways to compare their qualities to the developments made by Palestrina, Gabrieli and Monteverdi in music?
In these chapters, we witness the rise of the power of the monarchal nation-state. Describe how the centralized power of the King, and the values of such a king as Louis XIV, permeated and affected the artistic productions of his time: the art of Poussin, Rubin, Van Dyke; the music of Lully; the plays of Moliere.
Discuss the importance of the rise of the Church of England, creation of The King James Bible, and writers such as John Donne and John Milton.
What connections do you perceive in the art works of Rembrandt and in the musical compositions of Handel and Bach. If you have trouble finding connections, describe the religious feelings that might be located in their works.
Discuss what you believe are the most important developments during "The Scientific Revolution." How was humankind's lives changed and improved? How was our knowledge of God affected?
Describe the qualities of Northern Baroque painting that you most appreciated. How are these paintings different from those produced in France and Italy a few years earlier (by Poussin and Rubins, for instance.)
Who are the leading Baroque composers? What qualities of their music you most appreciate? Are there qualities that you do not enjoy?
What view of humankind do you believe is more accurate: Hobbes' or Locke's? Briefly describe their views and where you agree or disagree?
Think about the intellectual project of Locke, the Philosophes, including Diderot and Condorcet, or even that of Alexander Pope, and their desire to codify knowledge and human understanding. How do such ambitions reflect or grow from the scientific revolution? Is it possible to undertake such projects today?
How do Enlightenment principles reasonably lead to and support the work of Mary Wollstonecraft?
Discuss the uses of satire in the 18th century to illustrate the gap between what humankind, through reason and enlightenment principles, could attain and how we actually behave.
Discuss attempts by writers in the chapter (and in the previous chapter) to confront the perceived inequality among humans, how some are enslaved, demeaned, and deprived of power and how others are free and exercise power over others.
Discuss the qualities of the Rococo style in art, architecture, and music. What values does the Rococo style highlight?
Discuss the qualities of the Neo Classical style in art, architecture, and music. What values does the Neo Classical Style in art, architecture, and music highlight?
Recall the development of musical instruments and the formation of the modern symphony orchestra. Discuss where such music was performed and for what purposes and how such developments led to the music of Hayden and Mozart. What qualities of the music of Hayden and Mozart do you most enjoy?
Discuss Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. What do you find particularly compelling about it, and what might you find troubling?
Read the poetry of Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats. Which poet's work appeals to you the most? What qualities of Romanticism speak to you through their work?
Explain the importance of nature and landscape as represented during the Romantic Age.
Discuss American contributions to Romantic thought.
Explain how the concept of "The Hero" is a Romantic concept.
Discuss how Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is a critique of Enlightenment thought and ambitions.
Examine how the personal struggles and achievements of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth reflect qualities of the Romantic Hero.
Briefly compare Mephistopheles and Faust as illustrated in the passages in the texbook.
Examine the Romantic themes of individualism, freedom, and heroism in the paintings of Goya, Gros, Gericault, and/or Delacroix.
Why do you think architects of the Romantic era returned to aspects of the Medieval style?
Describe how Beethoven, the man and his work, is a fitting representative of the Romantic spirit.
Listen to the work of Schubert, Schumann, and/or Chopin and describe how you feel as you listen to it, and how it differs from the feelings you have while listening to Bach, Hayden, or Mozart.
Describe the social and economic realities of the 19th century and how Marx and Engles' works were reactions to those realities.
Describe the social realities of the 19th century and how the novels of Dickens, Twain, Dostoevsky, and/or Zola were reactions to those realities.
Using excerpts from John Stuart Mill, Kate Chopin, Gustave Flaubert and/or Henrik Ibsen, discuss the changing views about the role of women in the 19th
Describe the social, political, and emotional effects of the rise of realism in the mid- to late 19th century painting and photography.
How did the invention of steel change architecture in the 19th Compare architecture from previous centuries, with examples.
After reading Chapter 31 in your textbook, select one of the following questions to answer in a response of between 250 and 400 words.
Read Mallarne's "The Afternoon of a Faun" and listen to Debussy's "Prelude to 'The Afternoon of a Faun.'" What are your personal impressions? How is poetry and music changing in the late 19th century?
Why do you believe the painters and paintings that constitute Impressionism are so popular? Do you believe that that popularity is deserved? Why? Use examples.
Compare the sculpture of Degas or Rodin to the sculpture from previous styles, such as Neo-Classical, Rococo, or Baroque.
Describe how the artists known as Post Impressionists are blending both realist and abstract approached to art. Use examples.
Discuss what you believe was gained through the various ideas and developments related to what we call "Modernism." Also discuss what you believe has been lost.
Compare and contrast the poetry of T.S. Eliot and of Robert Frost. Describe how each relies on the traditions that we have studied so far and how each rebels against those traditions.
Choose one of the painters or sculptors discussed in these chapters. Explain what qualities of the artist's work that you see as an important development in art.
Discuss the ways that Frank Lloyd Wright combines a love of nature with an appreciation for modern aesthetics.
Explain what Sigmund Freud contributes to our understanding of the importance of "civilization." Do you agree with his assessment?
After reading the excerpts from Proust, Kafka, and Joyce, discuss the importance of stream of thought and free association in these passages.
What new ideas and feelings are artists able to express through the techniques known as Expressionism, Dada, and Surrealism?
Of the poems and fiction by Wilfred Owen, T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, and Erich Maria Remarque, which work affects you the most? What feeling does the writer provoke in you? How?
Do you see any Marxist influence in the Depression era artwork of Thomas Hart Benton, Diego Rivera, or Dorothea Lange? Explain.
Imagine you lived before, during, and after World War II and the rise of totalitarianism. What do you think your reactions would have been? Which writer, composer, artist captures what you would have felt?
Discuss one or two aspects of Existentialism and explain what your reaction is to this philosophy.
Describe your reaction to Abstract Expressionism, Action Painting, and Color Field Painting. Given all the art that you have seen this semester, do you see these schools as an advancement or art?
Discuss the work or a sculptor, architect, composer, or choreographer present in the final pages of Chapter 35. What has this creator contributed to our understanding of the Modern Age?
With references to the text, describe the twentieth century reactions among African, Middle Eastern, and South American people to American and European colonization and capitalist expansion.
What is your favorite among the works of Hughes, Brooks, and Wright? Name and discuss the values expressed in that work.
Compare the views expressed by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Or compare those of Ralph Ellison and Alice Walker.
Discuss how African American artists and musicians and dancers are relying on similar traditions and exploring similar aesthetics. Or do you see different influences and goals?
In what ways did the American feminist movement in literature and art of the last half of the twentieth century build upon the work of Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir? Explain.
Considering the realist fiction from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, what changes are you seeing in post-modern fiction?
Discuss your favorite or least favorite art or architecture in Chapter 37. Explain why this work appeals to you. Is it the work itself or the context of the work that most appeals to you?
After reading Chapters 38 in your textbook, answer the following question in a response of between 250 and 400 words.
60 As you complete this class, having read Chapter 38, do you think the idea of progress is valid? Are humans and human culture, science, technology, and art improving, becoming "better"? Or do you believe that life has not improved? Was there a time when life and human culture was "better"? When, how?
This entry was posted in HUMA 1302 on June 25, 2015 by lymangrant.
About lymangrant
Lyman Grant is a professor of creative writing and humanities at Austin Community College. He has work at ACC since 1978. He is the author or editor of two textbooks, two books relating to Texas literature, three volumes and a chapbook of poetry. Recently he traveled the United States for a year in a 34-foot RV 5th wheel trailer with his wife and two younger sons.
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