East Meets West      MHUMAN 110

 











Letter grade or Pass/No Pass. Upon successful completion of this course, you will earn credit toward MJC Associate Degree and Area of Emphasis transfer credit to a four-year college or university.


You will gain academic and experiential knowledge of world cultures and arts, critical skills to make more sense of the world, and find opportunities for personal growth. 



~Required Books: available at the East Campus MJC Pirate’s Bookstore.


  1. 1.World Views: Topics in Non-Western Art

by Laurie Schneider Adams, 2004 (McGrawHill

ISBN 10-072872020).


  1. 2.The Bhagavad-Gita: Krishna’s Counsel in

Time of War, trans. Barbara Miller, 1986.  

  Bantam Classics (ISBN 10- 0553213652).


3. Along the Silk Road [writings about history, arts, and cultural exchanges], ed. Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis. Asian Art & Culture, v. 6, Smithsonian Institution, 2002 (ISBN 0-295-98182-2).


4. Jasmine, a Novel, by Bharati Mukherjee,

  1999 Grove Press (ISBN 10-0802136303

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Please note: This class includes online enhancements.  Students must use the Internet and the Blackboard Class Resource (our online campus course management system) to read, save or print materials, to upload homework, and to take quizzes.


 


~ COURSE DESCRIPTION.


This humanities course introduces students to ways that differences between Eastern and Western world cultures have been perceived and explored. This will involve study of how people make sense of things--of themselves, the world around them, and their encounters with each other--conveyed through the arts, writings, films, interpretations, criticism, and reflection. 


Students will learn about the origins of various designations for “Eastern” (Oriental) and “Western” (Occidental) cultures, about discoveries and insights that have come about from examining differences and similarities between them--ways of life, for example, and conflicts and compromises between traditional and modern societies.


We will address these subjects by studying and discussing a selection of arts, ideas, and stories by people (historical and fictional) who have traveled among the lands of East and West, who have made memorable cultural contributions, or who offer knowledge and insights into our topic.


The humanities--an academic discipline which applies critical and creative thinking methods to make sense of artistic and intellectual achievements of humanity--will be our framework. 


Our topics will include recurring and passing sources of wisdom, beauty, meaning, and value.


Trends in arts and entertainment will be compared, and issues, such as those surrounding Orientalism and Occidentalism, mysticism and rationalism, aesthetics and ethics, colonialism and its aftermath will be discussed.





 

   East Meets West

    

            MHUMAN 110


Recommended for success: Eligibility for English 101.