HIST 150: Confucius and the World, Final Assignment, 2022a

 

[a] Discussion RF

Confucius and the World

Final Assignment

I am giving you six different options for your final assignment for this course. Keeping in mind the "flipped classroom" nature of our seminar (the lectures are outside of class, leaving more time for discussion), and hoping to make you bring what you have learned into your ongoing life, I have tried to make it "real" for you.

I have not been especially "prescriptive" with this assignment. In other words, I would like you to take the freedom I am giving you and make the most of it. 

Here are the six options. For every one of them, focus on the text. The only way that you could do badly on this assignment (other than giving inadequate effort) is to ignore the close study that you have done on the Analects, the lectures, and the accompanying books in this class. Stick to the text, and then move outward from there.

[b] Confucius-Centered RF

[1]  Write about an event in our world (or, if you wish, one in world history), and analyze how Confucius or his students might have approached it. In other words, ask yourself how Confucius might perceive climate change, immigration, or even voting rights. In other words, if (as we have discussed every week) the Analects might be useful in our lives, we have to imagine ways in which the text can teach us about situations far beyond those in Confucius's own world. Be careful not to (simply) state your own views with a light smattering of Confucian quotations. Engage your topic with the deep understanding of the Analects that you have developed.

[2] Write a piece of historical fiction. Take a theme from the Analects and (using the historical thinking that you have learned this semester) write a story around it. Keep it grounded in the text of the Analects (and avoid making it just a stream-of-consciousness effort); the best historical fiction balances always balances story with sources.

[3] Expand one lecture from the Great Courses. Each lecture is about 5,000 words long (fifteen pages). Imagine that you have been asked to make it 2,000-3,000 words longer. What would you add? Keep it grounded in the text of the Analects.

[4] The Great Courses lectures focus upon four students of Confucius. Add one more. Write a 3,000 word essay about one more student (or figure in the text) or expand the profile of one of the students already covered. You already have chosen one a few weeks ago. Now write about the passages in which (he) figures.

[5] Write an introductory essay to a new translation of the Analects. Imagine that you are working (as a recent Beloit College graduate) at a publishing house, and you have been asked by the senior editor to draft key ideas (in well-written prose) for the introductory material for the eagerly-awaited new translation. Your job is not to discuss the particular translation itself (you have to imagine the task), but rather to make an argument for why the Analects actually matter in our lives today, and how readers might make use of it to guide their lives.

[6] Do something else that you really want to do. You need to discuss the plan with me first. 

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 Papers must be 3,000 words long (about ten pages) and focus upon the Analects and what you have learned in this class. You have six weeks: get started early. There is no excuse for leaving this assignment to the last minute. Please write at least two real drafts, and please do not turn in the first thing you write (see part one of my writing guide).
 

[c] Followers RF