Syllabus

LCST 222 Ottoman Love and Today’s World

Goals and expectations:

My purpose in offering this course is to share with you some things that I have been thinking a lot about, things that relate directly to what we are doing when we teach and learn at colleges and universities. I want to talk with you about some research and ideas about the Ottomans, the modern Turks, and the Middle East that you won’t hear from anyone else. I want us to use these ideas as a basis for discussing the future of humankind in a world where many of the rules have irrevocably changed and many of the problems have taken on a global urgency. But I also want to suggest where the beauty and the hope and the promise lie in all of this.

This will be a course for adventuresome students who are willing to engage, to think and talk about big (and strange) issues, and to participate joyfully in a group endeavor. There will not be a lot of required reading. The amount of reading you do will be open-ended (you can read a little or a lot as your time allows and your interest drives you), although I expect you to read enough that you can share your thoughts on at least one topic each time we meet. Willingness to participate (rather than time-consuming labor) is the key. Even when I “lecture” in class it tends toward the very informal and invites questions, comments, and even major digressions onto other topics. I expect to have fun doing this and I expect you to have fun too…doing serious work…!

The session by session outline below will be very sketchy because I am not sure where we, as a group, will want to go with some of the issues that will come up. Because this is a two week course with no possible follow-up in the regular curriculum, we can afford to adventure freely and range over a broad number of topics. At the end of every session, I will discuss the readings for the next session and may assign some small groups to specialize in one reading each.

You do not need to know a thing about Ottomans or Turks or the Middle East before we start…

Meeting 1

We will introduce each other, introduce the course, and begin talking about the Basic Problem and the Big Gap based on reading Walter’s “Killing the Cats” essay and Chaloupka’s “Prelude” and “What is to be done?” essays. Minimally read “Killing the Cats”.

Meeting 2

Walter will begin introducing the Ottomans, Ottoman culture, Ottoman love and the emotional content of Ottoman culture and social interactions. [Readings: Gibb, Hodgeson, “Other Renaissances”.]

Meeting 3

From Ottomans to Turks—Süleyman The Magnificent to Mustafa Kemal “Father of the Turks”... Orhan Pamuk and modern Turkish poets. [If you have already read some Pamuk, refresh it in your mind because you will be considered a resource. If it wasn’t The Black Book that you read, look at the other readings too.]

Meeting 4

Talking about terrorism. The problem: religion or region, poverty or politics, or something else…? [Read Hacking and/or Atran and/or Atran and Ginges and/or Ayatollah Taleqani].

Meeting 5

“Know thyself”. Self-knowledge, humility, and cross-cultural communication. [Readings: TBA]

Meeting 6

Growing beyond terror. The role of the humanities. The role of the individual. The promise, the hope, and the beauty.