Introductory Meeting

The introductory meeting for all Themes and Sources classes takes place on the last Friday morning of term. Attendance is compulsory.

Course Folders

At this meeting we will hand out the Utopianism course folders, which you must sign for to indicate receipt. Please:

• Don't write in the course folders.
• Do keep the folders intact and undamaged.
• Do be sure to return the folders promptly in a year's time.
• Don't simply decide to keep the folders and pay the fine. Someone will still have to clean up after you, and they shouldn't have to.

Attendance

Attendance is compulsory at all Themes and Sources classes. We are instructed by the Faculty to take a register at the beginning of each class, and to inform your Director of Studies if you are not present. If for any good reason you are unable to attend a class you should ask your Tutor to write briefly to one of us explaining why you can't be there or, if the reason is confidential, simply that you have a good reason for absence.

Reading

For each class you must read the twenty pages of primary sources and the eighty (or sometimes less) pages of secondary literature. How well the class will work - and how much you will enjoy it - depends upon how well you do this reading. It's not an excessive amount: set aside say a morning a week for each fortnightly class.

About the Classes

We regard the classes as taking the form of seminars, not lectures. We will not tell you what to think: we want you as a group to think aloud about the sources you've read and the secondary literature on them. For this reason we ask you to do the following things in preparation for each class.

• Read each of the sources and jot down a couple of ideas about each one that you would like to raise, whether if asked or off your own bat.
• Use dictionaries to look up any words you are unfamiliar with.
• Find out something, however, simple, about each of the primary authors. Use resources like encyclopaedias, historical dictionaries, historical reference works, or biographical dictionaries. We want you to be able to tell us, very briefly, who each author was, when they lived, and what else they wrote. We will allow ourselves to ask any one of you about any one of the primary authors at any point in the class.
• Read the set secondary literature, and prepare for yourself a brief summary of what you take the scholar to be saying. This only needs to be a couple of lines to a paragraph long. Again, we may ask any one of you to tell us what any of the articles said and what you thought about the arguments being made.

Remember, if you (collectively) don't speak up, we will ask you to speak!

Approaching the Sources

Among other things, this class is intended to introduce you to the study of intellectual history. A key aspect of intellectual history is learning to read past texts in a scrupulous and historically-attentive way. Use these classes as an opportunity to develop this key historical skill; we will be trying to show you ways in which to develop it over the course of the year.

Prior Reading

The best way to prepare yourself for the course would be: (1) to read Thomas More's Utopia over the Christmas Vacation before the course begins; and (2) to begin reading through the Primary Sources folder. You can do more reading, of course, if you like: there are plenty of suggestions for secondary reading in the course folder and on the website bibliography

Suggested Utopian Text

For every class we suggest an additional utopian text that you might like to read if you have time. We don't insist that you do this extra reading, of course, but there's no doubt that your enjoyment of the class will be enhanced if you do.

Course Requirements

For Themes and Sources you produce two pieces of written work: a Short Essay, which is not assessed, and a Long Essay, which is. You write the Short Essay over the Easter Vacation and have a supervision on it in the Easter term.

Resources

Further information relating to Utopian Writing is available on the course website at http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/rws1001/utopia/.