Written by Katrin Surkan
Every student is required to take two Great Books courses for the Hillsdale core: Great Books in the Western Tradition and Great Books in the British and American Traditions. Here is an FAQ for all your pressing questions by an economics major.
What should I expect to learn? After reading and parsing a number of literary pieces and authors, you learn how to better appreciate beautiful writing and produce it yourself. You read the trials and errors of characters, giving you a new appreciation for your own life. Sometimes, it brings relief to remember that your failures may not matter so much in the grand scheme of things. It brings hope to read of characters’ joys. Mainly, though, as an economics major, I appreciate the soft skills of time management and project preparation that I received from my humanities classes.
How do I succeed in a reading- and writing-heavy class? Do the work consistently. In a class as work-heavy as most humanities classes are, don’t fall behind. Stay on top of assignments, working ahead if you need to allow yourself the space to focus on other work for one or two days. Start papers early, giving yourself a week to step away from them before edits begin. Remember that the first draft is the hardest to write; just write it, no matter how good or bad, for it will not be what the professor reads.
Why do I have to take Great Books as a non-English major? Because life is not specialized. Sure, we each gain expertise in our chosen field and vocation over time, but we are all human. The Great Books are a window into humanity. We will all experience love and joy and success, just as we will face betrayal and grief and heartbreak. Sometimes we find ourselves facing much the same as a character might, like the fortitude of Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. And sometimes, we might understand the feeling of desperate need to get that one, last, unnecessary word in like Odysseus to Polymachus in the Odyssey, though none of us will ever face a Cyclops. To not read the Great Books is to go into the rest of life less prepared for it (and for the papers you will inevitably write in other classes).
Is it difficult? Great Books challenges each student. It introduces the theme that humanities classes are reading- and writing-heavy. It is normal for students to do poorly on their first paper or two, but, by the end of Great Books II, students are relatively comfortable writing 10-15 page papers. As an economics major, this more than prepared me for the economics papers I write that stay within that range but focus on a particular topic; economics topics are usually already well-researched and more concrete than literary papers.
How does the class teach writing? You learn to write by trial and error, informed by the craftsmanship you read. First you read excellent—or, one might say, great—books closely. Professors guide you through analysis of plot, literary devices, word choice, and syntax to show you how a series of concise, cropped sentences might express hurriedness; the connotations and associations with “determined” rather than “stubborn” might show that a character has direction and reason behind her thinking rather than just blindness to logic. Then, professors assign work in short and long form to help you master your own voice and writing. Their critiques draw out the hidden mastery in your work and shave off the fluff. By the end of the semester, an eight-page paper might feel much shorter than it sounds because your skill and experience have grown.
What books will I read? In “Great Books in the Western Tradition,” you are likely to read the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, or the Oresteia, as well as Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and/or Dante’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Some professors also add Genesis, Samuel, Psalms, or Job from the Bible or Augustine’s Confessions to their curricula. In “Great Books in the British and American Traditions,” professors assign Jane Austen’s Emma, collections of poetry, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, any of Shakespeare’s plays (I read Hamlet), or Milton’s Paradise Lost. Different professors assign different books, though, so you are unlikely to read them all for class.
How do I make the most of the class? Choose a professor who fits your learning style; some students prefer professors who lecture more, some who prefer discussions, some like plenty of readings, and others prefer more creative assignments. Each professor will also introduce you to different books, so choose a class with novels you want to read. Because it’s a core class, there is much variety in how it’s taught and by whom, giving you multiple options for how you want to fulfill the requirement.
Katrin Surkan, ’25, has roots on the east coast but can almost always be found traveling. When not writing, reading, or chatting with someone new, she’s likely looking for a dog to pet or singing at the top of her lungs between classes with a cappuccino in hand.
Published in January 2025
