Schedule | Spring 2016

January | February | March | April | May

Today and Next Meeting

     
FINALS WEEK
W 5/4

Online Final Exam
Wednesday 5/4
Start Times: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In a time window today between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., you will spend 2 hours writing responses to two of the three questions on the Final Exam.

To give yourself the entire two-hour period, you should start the exam no later than 3 p.m.

We will use the couse Moodle site to make the questions available, and to enable you to write and submit your responses online.

You have a choice of when and where you write the Final Exam, but you will need to plan to complete it within one 2 hour block of time, which you complete no later than 5 p.m.

Directions for the Online Final Exam

During the time window above, open the Moodle quiz "Final Exam."

You will find three questions with text boxes under each.

Remember to answer only two of the three questions.

Advice: Write Outside of Moodle and Paste

As a precaution, be sure to write each answer in text-editing software and save it in a file on your computer.

After you have completed each answer, copy the text into that question's text box in Moodle.

What If Moodle Goes Down?

If you have technical problems with Moodle during the exam time, please complete writing the exam, and then copy the text of your answers into an email and send the email to me no more than 90 minutes after the time you started the exam.

If you are using Firefox and have trouble typing into a text box, use the handle grip in the lower right of the text box to enlarge it slightly.

For technical questions about Moodle, call the ITSS Help Desk at 726-8847 during office hours.

 

 

Semester Calendar:

January

     
WEEK 1
W 1/13

Homework

Obtain the Books

See the syllabus

Day 1. Introduction to Literacy, Technology, and Society

Syllabus and Course

prehistoric tribe around fire

Literacy, Technology, Society

Timeline and Phases of Society/Identity

Terms to Remember

  • "society" as the entire complex of conditions, practices, and structures that makes up the norms of given way of life: economic, legal, technological, bureaucratic, cultural, geographical, etc. (in contrast to the term culture): the example of the car with a cluster of structures and conditions around it.
  • literacy
  • technology
  • historical timeline of the class: 1500 BC through 2015 AD.

Resources

 

F 1/15

Homework

Read and Be Prepared to Answer

Read Walter Ong, Chapter 1 using the principles of Active Reading, and come in prepared to answer the Reading Questions.

Don't answer the questions on the handout in sentences and paragraphs, however. Instead, answer them in the margins of the book with word tags, arrows, stars--whatever symbols seems useful.  

Photocopy and Bring in

After you've read and marked your text, choose a two-page spread from the book that best shows your active reading and engagement with Ong and one of more of the questions above.  

Photocopy (a.k.a., scan and print) that two-page spread, write your name in the upper right on the paper, and bring it to class next time to turn in.  

Read and Bring Back

The handout from Class "Jay David Bolter: The Cathedral and the Book"

 

 

Day 2

Ong C1: The Orality of Language

bards
Turkish bards perform in the video Homer: Singer of Tales

Review from Last Time

  1. Literacy, Technology, and Society: the interrelationship of these terms, and how it rolls through history producing changes. 
  2. This course tells an historical story of these interrelationships, and this story is a history of the present moment: a moment when technology is changing who we are and how we live. 
  3. Active Reading: you are not just absorbing what the book has to say.  You’re using a pencil to have a conversation with the text in the margins.  You’re a partner in making the book mean something.  Your part of the conversation doesn’t have to be in words: lines, arrows, symbols, circles, pictures, diagrams. Idiosyncratic. 
  4. Read on paper, class is a device-free zone

Goals Today

  1. Explain what the "orality of language” is, and why it is interesting and relevant to writers, and to those of us who live in a literate culture
  2. Appreciate and understand the differences between oral and written cultures 

Terms to Remember

  • the orality of language
  • oral culture
  • "oral literature"
  • oral poetry (video)
  • "pristine human consciuosness"

Resources

 

WEEK 2
M 1/18

 

No Class Meeting: MLK Holiday

W 1/20

Homework

Read and Be Prepared to Answer

Read Walter Ong,

  • Introduction, and
  • Chapter 2

using the principles of Active Reading, and come in prepared to answer the Reading Questions.

Don't answer the questions on the handout in sentences and paragraphs, however. Instead, answer them in the margins of the book with word tags, arrows, stars--whatever symbols seems useful.  

 

Day 3

Ong C2: Discovery of the Primary Oral

Review from Last Time

  • "pristine human consciousness" 15.4 (1.4)
  • "oral poetry" (video)

The Term "Society" as opposed to "Culture"

"Society" (example: 15th Century Europe - time of Gutenberg)

1. "body of institutions and relationships2. "common life" as in "life we share in common" 3. companionship or fellowship

"Culture"

Shared ways of thinking, feeling, and acting

Homework Questions

4. What is “The Homeric Question” and why is it significant in understanding the differences between oral and written (that is, chirographic) culture?

5. What was Milman Parry’s discovery concerning Homer’s Illiad and the Odyssey

6. How does the oral tradition define “great poetry” differently from the ways written cultures do? 

7. How have the “prejudices” of literate (written) culture made it more difficult for us to understand Homer and ancient, oral tradition from which he emerges?  cultural chauvanism 18.6

 

Terms to Remember

  • Homeric Question
  • Discovery of Primary Orality
  • Your page numbers: 18.1, 19.2, 19.7, 21.1-2, 22.7, 23-9-24.2

Resources

 

F 1/22

Homework

Read and Mark

Read Ong's Chapter 3, "Psychodynamics of Orality" and come in prepared to answer the Reading Questions for Chapter 3

Answer The Reading Questions in Writing (Bring on Paper)

Answer each of these questions in writing: a paragraph, a list, a chart, or map, etc. Make your answer "thing-like" (Ong 11), and be sure the "thing" specifically refers to particular pages and passages in Ong's Chapter 3.

Day 4

Ong C3 Psychodynamics of Orality

Goals for Today

  1. Understand the Kinds of Things to Know How to Do for the Exams
  2. Memorize and understand the 9 Psychodynamics of Orality
  3. Explain the significance of Ong's distinction between sight and sound (sight isolates, sound incorporates, interiority)

Kinds of Things to Know How to Do for the Exams

I will give you a copy of the handout, "Kinds of Things to Know How to Do for the Exams."

Psychodynamics of Orality

A
A
R
C
L
A
E
H
S

38-Year-Old Wheat Farmer

wheat farmer

Terms to Remember

  • the nine psychodynamics of orality
  • "sight isolates, sound incorporates"
  • agonistic (6th of 9 psychodynamics of orality)
  • 38-Year-Old Wheat Farmer as example of oral consciousness
  • 7 brothers becoming 5 brothers as example of oral history
  • bards (oral tradition of poetry)

Resources

 

WEEK 3
M 1/25

Homework

Read and Mark

Read "Ong Chapter 4 "Writing Restuctures Consciousness." Mark and, using the techniques of Active Reading, make marginal notes, especially with the question below in mind.

Write, Print, and Bring

Write a 500-word "Preparation Sheet" titled "Ong Chapter 4" which answers the following question:

"According to Ong, how does the technology of writing "restructure consciousness" and how does this restructuring affect human society, individual identity, or the sense of history?"

This preparation sheet shpould

Bring

Bring your Ong book and be sure you have the handouts "The Cathedral and the Book" and "from Plato's Phaedrus"

Write a Nine-Word Nonsense Sentence

To complete what we started in class last time, write a memorable, nonsense sentence to help you recall the first letters of Ong's nine psychodynamics of orality.

The first letters of the words in your sentence should be the first letters of the psycho dynamics (Ong 37-57): AARCLAEHS.

I've condensed the psychodynamics into these nine single words:

  1. Additive
  2. Aggregative
  3. Redundant
  4. Conservative
  5. Lifeworld (close to)
  6. Agonistic (contest, agony is “struggle”)
  7. Empathetic
  8. Homeostatic 
  9. Situational

An example of a nonsense sentence (which for some reason is memorable to me, though probably not to you):

"After All, Royal Crowns Lift As Every Heart Stops"

Day 5

Ong C4

Writing Restructures Consciousness

Review from Last Time

  • nonsense sentences for "AARCLAEHS"

Sight Isolates, Sound Incorporates

spectator
Concert spectator from the video "Dream Baby Dream" (Bruce Springsteen, The Wrecking Ball tour)

See Ong page 71.4-6, 72.6-9

Look at Homework for Next Time

Discussion of Chapter 4

Extreme change of gears:
Reading from your responses and commentaries...

"The Sense of True Writing" (Script)

  • page 83

Plato

Terms to Remember

  • sight isolates, sound incorporates
  • "true writing" (a "script") as the "representation of an utterance,"" rather than of "things" (Ong).
  • "writing restructures consciousness"
  • Plato's criticism of writing
W 1/27

Homework

Post to Moodle Site

In the Moodle forum, "Writing Restructures Consciousness," create an "intellectual postcard" about a key idea from the first four chapters of Ong's Orality and Literacy.

Use a quote from Ong somewhere in your writing. Feel free to repurpose some analysis from your Preparation Sheet on Chapter 4.

You should try to insert a visible image into your posting, rather than just inserting a link. To insert an image in Moodle,

  1. Find an image online.
  2. Right-click (control+click on Mac) and select "View Image"
  3. In the new browser window, copy the URL from the location bar at the top
  4. In the Moodle forum, choose to post a reply
  5. Click in the New Message Window
  6. At the top of the message window, click the "Insert Image" icon (looks like a tree)
  7. In the Insert/Edit Image Window, find the "Image URL" box and paste in the URL.
  8. Click the "Insert" button
  9. In the message window, you can type or copy text to include with the image.
  10. If you are unable to make this work, simply include a text link to the image in your message.)

If you insert the URL of a video (YouTube, for example), Moodle will usually embed the video in a player, which will allow us to watch it without having to leave the Moodle page.

Bring Your Ong Book

 

Day 6. The Machine that Made Us (Gutenberg's Press)

machine that made us: paper

Viewing Guide

Handout: Viewing Guide for the film

Return of Preparation Sheets

Terms of Remember

  • modernity
  • secondary orality (Ong)
F 1/29

Homework

Finish Viewing the Video

Open the online version of the video "The Machine That Made Us" and finish watching it from where we left off.

Post #1 to Moodle (Gutenberg's Machine) by Today at 9 a.m.

In a reply to the Moodle forum "Gutenberg's Machine," answer one of the Viewing Guide questions with the following:

1. Take a screen shot of a moment from the video.

On a Mac,

    1. hit Command + Shift + 4, and your cursor will turn into a cross-hair icon.
    2. Drag the cursor diagonally across the video image (or a portion of it) to select it.
    3. When you release your mouse, the image will be saved as a file on your computer's desktop.

If you have a Windows machine and don't know how save a screen shot as an image file, please go to one of the Mac Labs on campus to follow the directions above.

2. Post the screen shot file to your Moodle post:

In the "Your Reply" screen of Moodle (after you click "Reply" to my message at the of the forum), find the "Attachment" section with an window labeled "Drop Files Here to Upload."

Drag your screen-shot image file from your desktop into this box.

3. In that same Moodle post, write a substantive paragraph that describes what is being said and done in your chosen moment of the video. Explain:

  1. how the content from the video answers the question from the Viewing Guide,
  2. what the implications are of what we're learning there,
  3. how the question and your answer relates to our course's big story of literacy, technology and society, and their effects on identity, consciousness, and history.

Moodle Post #2 (After 9 a.m. Friday, and Before the End of Saturday)

Reply to one of your classmates' posts in the Moodle forum "Gutenberg's Machine."

Be sure to click the "Reply" link at the bottom of the particular message so your reply will be nested under the correct message.

In your reply, try making connections between the example and ideas in your original post with your classmate's.

See if you can further develop a topic or idea concerning the processes by which literacy, technology, and society interact with one another, and with issues of identity, consciousness, and history.

If useful, feel free to include an image in your reply using the technique above.

No Class Meeting

 

 

February

>
     
M 2/1

Homework

Read

Paul Cobley, Narrative, Chapter 1 "In the Beginning, The End"

Reading Question:

Cobley argues that the power of narratives comes not simply from their content, but from the form of narrative.

This power, Cobley says, is fundamental to the human experience and consciousness, which makes "narrative" much more than just another way of organizing a piece of writing.

Choose three specific, key quotations from Cobley's chapter which suggest the source, nature, and/OR consequences of this primal, narrative power.

Come to class prepared to read and explain your choices.

Day 7
Narrative and Consciousness
Paul Cobley's Chapter 1

How the Cobley Book is Different From Ong's Book

Keeping Track of Your Page Numbers

I'd like to keep track of the page numbers we read together in class each day so we can have a list when it comes time for the exams.

When you call our attention to a quotation or term in class, please remember to send me a brief email after class with the page number(s)--including tenths to indicate how far down the page, such as 54.5 or 83.8-9--and a couple of key words to identify the quotation(s).

Also, this will better enable me to give you credit for participation!

I will keep track of the quotaitons that I bring up.

Terms and Lines to Remember from Cobley C1

  • story, plot, narrative 5
  • storytelling impurlse illustory? 7.9
  • bewteen beginning and ending 9.2
  • Iser, Carr: real events v stories (representation) 8.5
  • Mickey Spillane: reading for the ending 12.10
  • representation 8, 14.5
  • emplotment 17
  • phylogeny, ontogeny 19, 27

 

W 2/3

Homework

Read Cobley Chapter 3

Read Cobley, Chapter 3 "The Rise and Rise of the Novel."

Reading Question:

Cobley argues that how you choose to tell a story creates a "problem of representation" and a potential crisis of social authority. Identify three passages (with page numbers) from the chapter that suggest why the telling of a story has such an effect on the story's meaning and consequence.

Post In Moodle (Before 11 a.m.)

Choose one of those passages and, in a reply to the Moodle forum, "Cobley C3,"

  1. Type in the quotation from Cobley
  2. Include a page-number citation at the end of the quotation
  3. Write a paragraph analyzing your quotation and explaining how Cobley sees narrative as playing a role in consciousness, society, identity formation, etc. and why that role is controversial or problematic.

Day 8

The Problems of Representation

Cobley C3: "The Rise of the Novel"

Romper Stomper

Romper Stomper

Mimesis and Diegesis (Showing and Telling)

  • Cobley on Plato's idea of mimesis (55.7, 56.4)

  • mimesis: imitation (as in "to mime a song")
  • diegesis: telling ("di-" means "to guide or pass through/between," as in diagram or dialogue)

Plato vs. Aristotle

Terms and Lines to Remember from Cobley C3

  • Cobley on Aristotle's concept of fiction, differences with Plato 57.5-8
  • Romper Stomper 60.6-
  • Cobley on Plato's idea of mimesis (55.7, 56.4)
  • "Famously, Plato sought to banish..." 61.1 AO
  • The beginning of the Iliad...Chryses...the poet speaks in his own person, but later on he speaks in the character of Chryses and tries to make us feel that the words come, not from Homer, but from an aged priest" (55.3). KB

 

F 2/5

Read Cobley Chapter 4

Read Cobley, Chapter 4, "Realism"

Reading Questions

1. Make a List

According to Cobley, what are some characteristics of "realist" representation? What ideas, attitudes, philosophies, or goals do works of realism share?

Make a list of at least four characteristics with page numbers.

2. Three Quotations that Challenge the Realist Solution

Conventionally, "realistic" representation is assumed to be objective, scientific, and apolitical. This idea presumes to solve the problems of representation.

Throughout this chapter, however, Cobley argues otherwise: that realism represents another style of representation, rather than offering unmediated access to reality.

Identify at least three of Cobley's reasons, ideas, examples, or arguments (with page numbers) that show how realist narrative is not pure or uncontroversial in its representation of reality or truth.

Post In Moodle

Choose one of those passages and, in a reply to the Moodle forum, "Cobley C4,"

  1. Type in the quotation from Cobley
  2. Include a page-number citation at the end of the quotation
  3. write a paragraph explaining how the quotation from Cobley argues that realism is not ultimately a way around the problems and controversies of representation.

 

Day 9

Cobley C4: Realism

List

Ideas, Attitudes, Philosophies, Goals Shared by Works of Realism

Terms to Remember

  • broad canvas
  • knowable community
  • "the crux of McCabe's argument...” 84.3 TC
  • one authoritative meaning in realism 95.8 JF

Send Me Your Page Numbers

Remember I'm trying to keep track of the page numbers we read together in class each day so we can have a list when it comes time for the exams.

When you call our attention to a quotation or term in class, please remember to send me a brief email after class with the page number(s)--including tenths to indicate how far down the page, such as 54.5 or 83.8-9--and a couple of key words to identify the quotation(s).

Also, this will better enable me to give you credit for participation!

Resources:

WEEK 5
M 2/8

Homework

Read

Read Cobley Chapter 5, "Beyond Realism"

Reading Question (3 Passages):

In Chapter 4, Cobley argued--citing Terry Eagleton--the 19th and 20th centuries saw a transformation in the scale of economic life (i.e., "capitalism") through three phases (88). These phases had profound effects on both the form and focus of narratives, and on contemporary models of individualism or identity.

In Chapter 5, Cobley is describing the last phase of economic development: the global or "imperialist" stage.

Identity at least three passages or examples from Chapter 5 that demonstrate the characteristics of this third phase, and how those characteristics resulted in "modernist" narrative style and a "modernist" identity.

In a reply to the Moodle forum "Cobley C5" (by 11 a.m.), give the page number, a brief quotation, and two or three sentences of explanation for each of your choices.

Bring your reponses (or at least notes about them) to class on paper.

 

Day 10

Cobley C5: Beyond Realism (Modernism)


From Juan Gris' Picasso.

Review from Last Time (Realism):

Questions

  • What do imperialism and sexuality have to do with each other?
  • What do imperialism and identity have to do with each other?
  • what do imperialism, sexuality, and identity have to do with Modernist narrative?

Comment

Narrative Levels

Send Me Your Page Numbers

Remember I'm trying to keep track of the page numbers we read together in class each day so we can have a list when it comes time for the exams.

When you call our attention to a quotation or term in class, please remember to send me a brief email after class with the page number(s)--including tenths to indicate how far down the page, such as 54.5 or 83.8-9--and a couple of key words to identify the quotation(s).

Also, this will better enable me to give you credit for participation!

Terms to Remember

  • "First, the narrative of imperialism...haunted by the desire..." 116.9 TC
  • "Kilgore and the Americans are acting in bad faith...scene cannot take place without Vietnamese...yet...one voice..." 119.4 TC
  • Narrative levels 125-127

Resources

 

W 2/10

Homework

1. Read

Read the following from The Picture of Dorian Gray:

  • Preface
  • Chapters 1-9 (pages 1-86)

2. Answer a Reading Question in Moodle

Art (Representation) and Life

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a book about the relationship of art and life--or, more generally, of representation and life.  

(Remember, "representation" includes writing, visual art, music, performance, or any other way of "externalizing" and preserving experience.)

Wilde's novel is an example of a narrative/literary style of the 1890s called "Aestheticism," which was partly a reaction against Realism and the conventionalized "common sense" that accepted forms of realism expressed.  

Post to Moodle (by 11 a.m.)

In a message to the Moodle forum "Wilde Dualisms," identify 2 quotations with page numbers which demonstrate the novel's ongoing preoccupation the relationship of art and life and its opposition to common-sense realism, which appears in dualisms like the following:

  • morality vs. sensuality
  • philosophy vs. art
  • beauty vs. genius
  • emotion vs. intellect
  • pretend vs. real
  • the senses vs. the soul
  • etc.

Write a paragraph under these quotations explaining how the two quotations, together, might suggest a philosophy or position concerning the relationship of representation and life.  In what ways might representation be the foundation of a life founded on "aestheticism"?  

Bring your reponses (or at least notes about them) to class on paper.

Day 11

Picture of Dorian Gray 1: Plot, Narrative (Levels), Representation

Send Me Your Page Numbers

Remember I'm trying to keep track of the page numbers we read together in class each day so we can have a list when it comes time for the exams.

Contemporary Criticisms of Doran Gray

Commanded much attention and awakened very contradictory opinions:
> Some readers read the novel "fourteen times over."
> The bookstore WH Smith refused to carry it, deeming it "filthy"
> Critics called the characters “puppies” (Ellmann 320-321), said the book was “immoral”
> Some accused Wilde of writing a “self advertisement”

Narrative Levels (Cobley 125 - )

Note that Cobley cites Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan 1983:

  • Actual Author (the actual Oscar Widle)

  • Implied Author (a "virtual" Oscar Wilde)

  • Narrator

    ----------------------------------------------

  • Narratee (an imagined figure to whom the narrator is speaking)

  • Implied Reader (a "virtual" you that you become to read the book as you are apparently intended to read it)

  • Actual Reader (the actual you)

Passages to Remember

  • "The common people who acted..." (63.2) AM
  • "But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins..." (2) KB
  • "The moment she touched actual life..." (75.9) TC
  • "Harry told me about a certain philanthropist..." (80.5 ) TC
  • "No, she will never come to life." Harry, on Sibyl's suicide. (75.9) SH
  • "Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are--my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks--we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly." (3) RB 

 

F 2/12

Homework

Finish Reading Dorian Gray

Be Ready to Discuss the "Problems of Representation" Posed By This Novel

Contemporary criticisms of Picture of Dorian Gray charged:

  • that the book was immoral
  • that the characters are callow "puppies," not worthy of our attention
  • that the book is little more than a "self-advertisement" for Wilde's self-created cult of personality and wit

Wilde responded to these criticisms in his "Preface" to The Picture of Dorian Gray.  

Is the book immoral?  Are the characters shallow? Is Wilde using the book only as a vehicle for his wit and personal style?  

How does Wilde answer these accusations in specific lines of his rather cryptic Preface?  

Read to Understand "Aestheticism" Better

Read the brief excerpts from Walter Pater's The Renaissance. These are two classic statements of aestheticism (in short, the assertion of art's and literature's independence from the need to teach, inspire, or otherwise be socially useful).

Mark on the handout lines and ideas that appear to agree with--or at least speak to--Wilde's apparent vision of art, writing, and representation and its relationship to life and society.

Day 12:

Picture of Dorian Gray 2

Pater, Aestheticism

The Decadent Movement

Gothic Genre

Detail from a Strand Magazine illustration of Sherlock Holmes

Aestheticism: Pater and Wilde

Decadence (1890s)

Gothic Genre

I will give youi a copy of the handout "Notes on the Gothic Genre."


Shot from Tim Burton's Gothic film Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Resources

 

Passages to Remember

  • "To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life." Pater Handout. KB

 

WEEK 6
M 2/15

Homework

Read Dracula

Read pages 29-122

Find Quotations, Page Numbers, and Be Prepared to Discuss:

1. East and West

During Jonathan Harker's journey to, and stay with, Dracula at his castle, Stoker suggests contrasts of East and West (Transylvania and Britain). Write down the page numbers of two specific phrases, passages, or descriptions where Stoker characterizes (or even just implies a characterization of) differences between East and West. ...What role do literacy and technology play in shaping those respective societies?

...In what ways do Dracula and Jonathan exemplify their respective societies?

2. Past and Present

Note down the location of three passages (with page numbers) that contrast past and present in the novel Dracula. What ideas does Stoker associate with the past or the present? with their differences?

Day 13: Dracula 1

“persistently, an anxious book”


Shot from Tim Burton's Gothic film Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Decadence (1890s)


Gothic Genre

I will give you a copy of the handout "Notes on the Gothic Genre."

Resources


Passages to Remember

  • “persistently, an anxious book” (Walls qtd. in Byron "Introduction" 15)
  • east/west quote: "I had to hurry breakfast......." 33.2 AM

 

W 2/17

Homework

Make Notes on the Handout

Since we didn't have time to talk about the handout "Notes on the Gothic Genre" last meeting, please take a few minutes to read the handout carefully. Mark anything you don't understand.

In the left margin, make notes about the following:

What aspects of The Picture of Dorian Gray exemplify any of these characteristics of the Gothic?

Bring your handout to class, ready to discuss your observations.

Read

Read Dracula pages 123 - 215 (Chapters 8- 13)

Make Notes in the Margins

As you read, make notes in your margins concerning the following three topics: 

Gender and Sexuality

In what ways does the novel define, affirm, transform, or transgress roles of gender and standards of sexuality? Use the norms suggested by the text itself to determine what is transformational or transgressive.

Information Technologies and Knowledge

Notice that the narrative of Dracula is composed of documents, rather than the voice of a single narrator. This way of telling the story highlights the role of information technologies: letters, journals written in short hand, phonographs, typewriting, etc. How is the handling of information and knowledge critical to the batte again Dracula.  In what ways is this the story of a “knowledge team.”  

The Gothic Genre

In what ways does Dracula use conventions of the Gothic genre as a vehicle for social anxieties of the time (gender, politics, imperialism, science, medicine, 

Put on Paper and Bring

Under the heading for each these three topics, write a page number (with tenths) for a relevant, revealing and interesting passage.

For one of the topics of your choice, add two more passages for a total of three.

Under each page number, write down some key words from the passage and then some talking points for yourself to explain the relevance and significance of your choices of passage.

Be prepared to turn these notes in at the end of class today.

 

 

 

Day 14

Social Anxieties and Order in Dracula:

Gender, The Gothic, and Technology


Shot from Tim Burton's Gothic film Edward Scissorhands (1990)

F 2/19

Homework

Read

Read Dracula pages 215 - 299 (Chapters 14 - 19)

Social Anxieties and Social Order

As you read, continue to track our three topics from the last homework:

  • Gender/Sexuality
  • Information Technologies, Knowledge, and Science
  • The Gothic

On paper--or in a way you can print for class--make note of page numbers for each topic, and then write a few talking points at the bottom of the page about how social anxieties/social order are represented in these quotations as a group.

Bring your notes on paper to class and be prepared to turn them in. Don't worry if your notes are not in a form or style that anyone else will understand.

Your Page Numbers from Last Class

As explained in class last time, we will now be using Moodle to collect the page numbers and other informaiton on the passages you offered (orally) in the last class meeting.

Before today, please post your contributions to the last class to the appropriate forum.

Day 15

Dracula 3: Gender and Sexuality

Connetions Between Wilde and Stoker

  • both Irish
  • both attended Trinity College Dublin, though Stoker was there earlier
  • They were friends in Dublin
  • Both were Irishmen in who moved to England
  • Wilde went to Magdalen College, Oxford
  • After getting a degree in science, Stoker pursued a more Bohemian life in London, became a theater manager and agent for Britain's most famous actor, Henry Irving
  • Stoker married the celebrated beauty Florence Bascomb, who had once been engaged to Oscar Wilde (Stoker met Bascomb through Wilde's mother)
  • Wilde married Constance Lloyd in 1884, became fashionable London couple, 2 children, separated in 1895 but never divorced.  
  • in 1891, Wilde met Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosey), soon after publication of The Picture of Dorian Gray
  • Wilde and Stoker were both part of the literary, artistic, theatrical world of London in the 1880s and 90s
  • Stoker began writing Dracula one month after Wilde was arrested for "gross indecency" in 1895
  • Stoker was one of a few of Wilde's friends who did not entirely turn away from him
  • Scholars have noticed that Stoker erased all references to Wilde in his published and unpublished journals, etc.

 

 

WEEK 7
M 2/22

Homework

Read

Read Dracula pages 300 - 419 (Chapters 20 - 27)

Post to Moodle and Print for Class

Post the following to the Moodle Forum, "Literacy, Technology, or Society," by 11 a.m. today.

Choose a passage from Dracula and use it to analyze how Stoker's presents literacy, technology, or society as a theme in Dracula.

1. Start by choosing a character or plot event in the novel, which seems to feature literacy, technology, or society as a theme.

2. Look closely at Stoker's language in some passages from the novel which represent what happens to that character, what the character does, or how the plot event unfolds.

3. In a substantial paragraph in which you quote from Dracula to describe what you see Stoker saying about the

  • promise or dangers of technology
  • the power or limitations of literacy
  • the strengths or limitations of modernity as embodied in the structures and norms of modern "society."

Be sure to quote from the novel at least twice in your paragraph, and to do a "close reading" of the language of those quotations in your own analysis.

Print out your Moodle posting to refer to in class and to turn in at the end.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

Day 16

Dracula 4

Connetions Between Wilde and Stoker

  • both Irish
  • both attended Trinity College Dublin, though Stoker was there earlier
  • They were friends in Dublin
  • Both were Irishmen in who moved to England
  • Wilde went to Magdalen College, Oxford
  • After getting a degree in science, Stoker pursued a more Bohemian life in London, became a theater manager and agent for Britain's most famous actor, Henry Irving
  • Stoker married the celebrated beauty Florence Bascomb, who had once been engaged to Oscar Wilde (Stoker met Bascomb through Wilde's mother)
  • Wilde married Constance Lloyd in 1884, became fashionable London couple, 2 children, separated in 1895 but never divorced.  
  • in 1891, Wilde met Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosey), soon after publication of The Picture of Dorian Gray
  • Wilde and Stoker were both part of the literary, artistic, theatrical world of London in the 1880s and 90s
  • Stoker began writing Dracula one month after Wilde was arrested for "gross indecency" in 1895
  • Stoker was one of a few of Wilde's friends who did not entirely turn away from him
  • Scholars have noticed that Stoker erased all references to Wilde in his published and unpublished journals, etc.

Resources

 

 

W 2/24

Homework

Marx

Print, number the paragraphs, and read Karl Marx's "Preface" to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (starting with the fourth paragraph, which begins "Although I studied jurisprudence,....")

As you read the Marx piece, select and arrange six or seven key quotations from the reading (each represented by a "quotation tag" composed of the paragraph number and a few keys words) on the Base and Superstructure diagram.

With your placement of these quotation tags on the diagram, you're indicating which quotations show Marx talking about:

  • what the base is or what the base is composed of?
  • what the superstructure is and what it's composed of?
  • how the "base shapes the superstructure" (up arrow)
  • how the "superstructure maintains and legitimates the base" (down arrow)

For example, you would place a quotation about the "means of production" in the base, or a quotation about education in the superstructure. (You might need write your paragraph numbers and key words arround the edges and use arrows to show where they go in the diagram)

Bring your handout to class prepared to turn it in at the end of the meeting.

Kant

Print, number the paragraphs, and read Immanuel Kant's "What is Enlightenment?"

Print the Preparation Sheet and, under each question, note down two paragraph tags (that is, a paragraph number and a few key words each) for passages from the reading that suggest answers to each question.

Bring your completed Preparation Sheet to class.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

Day 17

Marx (Historical Materialism); Kant (Idealism)


Winona Ryder as Mina Harker in Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Resources

  • Immanuel Kant 1724 - 1804
  • First-Wave Feminism 1850s-1960s
  • Dracula 1897
  • Karl Marx's Base and Superstructure diagram

 

 

 

F 2/26

Homework

Read Hayden White

1. From Moodle, download, print, read, mark and bring to class

  • the first page of Hayden White's Introduction to The Tropics of Discourse
  • the first four pages of Hayden White's chapter "Fictions of Factual Representation" (pages 121-125) from his book Tropics of Discourse
  • the first two pages of Hayden White's chapter "Interpretation in History" (pages 51 and 52)

See the Moodle site for links to these PDFs.

Write

1. Re-Read

In Ong’s Orality and Literacy, re-read the story about pre-literate Ghana and the "structural amnesia" of that oral culture's sense of history (48.2-.7).

2. Consider

As literates, we might think this sense of history is almost laughable.  We might be tempted to congratulate ourselves on the rigorousness and objectivity of our written histories. That is, we can record the truth of what happens, and so we have unmediated and accurate access to what happened in the past.  We don’t just have an oral tradition, we might declare, We have documented history.  The study of history is a social science.  

3. Thought Questions

How does Hayden White’s argument here call into question our modern, self-assured notion that we have perfect access to the story of the past? How do the implications of what he says complicate the idea that the writing of history is scientific?

4. Write a Paragraph Using Two Quotations

Write a substantial paragraph speaking to the questions above. Use two quotations from White.

Be sure your sentences keep the focus on what White argues and how he argues it--rather than on just what you think--and be sure to introduce and integrate the quotations into your own words.

Use MLA format to cite and document White.

Print out and bring your paragraph to turn in at the end of class.

Day 18

Kant: Romanticism

Hayden White: Historiography

discourse

Resources

 

WEEK 8
M 2/28

Homework

Write 5 Questions for the Exam

Write an exam question for each of capacities covered on the exam. You can use any of the three question formats for any of the capacities.

See the handout "Capacities Expected for the Exams" for details.

The capacities are:

  • Identify who said/thought/represents what
  • Explain transformative terms and statements
  • Remember components of important ideas and how they relate
  • Distinguish key distinctions
  • Make connections and elaborate narratives or relationships

The Format of the Questions

Write each of those questions in your choice of three formats:

  1. Matching
  2. Fill in the Blank
  3. Essay

See the handout "Format for the Exam" for details.

By 10 a.m. today, post your questions to the appropriate forums in Moodle.

Bring to Class

Bring to class all books, handouts, and notes from the first half of the class.

Day 19

Preparation for the Midterm Exam

Write the Take-Home Portion for Wednesday's Homework

Note that you will write and submit the Take-Home Portion via Moodle between 5 p.m. today and noon Wednesday.

Resources

 


March
     

WEEK 8
W 3/2

Homework: Take-Home Portion of the Midterm

Take-Home Portion of the Midterm
(5 p.m. Monday - noon Wednesday)

In a time window between 5 p.m. Monday and noon Wednesday, you will spend 90 minutes writing responses to two of the three questions on the take-home portion of the Midterm Exam.

We will use the couse Moodle site to make the questions available, and to enable you to write and submit your responses online.

You have a choice of when and where you write the Take-Home Portion, but you will need to plan to complete it within one 90-minute block of time, which you complete no later than noon Wednesday.

Directions for the Take-Home Portion

During the time window above, open the Moodle quiz "Midterm Exam Take Home Portion."

Your will find three questions with text boxes under each.

Remember to answer only two of the three questions.

Advice: Write Outside of Moodle and Paste

As a precaution, be sure to write each answer in text-editing software and save it in a file on your computer.

After you have completed each answer, copy the text into that question's text box in Moodle.

What If Moodle Goes Down?

If you have technical problems with Moodle during the exam time, please complete writing the exam, and then copy the text of your answers into an email and send the email to me no more than 90 minutes after the time you started the exam.

If you are using Firefox and have trouble typing into a text box, use the handle grip in the lower right of the text box to enlarge it slightly.

For technical questions about Moodle, call the ITSS Help Desk at 726-8847 during office hours.

Come Prepared

Come to class prepared to take the In-Class Portion of the Exam (composed of the Matching and Fill-in-the-Blank formats).

Bring two pens that you trust. There is no need to bring books or notes.

Day 20

Midterm Exam: In-Class Portion

F 3/4

Homework

Review from Previously

Hayden White:
  • the first page of Hayden White's Introduction to The Tropics of Discourse
  • the first four pages of Hayden White's chapter "Fictions of Factual Representation" (pages 121-125) from his book Tropics of Discourse
  • the first two pages of Hayden White's chapter "Interpretation in History" (pages 51 and 52)

Read

Read Cobley C6: "Modernism and Cinema" pages 132 - 154. Before you do, though, be sure to see the directions below:

Cluster for Answers and Patterns

As you read the Cobley chapter, look for at least 8 passages or phrases that help you answer the questions below.

Compose "quotation tags" (1-5 words and a page number with tenths) for those passages on a sheet of paper in the form of a cluster. Read carefully my directions for clustering. Be sure to follow each step, especially the final one.

Choose quotations that speak to the questions below, but also use the clustering technique to look for patterns and relationships that you might not otherwise notice or think about.

Questions to Be Thinking About Making Your Cluster

1. According to Cobley, what are the features of modernist narrative (for instance, how does it differ from realist or Romantic narrative)?

2. What are the features of a modernist self or identity, according to Cobley?

3. In what ways does Cobley say that cinematic narrative differs from print narrative? What are some of cinematic narrative's features and techniques?

4. According to Cobley, what are some ways that cinema naturally expresses modernist ideas and attitudes?

What are some examples Cobley uses, or that Cobley makes you think about?

Day 21

Cobley C6: Modernism and Cinema;

Hayden White

discourse

Resources

 

 

 

 

 

M 3/7  

Spring Break

W 3/9  

Spring Break

F 3/11  

Spring Break

WEEK 9
M 3/14

Homework

Read

Read 1984, pages 1-81

Write a Paragraph Using 3 Quotations

What are some ways that the government controls society in 1984?

How do these different ways work toether to make the society of 1984 a kind of closed system?

Identify three quotations that help describe these methods and their effects.

Write a long paragraph that uses the three quotations to answer the questions.

Print the paragraph and bring it to class.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

 

Day 22

Orwell's 1984 1: Control

ministry of truth

W 3/16

Homework

Read

Read 1984, pages 81 - 156

Five Quotation Tags on a Handout

As you read this section of 1984, have your Modernism handout at your side. Print it out if you don't have it on paper.

1. Look over the quotations, characteristics, causes, and conditions our Modernism handout. (Print this out if you don't have one on paper)

2. Consider these two questions:

  • How does the novel 1984 represent a modermist kind of society?

  • How does the novel express modernist ideas and assumptions in its cultural representation of that world?

3. As you read, note down the location of at least five quotations from 1984 which suggest answers to these questions.

4. In the margin of the handout, write quotation tags (a few key words and the page number with tenths) for each passage from 1984, and then draw a line to connect the tag with the point about modernism.

Write and Print a Paragraph

Think about the connections you've made on the handout.

Write and print out a paragraph that analyzes these connections between modernism and 1984, showing how Orwell's novel:

  • describes a modernist "society" (institutions, relationships, practices) and

  • represents this world in a modernist style.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

Day 23

Orwell's 1984 2: Modernism


From Juan Gris' Picasso.

Resources

F 3/18

Homework

Read

Read 1984, pages 156 - 218

What Went Wrong With History?

In the dystopian world of 1984, it is more than just one society that has gone wrong. The very process of history itself has been halted. Progress is impossible because change is not possible. History has stopped.

Choose a passage from 1984 that seems to demonstrate or comment on this freezing of the historical process.

Look back to some of our previous readings and discussions that concerned the process of history:

  • Walter Ong's account of literacy and information technologies as a driving force of history
  • Paul Cobley's various descriptions of narrative consciousness (realist, modernist, etc.)
  • Karl Marx's model of historical materialism (Base and Superstructure diagram)
  • Kant's idea about enlightenement and the Public Sphere
  • Hayden White's theory of discourse and historiography.

Cluster to Answer

On a piece of paper, start a cluster with a quotation tag for your chosen passage at the center. (See my explanation of clustering as an analytical technique.)

With your cluster, try relating key ideas, terms, quotations from the theorists above to your passage from 1984. Add quotation tags for more passages from 1984 as they occur to you.

Bring the cluster to class.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

 

Day 24

Orwell's 1984 3:
What Went Wrong with History?


From Juan Gris' Picasso.

Resources

  • Karl Marx's model of historical materialism (Base and Superstructure diagram)
  • Kant's idea about enlightenement and the Public Sphere
  • Hayden White's theory of discourse and historiography.
  • Passage from Cobley's Narrative:

    Summarizing Julian Jaynes, Cobley describes the process by which "humans develop a sense of 'self,' an 'analog I', which acts in the world; they then see the actions of this 'I' as part of a narrative…" According to Cobley, Jaynes argues that humans thus “produce a ‘meaningful’ existence based on a narratization of the past, as well as the maintenance of a sense of self. (21)
WEEK 10
M 3/21

Homework

Read

Read 1984, pages 218 - 298

Love in 1984

The conflict between the individual self and the social order is a characteristically modernist theme.

One way an author like Orwell can present an individual self like Winston or Julia is through the idea of love.

Orwell represents many kinds of love in 1984: brotherly, motherly, fatherly, romantic, sexual, marital, patriotic.... Can you find others?

Find at least 5 examples or passages where Orwell represents or talks about love, in one form or another, in 1984. Note down the page numbers with tenths and a few key words from the quotation (a quotation tag).

Write a Paragraph

Write a paragraph in which you quote and analyze at least two of the passages you found to

  • characterize how Orwell presents the relationship of the individual self to the social order in 1984.
  • describe how Orwell shows love functioning in Ocenana, either in rebellion against or alligience to the Party
  • suggest how different kinds of love might relate to each other in Orwell's narrative, either in conflict or coordination.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

Day 25

Orwell's 1984 4:
Love

Resources

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the "species-preserving" nature of compassion and "sentimentalism":

[Imagine] the tragic image of an imprisioned man who sees, through his window, a wild beat tearing a child from its mother's arms, breaking its frail limbs with muderous teeth, and clawing its quivering entrails. What horrible agistation seizes him as he watches the scene which does not concern him personally! What anguish he suffers from being powerless to help the fainting mother and the dying child. (from Discourse on the Origins of Inequality 1754)

 

 

W 3/23

Homework

Read

Cobley, Chapter 7 "Postmodernism"

Copy, Write, Print, Bring in

Answer each of the following questions in a paragraph. Quote from the Cobley book at least once in each.

1. In what ways does the postmodern condition result from the saturation of everyday life by media (the "mediation" of life)?

2. In what ways does the postmodern condition result from changes in the material or economic nature of this era's society (a.k.a., Marx's "base")?

3. How do postmodernist attitudes and ideas about the past (or history) differ from either the modernist rejection of the past, or the older veneration of tradition? What are these attitudes and ideas?

4. How do the "grand narratives" or "metanarratives" that Cobley (via Lyotard) talks about differ from ordinary stories or narratives? In other words, what makes them "grand" or "meta"?

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

 

DAY 26. Postmodernism

"Real Dogs Have Fun, Mostly Inside"

dog inside

Resources

 

wheat farmer
38-year-old wheat farmer (from Ong)

F 3/25

Homework

Read Bridget Jones' Diary

Pages 1 -74

Postmodern Satire

1984 and Bridget Jones' Diary

Strangely enough, both 1984 and Bridget Jones' Diary are satires.

They were both also chosen by readers of the prestigeous British newspaper The Guardian as two of the 10 Books That Defined the Twenieth Century.

If 1984 is modernist in both the world it represents and the ways it represents it, could we say that Bridget Jones' Diary is postmodern in subject and style?

Notes on Your Handout

Make notes in the margins of your Postmodernism handout (or print out a new one if you need more room), connecting particular lines or details from BJD to specific items on the handout.

Also try stepping back: are there general aspects of the book that you can associate with postmodernism? For instance, the diary format, the voice, the language, ongoing themes, plot lines, etc. On your handout, connect these general observations to particular ideas about postmodernism, and try to find a particular instance that you can point to on a particular page.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

Day 27 Bridget Jones' Diary I: Postmodernism, Character, and Humor

 

     
WEEK 11
M 3/28

Homework

Read Bridget Jones' Diary

Pages 75-195

Thought Questions: Media and Information Technologies

In the novel Dracula, information technologies--including writing, transcription, duplication, electronic media, etc.--were the salvation of modernity when it was threatened by dark forces of the past.

In 1984, information technologies (television, radio, newspapers, books) were modern tools of oppression and the obsolence of consciousness itself.

How does Fielding represent* information technologies and literacies in Bridget Jones' Diary?

  1. What role do they play in the plot?
  2. How do they figure in the relationships between characters?
  3. How do they affect and inform what we call modern life?
  4. What effects do they have on personality and consciousness as represented by Bridget?

Three Passages, One New Understanding

Come in with page numbers for passages that answer at least three of the questions above. Be sure to label what passage answer which questions.

Be Ready to Write

Be ready to write a paragraph in class about how your three chosen quotations, together, create an understanding of Fielding's use of* media in Bridget Jones' Diary than any one of the psaages alone does not offer.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

* Notice my irritating use of bold face above. With this, I'm asking you to re-approach the book (after reading it) as something Fielding is showing and telling us, rather than as an account of something that's supposedly real. In other words, I'm asking you to analyze the book as a narrative, rather than just a story or plot. (Remember Cobley's distinctions of story, plot, narrative [5].)

Day 28 Bridget Jones' Diary II:

Media and Information Technologies

wheat farmer
38-year-old wheat farmer (from Ong) and Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones.

Resources

 

W 3/30

Homework

Read Bridget Jones' Diary

Pages 196 - 271

Memorize the 5 Characteristics of Posmodernism

Try using the mnemonic nonsense phrase "Real Dogs Have Fun, Mostly Inside" (RDHFMI). See the Postmodernism handout.

1984 and Bridget Jones' Diary

1. The Set-Up

Readers of the prestigeous British newspaper The Guardian chose 1984 and Bridget Jones' Diary as two of the 10 Books That Defined the Twenieth Century.

The two novels, however, come from very different ends of the century: Orwell's from the 1940s and Fielding's from the '90s. Comparing and contrasting the two novels distinguishes two very different modes of "society" (one of our course's key words): modes we might call

2. A Three-Column Comparison

Open the Word file "Three-Column Comparison."

In the middle column, fill in vertically at least eight terms that could be used to compare 1984 and Bridget Jones Diary. Here, for instance, are 17 you might choose from:

  • television,
  • the news,
  • drinking,
  • London,
  • romance/sex,
  • technology,
  • reality vs. media,
  • female gender roles,
  • male gender roles,
  • bosses,
  • politics,
  • ex-wives/husbands,
  • parents,
  • diaries,
  • social/economic classes,
  • law,
  • history, etc.
  • please suggest your own....

In the left column labeled, "1984," write a few words that characterize Orwell's representation of that theme or type in 1984. You might list an example or two from the novel as well.

In the right column labeled, "Bridget Jones' Diary," do the same: type in examples and characterizations of how that theme or type is represented by Fielding.

3. Rank Your Top 3 and Have Page Numbers

Which points of comparison best illustrate the differences between modernist and postmodernist modes of society? of consciousness?

Rank your top three and be ready to discuss why.

What passages from Bridget Jones Diary best illustrate the postmodern, '90s side of your top three differences? Have page numbers for each of the three

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

Day 29 Bridget Jones' Diary 3:

Resources

 


April
     
F 4/1

Homework

Print, Read, and Make Notes On

Print, read, and annotate Chapters 2 and 3 of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics" available from the Moodle site.

Comment

McCloud's Chapter 2 provides an introduction to "visual styles." McCloud's point is that the choice of style is not a matter of mere decoration, but fundamental to how an images means.

The climax of the chapter is McCloud's monumental, two-page diagram on pages 52-53, which probably won't make much sense until you've actually read the chapter before and after the diagram.

Two Explanatory Panels (Chapter 2)

First, choose two panels from the chapter that could help us understand all that's going on in that key diagram on pages 52-53.

Come to class prepared to point to those panels and relate them to some aspect of the big diagram to help explain it. Refer to your panels by page, row, and panel numbers: for instance, page 12, row 2, panel 2.

Memorize the Six Transition Types (Chapter 3)

1. Memorize McCloud's 6 Types of panel-to-panel transitions. (You might come up with a mnemonic nonsense phrase if it helps to recall the first letters of tbe transition types.)

Write a Paragraph

But so what? In what ways does the rest of McCloud's Chapter 3 make clear why these transitions are profoundly significant in understanding how visual "sequential art" forms like comics work on readers and viewers?

Choose two or three terms, examples, or panels from Chapter 3 which answer the question above, and use them in a paragraph of explanation. Be sure to cite McCloud using just the page number.

Day 30: Intertextuality
McCloud C2 and C3:

Visual Styles and Transitions

Resources

WEEK 12
M 4/4

 

Class Cancelled

W 4/6

Homework

Print, Read, and Make Notes

Print, read, and annotate Chapters 4 and 6 of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics" available from the Moodle site.

Moodle Forum Posting (C4)

In a reply to the Moodle forum "McCloud's C4: Time Frames," use ideas and examples from McCloud's Chapter 4 to analyze how an image that you've found frames time.

The image might be a panel of a drawn comic, a photograph, a still shot from a film, a piece of art, etc.

1. Download or scan a copy of your chosen image so you have it as a digital file.

2. In a reply to the opening message of the Moodle forum, type a title for your message.

3. insert the digital file of your image into your Moodle post:

Scroll down in the "Your Reply" screen of Moodle (after you click "Reply" to my message at the of the forum), and find the "Attachment" section with an window labeled "Drop Files Here to Upload."

Drag your screen-shot image file from where it is saved and into this box.

4. From the PDF of McCloud's Chapter 4, take a screen shot of a panel (or perhaps a set of panels) which suggest language and ideas for analyzing the framing of time in your chosen image (Step 1).

5. Write a paragraph in the Moodle post which applies the ideas and examples from McCloud to an analysis of time in your image.

Thought Question:
Choose Two Panels (C6)

How does McCloud's Chapter 6 "Showing and Telling" make the argument for "visual literacy" and against the idea that only verbal communication can be literate? What differences does he recognize between verbal and visual literacies?

Come in with at least two panels identified (by page, row, and panel number) which, in their different ways, you think best illustrate and explain the terms of McCloud's argument.

Day 31: McCloud C4 and C6:

Time Frames and Showing/Telling

Resources

 

 

F 4/8

Homework

Read Persoplis (- page 61)

Read Perspolis: the Introduction and then pages 3 - 61

Post to 2 Moodle Forums

By 11:00 a.m. today: In the two Moodle forums for Persepolis and McCloud, I will ask you to compare an individual panel or sequence of panels from Persepolis (cite page number and row number) to an idea/technique/effect from McCloud (represented by a particular panel or set of panels identified by page/row number).

Write about two such comparisons:

  1. in the "Perspolis and McCloud's C2" forum, compare panels from Satrapi and McCloud's Chapter 2 to analyze a technique of Visual Style in Persepolis

  2. in the "Perspolis and McCloud's C6" forum, compare panels from Satrapi and McCloud's Chapter 6 to analyze a technique of using Word/Image Combinations in Persepolis

In each case, try to explain how the McCloudesque technique affects the meaning and feeling Satrapi achieves in the story at that moment. In other words, we want to see how McCloud's various techniques actually matter when it comes to a real narrative.

 

Day 32 Persepolis 1

Resources

 

 

WEEK 13
M 4/11

Homework

Complete Persepolis

Read Persepolis through page 153.

Sample Final Exam Question

Prepare to Write in Class

Below you will find a good sample of a potential take-home, final exam question.

Imagine that you are preparing to answer this question.  What three panels would you choose to discuss?  What notes would you make to yourself? What other brainstorming techniques would you use?

Do all the preparation and brainstorming that you would do before answering the question, and come to class ready to write that answer.

The Question

1984 and Bridget Jones Diary give us two memorable main characters (Winston Smith and Bridget Jones), and also two opposing models of

  • what an individual is,
  • what kind of relationship an individual has with society, and
  • how the story of that relationship is told.  

This semester, we have already discussed how these differences can be characterized:

Is the character and world of Marjane and the style of the Persepolis more modernist or postmodernist?  That is, is the imagined world of Persepolis and Marjane’s style of consciousness more like those of 1984 or Bridget Jones’ Diary?  Looking at the handouts for the respective -isms, how do we decide?

Choose three particular panels from Satrapi’s novel to illustrate your argument that the novel is modernist or postmodernist in nature. 

Looking at those three panels, can you also explain how Scott McCloud's critical vocabulary and graphic techniques can help us understand how your chosen -ism is expressed in visual literacy?

Make references to particular pages/panels from McCloud.  

 

Day 33: Persepolis 2: -Isms

Resources

 

 

W 4/13

Homework

Review of Visual Literacy
(McCloud and Satrapi)

In the Moodle forum "Visual Literacy (McCloud and Satrapi), your will find 6 posts. Please reply to at least 3 of these.

These 6 posts highlight 6 key ideas about visual literacy from McCloud:

  1. visual style (three corners of pyramid: photorealism, simplification, expressive abstraction)
  2. amplification through simplification 
  3. identification/otherness
  4. closure between panels (6 types)
  5. time in visual literacy: sound or motion
  6. word/image relationships

In your replies, post a screen shot from either McCloud or Satrapi which illustrates an idea or point about that key idea.

In the text field of each of your posts, explain in a sentence or two how your illustration helps us understand the significance of that key idea to how still images achieve meaning and effects.

Reminder about Inserting Images in a Moodle Post

Insert the digital file of your image into your Moodle post:

Scroll down in the "Your Reply" screen of Moodle (after you click "Reply" to my message at the of the forum), and find the "Attachment" section with an window labeled "Drop Files Here to Upload."

Drag your screen-shot image file from where it is saved and into this box.

 

Day 34: Film Literacy

Resources


 

 

F 4/15

Homework

Read

Read the handout: The Tragic Wit of Psycho (Donald Spoto)

Choose a Theme

Choose a particular theme or effect described by Spoto to look for as you watch the film

Five Pages Prepared for Taking Notes

Come in with five sheets of paper divided into four columns for taking notes on the four parameters of film: Cinematography, Editing, Mise en Scene, Sound.

Be prepared especially to take notes on the narrative of the film (as opposed to the story or plot), paying particular attention to how the film's technique serves a meaning and effect that Spoto talks about (and the meaning and effect of the film generally).

Essentially, we want to pay attention to how technique (narrative) is deployed not for its own sake, but for larger social, cultural, political, aesthetic purposes.

Day 35: Psycho 1

Taking Notes on Film

Today in class, I will ask you to take notes on the film using the four-column-entry format I explained as part of your homework for today:

  1. Turn a piece of paper so it is oriented landscape
  2. Divide the page into four columns
  3. At the top, label each column 
    Cinematography
    Editing
    Mise-en-Scene
    Sound

Resources

WEEK 14
M 4/18

Homework

Post to Moodle in "Psycho 1"

moodle In a reply to the forum "Psycho 1," write a long paragraph that does the following:

1. Start Your Paragraph with a Quotation

Begin by quoting Spoto about one theme or idea that he observes in Psycho from the handout "The Tragic Wit of Psycho."

Some of the themes or ideas Spoto mentions incude

  • Gothicism,
  • the American Dream,
  • "horror and tyranny" of "impulses"
  • decay, death
  • sex,
  • wit, humor, fun
  • sadness,
  • madness,
  • mothers, sons
  • wasted lives
  • spiritual, moral disarray
  • bathrooms,
  • audience manipulation,
  • tragedy,
  • economy of style
  • (Even this is not a complete list)

2. Complete Your Paragraph

Then do the following in your paragraph:

A. describe a scene, shot, or sequence in the film that illustrates Hitchcock's handling of that theme or idea,

B. analyze how Hitchcock employs one of more of the narrative "parameters of film" to develop this theme or idea in your chosen scene or shot (cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene, sound),

B. Then, explain how that same scene or shot suggests a relationship or association between your chosen theme or idea and another one that Spoto mentions, or perhaps one that you've observed. (For example, how a particular scene relates

  • "bathrooms" and "wasted lives," or
  • "Gothicism" and "mothers/sons," or
  • "American Dream" and "birds").

3. Optional Image or Screen Shot from Psycho

If you are able to find an image online from that scene (or take a screen shot from an online clip form the film) to illustrate your paragraph, feel free to insert it into your post.

To insert the image file of your screen shot into your Moodle post:

Scroll down in the "Your Reply" screen of Moodle (after you click "Reply" to my message at the of the forum), and find the "Attachment" section with an window labeled "Drop Files Here to Upload."

Drag your screen-shot image file from your desktop into this box.

Five Pages Prepared for Taking Notes

Come in with five sheets of paper divided into four columns for taking notes on the four parameters of film: Cinematography, Editing, Mise en Scene, Sound.

See the handout Film Notes Format: Four Formal Parameters.

Be prepared especially to take notes on the narrative of the film (as opposed to the story or plot), paying particular attention to how the film's technique serves a meaning and effect that Spoto talks about (and the meaning and effect of the film generally).

Essentially, we want to pay attention to how technique (narrative) is deployed not for its own sake, but for larger social, cultural, political, aesthetic purposes.

 

Day 36: Psycho 2

Taking Notes on Film

Today in class, I will ask you to take notes on the film using the four-column-entry format I explained as part of your homework for today:

  1. Turn a piece of paper so it is oriented landscape
  2. Divide the page into four columns
  3. At the top, label each column 
    Cinematography
    Editing
    Mise-en-Scene
    Sound

 

W 4/20

Homework

Reply to Someone Else's Post to "Psycho 1"

Respond to someone else's Moodle posting, exploring and explaining in a substantive paragraph some connection or parallel between the observations in that posting and those of your own post.

In your paragraph, be sure explicitly to mention scenes and shots from our most recent day's viewing to update the discussion.

In essence, we're using one scene or shot from Psycho to enable us to see how Hitchcock is using the Four Formal Parameters of Film to relate together some of the themes and ideas Spoto talks about (for example, Gothicism, mothers/sons, bathrooms).

 

Day 36: Psycho 3

Resources

 

F 4/22

Homework

Post a Link and a Paragraph

1. Find online a video clip or screen shot from a film or television show (or other work that uses film literacy) which demonstrates a particularly effective use of one or more of the Four Formal Parameters of Film.

2. In a reply to the Moodle forum "An Example of a Film Parameter at Work," post a link to that clip or image and, in a paragraph, write about how cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene, and/or sound are used to make that scene or sequence effective or notable.

 

Day 37: Psycho 4

Resources

 

WEEK 15
M 4/25/16

Homework

Download, Print, Read, and Mark

From the Moodle site (under "Readings"), download and print Lev Manovich's article, "The Poetics of Augmented Space."

Identify Three Passages or Examples

In what ways are the literacies or "poetics" of augmented space realizations of postmodernist ideas and attitudes?

Identify at least three passages and/or examples from Manovich that you can relate to the characteristics and causes described on the Postmodernism handout.

Day 38: Augmented Space and Postmodernism


Screenshot from Janet Cardiff's and George Bures Miller's "Alter Bahnhof"

Resources

W 4/27/16

Homework

Picture, Quotation, Explanation

In the Moodle forum, "Manovich's Augmented Space: Illustrated and Explained,"

  1. Type in a quotation from Manovich's "The Poetics of Augmented Space."
  2. Then insert an image that illustraets what Manovich is saying in that quotation.
  3. Finally, write a short paragraph explaining your choice of image, and how your understanding of the quotaiton is increased (or even changed) by the image.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

Day 39: Intertextuality, Augmented Space (Public Display)

Resources

 

F 4/29/16

Homework

Exam Preparation: Two Copies of Cluster

1. Do a cluster of at least ten items from our semester's readings and discussions. (See these directions on clustering.)

This cluster should have as its central starting point one "stimulus word or phrase": a particular object, example, symbol, person, etc. from a single text from our class.

In that cluster, then try to associatively conntect to that central starting point as many items as you can from the entire semester as you can. These conntected items can be titles, examples, abstract ideas, characters, scenes, phrases, distinctions, passages, key terms, etc.

Examples of the cluster's central object, example, etc. could be

  • the memory hole in Winston's office from 1984,
  • the 38-year-old wheat farmer from Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy,
  • the 11-minute scene of Norman's cleaning up the motel room from Psycho.
  • Mina's typerwriter from Dracula
  • Cobley's reading of Heart of Darkness in the Modernism chapter of Narrative.

All items should include have page numbers.

2. Make a second copy of your completed cluster and bring both to class.

 

Day 40: Final Exam Preparations

Resources


May
     
FINALS WEEK
W 5/4

Online Final Exam
Wednesday 5/4
Start Times: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In a time window today between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., you will spend 2 hours writing responses to two of the three questions on the Final Exam.

To give yourself the entire two-hour period, you should start the exam no later than 3 p.m.

We will use the couse Moodle site to make the questions available, and to enable you to write and submit your responses online.

You have a choice of when and where you write the Final Exam, but you will need to plan to complete it within one 2 hour block of time, which you complete no later than 5 p.m.

Directions for the Online Final Exam

During the time window above, open the Moodle quiz "Final Exam."

You will find three questions with text boxes under each.

Remember to answer only two of the three questions.

Advice: Write Outside of Moodle and Paste

As a precaution, be sure to write each answer in text-editing software and save it in a file on your computer.

After you have completed each answer, copy the text into that question's text box in Moodle.

What If Moodle Goes Down?

If you have technical problems with Moodle during the exam time, please complete writing the exam, and then copy the text of your answers into an email and send the email to me no more than 90 minutes after the time you started the exam.

If you are using Firefox and have trouble typing into a text box, use the handle grip in the lower right of the text box to enlarge it slightly.

For technical questions about Moodle, call the ITSS Help Desk at 726-8847 during office hours.