Schedule | Spring 2018

Read Cobley, Chapter 3 "The Rise and Rise of the Novel" using the techniques of Active Reading.

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.

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.

Write down or printout a copy of your answer and bring it to refer to in class. (4B)~

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

How does "The Machine that Made Us" speak to the concerns posed in the "Most Answered Questons" from the "Print Revolution" posts?

Day 10: The Problems of Representation (Cobley C3)

Russell Crow from the film Romper Stomper (1992)

Why is representation a problem?

Resources

• Romper Stomper (film trailer)
• Aristotle vs. Plato
• Plato's Allegory of the Cave
• mimesis: showing through imitation vs. telling (as in "to mime a song" or "a mime pretending to walk a tightrope")
• diegesis: telling vs. showing ("di-" means "to guide or pass through/between," as in the word dialogue)
• Handout: Exam Capacities and Exam Format

Rival Psychodynamics (Ong C2)

1. Additive v Subordinative (Complex) (37)
2. Aggregative v Analytic
3. Redundant
4. Conservative
5. (Close to the Human) Lifeworld
6. Agonistic
7. Empathetic v Objectively Distanced
8. Homeostatic
9. Situation v Abstract

Read Cobley, Chapter 4, "Realism" using the techniques of Active Reading.

According to Cobley,

• What are some characteristics of "realist" representation?
• What ideas, attitudes, philosophies, or goals do works of realism share?
• How does realism presume to solve the problems of representation?

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

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.

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.

Write down or printout a copy of your answer and bring it to refer to in class. (5A)

4. Another Response to "Print Revolution"

Let's have another try at the "Print Revolution" forum.

1. This time, choose one of the "Most Answered Questons" in the forum to respond to.
2. From that post, choose a particular "theme"--that is, a word, idea, concern, or phrase--to focus on in your reply.
3. In your reply, type a "1." followed by that theme
4. Next, type a "2." and type a relevant quotation from Ong's Chapter 5 ("Print, Space, Closure")
5. Next, type a "3." and type in a one-sentence description/quotation of a moment from "The Machine that Made Us." Find and re-watch the moment in the online video and then type in the time stamp of the moment in the video (for example, "7:35")
6. Next, type a "4." and write a paragraph about how 1, 2, and 3 can be related. How do they speak to one another, and what does that relationship suggest? How do 1, 2, and 3 apparently contradict or agree with one another? Does one extend or illuminate another in a particular way?
   
   In your paragraph, feel free to speculate, theorize, question, ruminate, interpret, or re-interpret about the relation and mutual relevance of 1, 2 and/or 3. (5B)~

5. Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

6. Look over Handouts

Look over the handouts Exam Capacities and Exam Format and bring in any questions you have.

Day 11: Cobley C4, Realism

What is realism, and how is it not a solution to the problems of representation?

Resources:

• Game of Thrones Title Sequence (realism)
• mimesis/diegesis (gap) diagram
• modernity (car diagram: literacy technology society)
• handout: "-Isms in Historical Context"

Homework Due

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.

(5C)~

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Day 12: Cobley C5 (Global Modernism)

From Juan Gris' Picasso.

How are economic, technological, and political developments in the 20th century tied to the rise of modernist of art, literature, and models of identity? 

Resources:

• Game of Thrones Title Sequence (realism)
• mimesis/diegesis (gap) diagram
• modernity (car diagram: literacy technology society)
• handout: "-Isms in Historical Context"
• Literacy, Technology, Society cycle
• Realism handout

Homework

1. Bring Your Cobley Book to Class

2. Read

Read the following from The Picture of Dorian Gray:

• Note (pages v-vi)
• Preface (pages vii-viii)
• Chapters 1-9 (pages 1-86)

3. Answer a Reading Question in Moodle

Art and Life

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

(Other terms we've used in class that refer to the same ideas as the words art or representation include mimesis, literacy, writing, etc.)

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 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"?  (5D)~

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

4. Add Five Figures or Events to the -Isms Timeline

From your own interests or identity, add at least five items to the -Isms Timeline handout.

Each item will identify a person, event, invention, book, or creative work, and include a year or range of years.

Feel free to include one or two personal items (events from your family history, etc.).

Consider how the person or event relates to other items on the timeline, either vertically (that is, conemporaneously or "synchronically"), or horizontally (that is, sequentially or "diachronically"). Draw lines or arrows to show connections or apparent relationships.

5. Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Day 13: Picture of Dorian Gray 1:

Stephen Fry as Oscar Wilde from the film Wilde (1997)

Resources

• Modernism handout
• Notes on the Gothic Genre (handout)
• excerpts fronm Walter Pater's The Renaissance (Aestheticism)

Homework Due

1. Make Notes on the Gothic Handout

Read over the handout "Notes on the Gothic Genre" read carefully. Mark anything you don't understand to ask about next time.

In the left margin of the handout, 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 and ask your questions.

2. Finish Reading The Picture of Dorian Gray

3. Read to Understand "Aestheticism"

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 social requirements 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 as expressed

• in the Preface,
• in specific lines in the novel, or
• in the arc of the plot.

Note that Pater was a professor of art history at Oxford when Wilde was a student there.

4. Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

5. Bring Your Cobley Book to Class

Day 14: Picture of Dorian Gray 2

Detail from a Strand Magazine illustration of Sherlock Holmes

Homework Due

1. Read in Dracula

• the "Introduction," pages 9-25
• the beginning of the novel itself from pages 29-94 (through Chapter 5)

2. Bring your Copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray

3. What to Prepare for Class

On paper, make a list of at least six quotations from the reading in Dracula in response to the two questions below.

Rather than copying the entirety of longer quotations, write down a quotation tag (few key words from the passage and the page number with tenths to indicate how far down the page: for example "30.3").

Under each quotation tag, write a sentence to yourself about how that quotation illustrates or implies answers to the questions below.

Question 1. East/West, Past/Present

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?

Question 2. Oral and Literate Cultures

How does Stoker's characterizations of differences among East/West and Past/Present parallel Ong's distictions between oral and literate cultures and forms of consciousness (a.k.a. psychodynamics)?

Does Stoker's representation of East/West and Past/Present complicate Ong's distinctions, contradict them, or make them more nuanced or subtle?

4. Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Day 15: Dracula 1

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

How does Stoker's representation and juxtaposition of old and new societies contribute to the meanings of Dracula?

Ong's 9 Psychodynamics of Orality v Literacy

• Additive v Subordinative (Capable of Complexity)
• Aggregative v Analytic
• Redundant v Creative
• Conservative v Progressive (Capable of Change)
• (Close to the Human) Lifeworld v Conceptual
• Agonistic v Collectively Deliberative
• Empathetic v Objectively Distanced
• Homeostatic v Historically Aware
• Situational v Abstract

Homework Due

1. Read

Read Dracula pages 95 - 215 (Chapters 6- 13)

2. Make Notes on the Gothic Handout

You will remember that you made notes in the left margin of the handout "Notes on the Gothic Genre" with details from The Picture of Dorian Gray which exemplified the genre's characteristics.

Now, make notes in the right margin with details and examples from Dracula that illustrate the same Gothic characteristics.

3. Make Notes in the Novel's 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 Work

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 team of what today we would dall “knowledge workers.”  

4. Four Quotation Tags and Talking Points (Bring on Paper)

Under a heading for each these two topics, write at least one quotation tag (1-5 words and a page number with tenths) for a relevant, revealing and interesting passage.

For either of the topics of your choice, add at least 2 more passages for a total of (at least) 4.

Under the column of three tags, write down some talking points for yourself to explain the relevance and significance of you chosen of passage to explaining Stoker's representation that of that idea in Dracula.

Be prepared to turn these notes in at the end of class today. (6A)~

5. Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Day 16: Dracula 2

Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker in the Francis Ford Copolla film Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

How is Dracula and "anxious" book, and what is it anxious about?

Resources

• Displacement Process
• Carpathian Mountains, Romania

Homework Due

1. Social Anxieties and Social Order (5 Quotation Tags)

As the "Introducton" observes, citing Geoffry Wall, Dracula is "persistently, an anxious book" (15).

As you read, choose one element (for instance, one character, particular conflict, idea, word, theme, etc. to track as you read.

Make a list of at least 5 quotation tags to illustrate how your chosen element relates to this persistent anxiety in Dracula, and to more clearly define what this anxiety is about (beyond the obvious plot).

In other words, how is this anxiety not simply about something obvious and literal like "being scared of a vampire," but is also about social, psychological, historical, political, or cultural problems/challenges to the social order beyond the book itself.

In your quotations, look carefully at Stoker's wording and plotting to see

• what Stoker associates with your chosen element, and how those mental associations suggest a reason or source for the anxiety in the book,
  
  OR
  
  
• what Stoker contrasts your element with (an opposing character, idea, theme, etc.), and what that binary suggests about the meaning of the anxiety.

Beneath the list of quotation tags, write 2 or 3 sentences to clarify how you see Stoker using your chosen element to make these anxieties meaningful beyond the aesthetic experience of reading.

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.

(7A)

2. Read

Read Dracula pages 216 - 299 (Chapters 14 - 19)

3. Continue Notes on the Gothic Handout

On the handout "Notes on the Gothic Genre," continue to make notes in the right margin with details and examples from Dracula that illustrate the same Gothic characteristics. (7B)

4. Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Day 17: Dracula 3

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

How do the Gothic elements of Dracula help give meaning to its "persistently anxious" tone?

Resources

Homework Due

Read

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

Literacy, Technology, and/or Society in Dracula (Moodle and Print)

Post the following to the Moodle Forum, "Literacy, Technology, or Society in Dracula" by noon 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 deficiencies 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.

(7C)~

Day 18: Dracula 4

What ideas about literacy, technology and society can we draw from Dracula?

Resources

• Literacy, Technology, Society cycle
• Etymology of "volumptuous"
• Marx's Base and Superstructure
• Wilde Resources
• Gender Resources

F 2/23

Homework Due

Bring Dracula and Cobley Books

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,....")

Annotate the "Base and Superstructure" Handout with Quotation Tags

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. (7D)~

Day 19: Marx

What is historical materialism, and how does it inform analyses of society, culture, history, and literature?

Resources

• Marx's Base and Superstructure
• Game of Thrones Title Sequence (realism)

Marxist Theorists and Scholars in Cobley

• Terry Eagleton 87-90, 109-110
• Fredric Jameson 166
• Raymond Williams 80-82, 174, 175-77
• Ian Watt 72-73

Homework Due

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Write and Post 5 Questions for the Exam

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

See the handout: Exam Capacities (6)

The Format of the Questions

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

1. Matching (include several wrong answers with the correct match)
2. Fill in the Blank
3. Essay.

By noon today, post your questions to the appropriate Moodle forums in the section "Midterm Exam."

(8A)~

Bring to Class

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

Page Numbers on Your Handouts

See the list of handouts on the page Handouts and Assignments, and copy the page numbering from this list onto your copies of the handouts. (Note that only the front side of the handouts is numbered.)

Put them in numerical order so you will be able to find them easily in class

Day 20: Midterm Exam Preparation

Take-Home Portion of the Midterm (Tues-Wed)

Take-Home Portion of the Midterm
(8 a.m. Tuesday - noon Wednesday)

In a time window between 8 a.m. Tuesday 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 options.

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.

Homework Due

Come Prepared to Take the In-Class Portion of the Midterm

I will provide all paper necessary. Please bring at least two pens that you trust.

The in-class portion is a closed-book format so you will not need to bring any other materials.

Day 21: Midterm Exam: In-Class Portion

Homework Due

Moodle Post: "Week 8 Linchpin"

With the passing of the Midterm Exam in Week 8, and the advent of Spring Break, we take a breath here at the mid-way point.

Before you leave for the break, sit down and do the following:

1. Looking/thinking over your books and notes from this class, designate a single detail or brief phrase as your "linchpin" of the semester so far.
   
   A linchpin is "something that holds the various elements of a complicated structure together"
   
   Examples of lynchpins might be concrete specifics like "Mina's typewriter" or the a quotation tag denoting an abstract idea from Ong such as "true writing represents not things but an utterance 86"
   
   
2. On a blank sheet of paper, make a cluster of other word and quotation tags that point to particular passages, ideas, terms, details, scenes, characters that you can associate from that lynchpin or what you connect to it.
   
   Cluster for 5-8 minutes trying to get as much down as possible.
   
   
3. In a Moodle post before the end of the day Friday,
   
   A. share your linchpin in a brief phrase at the top
   
   B. Write a paragraph that explains
   
   i. how your choice of a very particular detail or phrase gives you a way to "hold the various elements" of the first 8 weeks together
   
   ii. how your lynchpin makes the "complicated structure" of the big picture of Literacy, Technology, and Society a little clearer

No Class Meeting

Spring Break

Spring Break

Spring Break

Homework Due

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?

(9A)~

Consider Adding Tags from Cobley's Chapter 5

Cobley's Chapter 5, "Beyond Realism" is also about Modernism.

Consider adding to your cluster several tags of passages you marked in Chapter 5 as important or interesting to give you a fuller picture of Modernism. Be sure to include page numbers.

Day 22: Cobley C6 Modernism and Cinema

How does the modernist idea of the self (identity) shape modernist narrative (literacy)?

What does modernism have to do with cinema (cinematic literacy)?

Resources

• Realism handout
• Modernism handout
• Society (car example)
• Game of Thrones Title Sequence (realist approach)
• Paterson Trailer (modernist approach)
• Literacy, Technology, Society cycle
• Resistance to Modernity handout
• Marx's "engine of history," base and superstructure.
• Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog)
• The Odessa Steps scene from The Battleship Potempkin)
• Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov)
• Picasso by Juan Gris

Homework Due

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 of tyranny?

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

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

Print the paragraph and bring it to class.

(9B)~

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Day 23: Orwell's 1984 1 (Techniques of Tyranny)

Photo from protests against immigrant travel ban at JFK Airport, January 27-29, 2017

How does 1984 represent and critique the operations of tyranny? 

Resources

• Literacy, Technology, Society cycle
• Society (car example)
• Resistance to Modernity handout
• The Real Room 101
• Barnhill, Jura (the farm house where Orwell wrote 1984)
• satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize human failings or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Homework Due

Read

Read 1984, pages 81 - 156

Bring Your Cobley Book

Look at and Bring the Handout "Resistance to Modernity"

• Resistance to Modernity handout

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.

2. Consider these two questions:

• How does the novel 1984 represent modernity (a "modern" society)
  
  
• How does the novel express modernist ideas and assumptions in its cultural representation (and critique) 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.

5. Bring the handout to class.

Write and Print a Paragraph

Think about the connections between 1984 and modernism that 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.

(9C)~

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Day 24: Orwell's 1984 2 (Modernism)

In what ways is 1984 a modernist novel? 
How does it exemplify the ways modernists viewed modernity? 

Resources

• Literacy, Technology, Society cycle
• Society (car example)
• Resistance to Modernity handout
• satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize human failings or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Homework Due

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 how the historical process is stuck or frozen.

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 descriptions of realism and modernist and how these ideologies viewed society, societal development, and history
• Karl Marx's model of historical materialism (Base and Superstructure diagram)

Cluster to Find Perspectives

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 at least 5 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.

In a few extra items on the cluster, add a few words and phrases of your own to help show how the 5 quotations give us words and ideas to interpret "what went wrong with history" in the world of 1984. 

Bring the cluster to class.

(10A)~

Bring Your Cobley Book

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Day 25. Orwell's 1984.3: Modernism; What Went Wrong with History?

How might 1984 illustrate models or theories of history from our previous readings?

How can our previous readings help us describe what went wrong with history in the world of 1984?

Resources

• Society (car example)
• Literacy, Technology, Society cycle
• Resistance to Modernity handout
• Kant and the Public Sphere
• Base and Superstructure (paper handout) (Karl Marx)
• satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize human failings or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Homework Due

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Read

Read 1984, pages 218 - 298

Love and Identity 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.... Are there others?

Make a list of 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, both/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.
• How does the novel's treatment of love as a theme help explain the ending?

(10B)~

Day 26: 1984 4 (Love and Identity)

In the world of 1984, how does love contribute to Winston's sense of identity?

Resources

• Society (car example)
• Literacy, Technology, Society cycle
• Resistance to Modernity handout
• Base and Superstructure (paper handout) (Karl Marx)
• satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize human failings or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
• Postmodernism

Homework Due

Read

Cobley, Chapter 7 "Postmodernism"

Annotate the Postmodernism Handout

I gave you a copy of the handout, "Postmodernism," which distills and summarizies six characterics of postmodernism (mostly drawn from Cobley).

Annotate your paper copy of the handout with 12 quotation tags (2 per characteristic, on average) pointing to particular statement or examples in Cobley's chapter.

Then, for each of the six characteristics, write a sentence or two on your handout that clarifies how the quotations illuminate, add to, or enrich your understanding of each of the handout's summaries.

Bring your handout to class with your name on it.

(10C)~

Day 27: Cobley C7 Postmodernity

"Real Dogs Have Fun, Generally Inside"

What is the nature of postmodernity and postmodernism?

Resources

• Postmodernity
• The Real Inspector Hound (Tom Stoppard)
• Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman)
• Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Homework Due

Read (About) Hayden White

1. From the Cobley book, look up Hayden White in the index and then read the pages analyzing how White fits into Cobley's survey of narrative theory.

2. 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.

Come With Answers to These Thought Questions

1. How is Hayden White's work an argument against history as a science?
2. If the writing of history isn't a science, what is it instead, according to White?
3. In what ways is White's argument about "historiography" (history writing) and history itself postmodern in its approach?
4. What else does Cobley say that you can see in the White readings?

On a piece of paper, write down quotation tags for passages that answer the four questions above. Make some notes to yourself for if/when I call on you.

(11A)~

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Day 28: Hayden White's Postmodern History and Historiography

How do the tools of writing history affect the history we have?

Resources

• Postmodernity
• The Real Inspector Hound (Tom Stoppard)
• Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman)
• Plato's Allegory of the Cave
• Hayden White's concept of Discourse
• Idealism, Materialism, Constructionism

Homework Due

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 (published in 1949) is modernist in both the world it represents and the ways it represents it, could we say that Bridget Jones' Diary (published in 1996) is postmodern in subject and style?

In what ways are postmodern ideas, attitudes, and assumptions expressed in Fieldings's development of characters and her humor?

Notes on Your Handout:

Add at least 8 tags to your Postmodernity handout from or about Bridget Jones' Diary. These items can be either of the following:

1. Particular Lines

Make notes in the margins of your Postmodernity 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 (both in the "Charactersitcs" column and the "Causes and Conditions" column).

2. General Themes and Forms

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 then try to find a particular instance that you can point to on a particular page.

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Re-Read Ong about Diaries

Re-Read what Walter Ong has to say about diaries on pages 100-101.

-- What does it make you think about in regard to Bridget Jones' Diary?

Bring your Ong book to class.

Day 29: Bridget Jones' Diary 1

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

How is Bridget Jones' Diary postmodern? 

In what ways does its world exemplify postmodernity?

Resources

• Idealism, Materialism, Constructionism
• Hayden White's concept of Discourse
• Pride and Prejudice: Mr Darcy's First Appearance
• Bridget Jones' Diary: Bridget and Mark Meet

Homework Due

Read Bridget Jones' Diary

Pages 75-195

Thought Questions:
Media, Information Technologies, and Identity, 1899-1996

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, media, and various literacies in Bridget Jones' Diary?

As you read, make a list of passages that illustrate or demonstrate possible answers to the following thought questions.

1. What role do information technologies and media 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?

Media and Info Technologies in BJD (Moodle Forum Posting)

Decide on 3 key passages that answer at least three of the questions above. Be sure to label what passages answer which questions.

In a reply to the Moodle forum "Media and Info Technologies in BJD," write a paragraph that puts together your three chosen quotations into an interpretation of Fielding's use of media in Bridget Jones' Diary.

Try to make this interpretation a synthesis of your readings of the passages, coming to an insight that would not have been possible if you had considered only one of the passages.

Consider how you could relate your interpretation of the novel to the characteristics, causes, and conditions of postmodernity.

11B~

Day 30: Bridget Jones' Diary 2

No Class Meeting

Barbara Cartland, British romance novelist who wrote and published 723 books translated into 38 languages. Cartland is referenced in both Cobley's Narrative and Fielding's Bridget Jones' Diary.

How does Fielding represent information technologies in the world of Bridget Jones?

Resources

• Marx's base and superstructure
• Pride and Prejudice: Mr Darcy's First Appearance

Online Final Exam
Wednesday 5/2: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In a time window today between 8 a.m. and 4 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 2 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 4 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.