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Schedule | Fall 2018

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August

     
WEEK 1
 T 8/28

Welcome to WRIT 1506!

In this course, you will gain a broad historical perspective on the effects of writing and reading on the material, cultural, and political structures of society.

In particular, we will learn how fundamentally various forms of literacy have influenced not only our ways of communicating, but our shared senses of reality and identity.

For more, see the syllabus (^1)

Day 1. Introductions, Society

prehistoric tribe around fire

Resources
R 8/30

Homework

1. Read the Ong Handout

Read the handout "Walter Ong" and underline at least three words or phrases that, for whatever reason, seem interesting to you.

2. Read in Orality and Literacy

From Walter Ong's book Orality and Literacy, read

  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2

using the principles of Active Reading to mark the pages of your book, leaving a trail of symbols as a record of your "noticings."

3. Annotate the Ong Handout

On your Ong handout, make at least three annotations (notes in the margins linked to particular phrases, ideas, facts, etc. on the handout) which record ways that the handout helps you understand the book, or the book the handout.

Your annotations are notes to yourself and so you need not write complete sentences. Do include a page number from the book in each annotation.

Bring your handout to class.

Photocopy or Scan/Print 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.  

Photocopy (or, scan and print) that two-page spread, write your name in the upper right on the paper, and bring it to class to turn in.  (1A)~

 

Day 2. Ong C1 and C2

Resources

Culture comprises shared ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.

 

 

 

September

     
WEEK 2
T 9/4

Homework

Read and Mark

Read Ong's Chapter 3, "Psychodynamics of Orality" through page 73.

Come in prepared to answer the Reading Questions for Chapter 3

Answer the Reading Questions in Writing (and 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. (2A)

If you are interested in alternative formats to conventional writing, here's a sample of one. (~2A)

Ong Handout

On your Ong handout, add three more annotations from Chapter 3.

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.

Please log only quotations that you contributed to discussion out loud.  Post one message for each quotation using the format of this example:

M 3/14: Orwell, The Labyrinthine World of Doublethink
His mind slid away...contradictory, to know/not know, memory, unconsciousness, forget. 35.3

This format of each message includes:

  • a header (including the date of class, the work's author, and a word or phrase that sums up the topic or point of the quotation),
  • a string of key words from the quotation, especially from the beginning and end, to help us find the passage on the page,
  • the page number (with tenths to indicate how far down the page). 

 

Day 3. Ong C3

Psychodynamics of Orality

A
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38-Year-Old Wheat Farmer
(9: Situational Rather than Abstract)

wheat farmer

Resources
R 9/6

Homework

Read and Mark

Read "Ong Chapter 4 "Writing Restructures 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 should

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 4. Ong C4: Writing Restructures Consciousness

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

Resources
WEEK 3
T 9/11

Homework

Moodle Posting "The Print Revolution"

Set-Up

In the Walter Ong book, we've read about the deep and varied changes, from 800 BC onward, which literacy brought to society, identity, the sense of history, the nature of consciousness, etc. 

In the handout, "Jay David Bolter: The Cathedral and the Book" (^5b), we see the novelist Victor Hugo imagining how the Catholic church would have experienced the effects of emerging print technologies in the 15th century, and the present-day scholar Jay David Bolter's brief close reading of the scene.

Consider these statistics: in the 59 years between 1440 and 1499,

  • the number of printed books went from zero to estimated 15 million books.
  • the number of European cities with printing presses went from zero to 2,500.

What to Post (by 8 a.m. today)

In a reply to the Moodle forum "The Print Revolutioin,"

  1. Choose a particular human endeavor or enterprise: a profession, business, institution, avocation, form of artistic expression, etc.
  2. Imagine and write a scene or analysis (as Hugo or Bolter does in the handout) which speculates on how those who were engaged in that enterprise in the 15th century might have experienced the rise of print technologies. (You and I are experiencing something similar today with the rise of digital technologies)
  3. Describe or explain how that endeavor or enterprise would have changed in ways like the following:
  • practices and traditions
  • reach and scope
  • forms of authority and control
  • the relationships with audiences, publics, consumers
  • social roles and status
  • relationships with other professions, businesses
  • internal organization

(~3A)

Log Your Classroom 3Aontributions 

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.

Bring your Ong Book

Please bring your Ong book to class again today.

Day 5. "The Machine That Made Us"

machine that made us: paper

Resources

 
R 9/13

Homework Due

Read

Paul Cobley, Narrative, Chapter 1 "In the Beginning, The End," pages 1-27.

Use the principles and techniques of Active Reading to mark your text and record (externalize!) your reading experience.

Reading Question:

Cobley argues that the power of narratives comes not simply from their content, but from their form: that is, not the story itself, but the telling of the story.

This power of narrative telling, Cobley says, is fundamental to human experience and consciousness. This means that the concept of "narrative" much more than just a 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 narrative as a powerful principle in society, culture, and history.

Come to class prepared to read and explain your choices.

Bring your Ong Book

Please bring your Ong book to class again today.

Day 6. Narrative and Consciousness:
Paul Cobley's Chapter 1


Sleepy Hollow, New York

Resources
WEEK 4
T 9/18

Homework

Read in Cobley

In Cobley's Chapter 3, "The Rise and Rise of the Novel," read the following portions: pages 52-62, 68-74, and the last paragraph on 79

Cobley Reading Question:

Why is narrative a problem?

Cobley argues that the choices you have in telling a story create a "problem of representation" and a potential crisis of truth and 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 consequences.

Read, Mark, and Annotate
the Irving Reading Guide

Read over the Irving Reading Guide (^6) about the life, work, and vision of Washington Irving.

Underline at least three phrases or ideas that strike you for whatever reason. Circle words or phrases that seem significant or key to understanding Irving. Make notes in the margins.

After you read the short story (see below), go back to your handout and add at least three annotations that connect some detail or idea in the handout to something in the story. In these annotations, include page numbers from the story.

Read "Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

Read Washington Irving's 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

You should have a printout of the story from the last class meeting.

As you read, be thinking about the reading questions below and the Moodle writing prompt below. Make marginal notes in the story to record your thoughts, reactions, associations, etc. during this reading.

Irving Reading Questions

Thing about the following as you read the story and make notes in the margins of your copy.

  • How does Irving's story intentionally play around with the undependability and untrustworthiness of representation and narrative?
  • How is Irving's telling (or "narrative") of this story different from later versions you might be familiar with?
  • In what ways does Irving's story present an opposition or tension between a modern culture and a traditional one (in some ways parallel to the opposition of literate and oral cultures we studies in Ong)?

Be ready to locate, read aloud, and discuss some instances in the story where you found possible answers to these questions.

Post In Moodle (Before 8 a.m.)

Choose one of those passages and, in a reply to the Moodle forum,"Cobley C3/Irving," write the following:

1. Type in the quotation from Cobley

2. Include a page-number citation at the end of the quotation

3. Write a paragraph that

  • analyzes your quotation to explain how Cobley sees narrative representation as having effects on consciousness, society, identity formation, memory/history, etc.
  • considers why those effects of narrative representation might be controversial or problematic
  • describes a way that Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" calls attention to and plays with the problematic nature of representation.

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

Day 7. Cobley C3,
Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

Romper Stomper

Russell Crow from the film Romper Stomper (1992)

Resources

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

 
R 9/20

Homework

1. Read Cobley Chapter 4

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

2. Reading Activities

1. Make a List

According to Cobley,

  • What are some characteristics of "realist" representation? (It might be helpful to consider how Realism is a reaction against Romanticism.)
  • 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 and bring the list to class.

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.

3. 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.

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

Romanticism Handout

Read over the Romanticism handout (^7) and make at least three annotations on it indicating how "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" might be Romantic in its ideas, attitudes, and assumptions.

Bring Irving

Please bring to class your copy of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" as well as Cobley.

Day 8. Cobley C4: Realism


from Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" (1943)

Resources

 
WEEK 5
T 9/25

Homework

Before Your Read Crane

Before you read the Crane short story, read the handout "Stephen Crane" (^9). Mark at least 3 details or phrases that strike you, for whatever reason.

Read and think about the question at the top right, and look at your notes about the characteristics of realism.

Annotated Your Crane handout

As you read the story, make at least 3 annotations on the Crane handout how the story is and isn't realist in its style, assumptions, and philosophy.

[Note that "realist" as an adjective indicates something different and much more specific than "realistic."]

Bring the handout to class.

Bring Characteristics of Realism

For homework last time, you made a list from your reading of Cobley's Chapter 4 of four possible characteristics of Realism.

Bring that list to class today and have it handy to refer to.

1. Download, Print, and Read

Stephen Crane's "The Blue Hotel" available as a PDF in the course Moodle site. You are required to download, print, and read this story on paper.

To save paper and money, note that you can print two text pages per sheet of paper, as well as two sided.

2. Read

Read from Cobley's Chapter 5 (Beyond Realism): pages 106-126

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 and make notes on paper of 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. Bring your notes to class.

In a reply to the Moodle forum "Cobley C5" (by 8 a.m.), give the page number, a brief quotation, and two or three sentences of explanation for one of your choices.

Bring your post (or at least notes about it) to class on paper.

(5A)~

Bring Copy of "Legend..."

Also be sure to bring to class your copy of Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

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 9. Crane, Realism, Modernism
R 9/27

Homework

Modernist Solar System

On a piece of paper, scatter the following nine terms around on the page like plants in a solar system(leaving plenty of room between them):

  • imperialism
  • sexuality
  • psychological repression
  • nationalism
  • capitalism
  • authority
  • identity, the self
  • the unconscious
  • primitivism

Connect the Terms

In his Chapter 5 ("Beyond Realism," which you read for last time), Cobley explains how modernist narrative and culture suggest links and relationships between these divergent ideas. In our solar-system analogy, modernism is the sun corralling these ideas together and into a common orbit.

On your paper, draw at least five lines between terms that Cobley connects or relates in his discussion of modernism.

After reviewing Cobley's Chapter 5, explain each of these lines of connection with a reference to a particular sentence or passage from the chapter. Label each connecting line with a "tag" (composed of 2-5 key words from the passage and a page number with tenths). If helpful, you can include your own notes to explain the connections further

Bring the sheet of paper containing your solar system to class.

Begin Reading Picture of Dorian Gray

Since we will spend only one day on the Wilde novel next week, please plan to have the entire (short) book read by next Tuesday.

With this in mind, you might want to get a good start on the novel on this relatively light homework day.

Bring "Legend...," the Romanticism Handout, and "Blue Hotel"

Be sure to bring your copy of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," the Romanticism handout, and Crane's "The Blue Hotel."

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 10. Modernism, Romanticism

 

In Stephen Crane's "The Blue Hotel," observes Walter Sutton, "man is an alien in both nature and society" (73). ["Pity and Fear in 'The Blue Hotel,'" American Quarterly, 1952]

 

From Our Realism Cluster Last Time

  • motiations (why) 86
  • selecting details BUT meaning 93
  • social setting 80
  • local person = political/historical 88.1
  • smooth (invisible) transitions between scene and summary 82
  • everyday characters (v sublime) 81
  • confident in ability to know the real 81
  • community and relationships 80
  • switching among character 82
  • omniscent narrartor (God like) 91.1
  • many voices 94

 

October

     
WEEK 6
T 10/2

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)
  • The novel itself, pages 1-165

[To complete the 168 pages by Monday, plan on averaging 42 pages a day.]

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 agaibnst the conventionalized "common sense" that forms of realism expressed.  

Post to Moodle (by 8 a.m.)

In a message to the Moodle forum "Wilde Dualisms," identify 3 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 three quotations, together, might suggest a philosophy or "-ism" concerning the relationship of representation and life.  In what ways might representation be the foundation of an approach to representation (or life?) founded on "aestheticism"?  (~6A)

Bring your printed responses (or at least detailed notes about them) to class on paper.

Day 11. The Picture of Dorian Gray


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

Resources

  • Oscar Wilde handout (^10)
  • Bram Stoker handout (^11)
  • Walter Pater quotations from The Renaissance (Aestheticism) (^12)

 

R 10/4

Homework

1. Read in Dracula

  • from the "Introduction," read the section "Dracula Then and Now," pages 12-15
  • 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 12. Dracula:
East/West, Literate/Oral


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

Resources

Psychodynamics of Orality (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

 

 
WEEK 7
T 10/9

Homework

Read

Read Dracula, pages 97 - 328 (Chapters 6- 21)

Page Numbers and Notes

As you read, take down brief notes to yourself of topics and page numbers for passages that speak to how and why this book is "persistently...anxious" about developments in literacy, technology, and society (affecting identity, consciousness, and the sense of history).

Come to class with at least 7 briefly noted topics/page numbers from the chapters read for today.

Bring to Class

Bring to class Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

Be sure to have your handouts regarding Irving, Wilde, Stoker, Romanticism, and the Gothic Genre.

Day 13. Dracula:
Modernity and Anxiety


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

Resources

 
R 10/11

Homework

Read

Read to the end of Dracula, pages 329 - 419 (Chapters 22- 27)

Notes on the Gothic Handout

On the handout "Notes on the Gothic Genre," make at least 6 annotations (with page numbers for details and examples from Dracula) that illustrate the Gothic characteristics of Stoker's novel. ~(7B)

Bring to Class

Bring to class Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

Be sure to have your handouts regarding Irving, Wilde, Stoker, Romanticism, and the Gothic Genre.

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 14. Dracula:
as a Gothic Novel


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

Resources

 
WEEK 8
T 10/17

Homework

Read

Read 1984, pages 1 - 224 (56 pages a day)

Make a List with Page Numbers

-- What are some ways that the party controls society in 1984?

To begin answering this question, come into class with a list of at least 5 ways with at least 8 page numbers that point to instances (meaning that you may have multiple instances of any one way the party controls society)

Remember to 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. 1984 1


JFK Airport, New York, January 27-29, 2017
R 10/19

Homework

Read

Read 1984, page 225 - 298 (37 pages a day)

Bring Your Cobley Book

 

Six Quotation Tags on Your 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 three questions:

  • How does the novel 1984 express reactions to modernity (a modern society): protest, criticism, lamentation, anxiety, etc.?

  • How does the novel portray a society that exemplifies modernist concerns or conditions about society?

  • How is the novel an artifact or vestige of modernist styles, attitudes, or approaches in art, writing, representation, or other social practices?

3. As you read, note down the location of at least six 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.

(8A)~

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.

Bring to Class

Bring to class Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

Be sure to have your handouts regarding Irving, Wilde, Stoker, Romanticism, and the Gothic Genre.

 

Day 16. 1984 2


George Orwell at his desk

Resources

"Satire": the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize 
WEEK 9
T 10/23

Homework

1. Print, Read 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,....")

Before you read, see 2. below

Please number the paragraphs on your printout to help us locate passages in class together.

2. 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. (9A)~

3. Exam Preparation: Bring Two Copies of a Cluster on One Memorable Thing

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 "memorable thing" as represented by a word or phrase from our readings: a particular object, example, critical term, distinction, definition, symbol, person, etc. from a single text from our class.

Think of this memorable thing as your handle on the course--your touchstone or lynchpin.

In that cluster, then try to associatively conntect to that central starting point as many items as you can from the entire semester. These conntected items can be titles, examples, abstract ideas or dichotomies, 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,
  • "Mina's typerwriter" from Dracula
  • Cobley's use of the term "repression" from his reading of Heart of Darkness in the Modernism chapter of Narrative.

All items should include have page numbers.

(9B)~

Bring to Class

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

Page Numbers on Your Handouts

Number your handouts so they will be easy to organize and so we'll have a common numbering system.

To find the handout numbers, do a search on this web page for the caret symbol (^), which I've used to tag and number each handout chronologically.

Day 18. Marx/Midterm Preparation

Resources

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

 
R 10/25  

Fall Break:
No Class Meeting

 
WEEK 10
M 10/29

Midterm Exam (Out of Class Portion)

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

In a time window between 8 a.m. Monday and 8 a.m. Tuesday, 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 9 a.m. Tuesday.

(To have the full 90 minutes, be sure to begin the exam before 6:30 Tuesday morning.

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.

 
T 10/30

Come Prepared for Exam

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 19. Midterm (In Class Portion)

November
R 11/1

Homework

Read Cobley Chapter 7: Postmodernism

Read Cobley pages 155-181

Print, Read Hayden White Excerpts

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.

3. Make a list of what characterizes postmodernism, and then think about how Hayden White's approach to the writing of history is postmodern in its ideas and assumptions.

Bring your list and notes on White to class on paper. (~10)

Day 20. Postmodernism and History

Resources
WEEK 11
T 11/6

Homework

Read Bridget Jones' Diary

Pages 1 -177

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 21. Bridget Jones Diary, Postmodernism


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

Resources

"Simplifying in the extreme...I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives" (Jean-Francois Lyotard qtd. in Cobley 169).
R 11/8

Homework

Finish Reading Bridget Jones' Diary

Pages 179-271

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.

11A~

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

Day 22. Bridget Jones' Diary 2

H

Resources

 
WEEK 12
T 11/13

Homework

1. Reading Guide

Read the Satrapi handout thoroughly.

Circle key terms and phrases.

Write at least 3 annotations (brief notes to yourself) in the margins of the handout capturing any of the following thoughts:

  • ideas about or reactions to a detail in the handout
  • connections you make with other authors, works, or ideas from the course
  • mental associations you make with other classes, books, articles, readings, discussions, etc.

Re-read and think about the set of questions on the handout.

2. Read Persepolis

Please complete reading the entire graphic novel.

3. Answer One Question in a Paragraph on Paper

After reading the novel, respond to one of the questions on the handout in a long, subtantive paragraph.

Cite particular pages and details at least twice (with page numbers in parentheses).

Bring the paragaph on paper to class and be ready to discuss your answer. (~12A)

Day 23. Persepolis

Resources

 

 
R 11/15

Homework

Bring

Bring both your Persepolis book and your McCloud printouts to class (and be ready to show them for full credit).

Print and Read

From the Moodle site, download, print, and read (on paper) Chapters 3 and 4 from Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics.

You can print the chapters with 2 pages per sheet of paper and double-sided to save on costs.

Bring your printouts to class and be ready to show them.

Moodle Post: The Uses of Visual Literacy (McCloud and Satrapi)

On the Moodle site, you will find two forums:

  • "Closure Between Images (McCloud C3 and Satrapi)"
  • "Time Frames: Time, Sound, and 2D/3D Visual Representation (McCloud C4 and Satrapi)"

By 8 a.m. today, please reply to both these forums.

In each of your replies, post a screen shot from both McCloud and Satrapi which together illustrate how McCloud's technique serves a writer's (like Satrapi's) purpose.

Note that you can easily find digital copies of images from Persepolis by Googling the title and page number (e.g., "Persepolis page 4") and clicking "Images" from the menu at the top of the screen.

In the text field of each of your posts,

1. explain in a sentence or two how your illustration helps us understand the possibilities of McCloud's technique and how it works, and

2. in another sentence or two, describe how Satrapi uses the McCloudian technique(s) to create and heighten the effects and meanings of her story.

Print out the Moodle posts--try copying and pasting the images and text into a Word file to print--and bring the printouts to class.

12B~

Reminder about How to Paste Images in a Moodle Post

After you click "Reply" to my message at the of the forum, scroll down to the "Message" window under the "Your Reply" heading.

Copy and paste images into the message window and type your text beneath.

On a Mac, for instance, you can select and copy a portion of your screen by clicking Command+Conrol+Shift+4 and then dragging the cursor diagonally to select and copy a portion of your screen to the computer's clipboard

In Moodle, paste the image from the clipboard into the message window.

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. McCloud's Understanding Comics

Resources

McCloud

Satrapi

German Expressionism

''For a long time, I went to bed early.''

-- Marcel Proust, Swann's Way (first volume of In Search of Lost Time)

[alternative translation "I used to go to bed early."]

Example of the French tense form "passé composé" or "compound past," indicating an action that has been finished completely or incompletely at the time of speech, or at some (possibly unknown) time in the past.

Like the English present prefect tense, which can also express a past event that has present consequences.

WEEK 13
T 11/20

Extra Credit

German Expressionism and Popular Visual Literacy

Download the online verson of the handout "German Expressionism, Modernism, and Tom Wait's "Hell Broke Luce" (2011) (^20).

Save it under a different file name.

Find online copies of panels from Persepolis. Copy and paste screen shots of these individual panels into the handout file to replace the still images from the Tom Wait's video.

Choose each of these panels to illustrate one of the characteristics of Modernism (and one of its varieties, German Expressionism).

In the upper left of the handout file, replace my name with yours and change the title to "German Expressionism, Modernism, and Perspolis"

Print the document and bring it to class next time to submit for extra credit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

~ExCr1

No Class Meeting


From the New York Times article "Reimagining Norman Rockwell's America"

R 11/22  

Thanksgiving

 
WEEK 14
T 11/27

Homework

Read

Read Cobley's Chapter 6, "Modernism and Cinema," pages 132 - 154.

Before you do, though, be sure to see the directions below:

Cluster for Answers and Patterns Defining Modernism and Connecting it to the Medium of Film

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?

(~14A)

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.

Bring Your Storyboard Pieces

Last time in class, you sketched some ideas for shot on pieces of paper (a page divided into eights).

Please bring these pieces of a storyboard of your morning back to class today (if you still have them)

 

Day 25. Modernist Narrative in Film

Resources

"These [Chekhov] stories are inconclusive, we say, and proceed to frame a criticism based upon the assumption that stories ought to conclude in a way that we recognize,” Virginia Woolf would later write about Anton Chekhov. “In so doing we raise the question of our own fitness as readers. Where the tune is familiar and the end emphatic—lovers united, villains discomfited, intrigues exposed—as it is in most Victorian fiction, we can scarcely go wrong. But where the tune is unfamiliar . . . as it is in Chekhov, we need a very daring and alert sense of literature to make us hear the tune, and in particular those last notes which complete the harmony.

- Virginia Woolf quoted in Siddhartha Mukherjee's "Love in the Time of Numbness" New Yorker, 4/11/17)

 
R 11/29

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.

You can create these five sheets by hand or feel free to print out copies of the Word file, "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.

Theme or Idea about Hitchcock or Psycho from the MLA Bibliography

For today, find one additional theme or effect to look for in Psycho which is drawn from a critical source besides Spoto's "Tragic Wit" passage.

In class, I will ask you to turn in one or two printed pages that show your final products from the following steps.

  1. With your web browser, go to UMD Library's MLA Bibliography database.
    (Alternatively, you can navigate to this database from the Library home page by choosing "Databases," then "M" from the alphabetical database index at the top, then scroll down to "MLA International Bibliography")

    You may be prompted here, or somewhere in these steps, to log into the library's system with your UMD userid and password.

  2. At the MLA Bibliography page, do a search for "Alfred Hitchcock Psycho"

  3. Read through several pages of the search results and write down on a piece of paper a few notes on themes, ideas, or terms about Hitchcock or Psycho which strike you as interesting or illuminating.

    ... If helpful, you can enter additional search terms and re-search the database to get more specific results about something that interests you about Hitchcock or the film.

  4. Take a screenshot of one screenfull of results (a partial page is okay) and paste the image into a file (such as an opened Word file) that you'll be able to save and print.

  5. From your handwritten notes, choose one theme or effect--which is not mentioned or discussed as fully by Spoto--to investigate further.

  6. To start this investigation, click the title of one or more of the articles or documents in the results and keep navigating into the system to find and click a button labeled "UMD Find It" which looks like this:

  7. Keep navigating into the results (this may lead you into another database) to find an option for clicking open a "Full Text" version of the article or document.

  8. Open and download the "Full Text" version of that article or document (often in the form of a PDF file).

  9. Read at least the first two pages of that article or document to learn more about the aspect of Hitchcock or Psycho you chose to research. Add to your handwritten notes.

  10. Include on your handwritten notes all the publication information for that article or document including author, title of the article, name of the publication, volume and/or issue number(s), publication date.

  11. Take another screenshot of the first page of the article or chapter (including the title and author's name) and paste the image of that screenshot into your printable file with your search-results screenshot (on a separate page if necessary).

  12. Print out the file containing the two screen shots. (Printing two pages per sheet or on two sides of the paper is fine, as long as the text is readable).

  13. Bring the printout(s) of the two screenshots (from steps 4 and 11 above) to class with your name on all pages to turn in, as well as your handwritten notes.

(~14B, This exercise will count triple the usual, daily homework credit)

Moodle Post

As a reply to the Moodle forum "Psycho Themes/Ideas Beyond Spoto's," write and post a one- or two-sentence description of the theme or idea you found and researched, and why you found it interesting or potentially useful in watching and thinking about the film.

Below your description, include all the publication information you recorded in your handwritten notes.

(~14C)

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 26. Psycho 1

Resources

Film

  1. Cinematography
    camera distance
    camera angle (Hitchcock at Work)
    camera position/angle:
    Norman, parlor

  2. Editing
    shot pace
    montage: aspect to aspect 1, aspect to aspect 2 (Sopranos)
    montage: surreal 1, surreal 2 (Un Chien Andalou)

  3. Mise-en-scene
    mirror, figures, funiture (Psycho)
    Lila, rakes (Psycho)
    Norman in the parlor scene
    Norman in the kitchen

  4. Sounds
    Title Sequence of Touch of Evil (1958) [original music]

 

Identification

[Marion driving]

Cinematophy, Editing, Mise-en-scene, and Sound are the techniquies of narrative in film, which are used together to create and direct the audience's sense of identification with someone or something on the screen.

"Psycho"


December
     
WEEK 15
T 12/4

Homework

1. Post to Moodle in "Psycho Themes"

In a reply to the forum "Close Reading a Pairing of Themes in Psycho," 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 include

  • Gothicism,
  • the American Dream,
  • "horror and tyranny" of "impulses"
  • decay, death
  • sex,
  • wit, humor, fun
  • sadness,
  • madness,
  • mothers, sons
  • wasted lives (uneaten lunches)
  • 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 introduction or 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 found in the MLA Bibliography homework or that you've observed. (For example, how a particular scene relates together pairs of themes like:

  • "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.

15A~

2. 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.

Day 27. Psycho 2
R 12/6

Homework

1. Exam Preparation: Bring Two Copies of a Cluster on One Memorable Thing

A. Do a cluster of at least ten items from the second half of this semester's readings and discussions. (See these directions on clustering.)

This cluster should have as its central starting point one "memorable thing" as represented by a word or phrase from our readings: a particular object, example, critical term, distinction, definition, symbol, person, etc. from a single text from our class.

Think of this memorable thing as your handle on the course--your touchstone or lynchpin.

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

B. Look over the cluster you created before the Midterm Exam (or other notes), and add to your new cluster at least five items that you can use to connect specifics from the first half to particulars from the second half. 15B~

2. Bring to Class

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

3. Two-Page Storyboard

To cap off our activities concerning visual literacies, use sketches you drew in class of your "morning" on 1/8-page-sized slips of paper to compose a storyboard.

This storyboard should be a plan for the first eight shots in

  • the opening scene/sequence of a movie or television episode (like the Sopranos example, which contains both the title sequence and opening sequence of the episode)
  • a movie or TV title sequence
  • a music video
  • some other identifiable genre of film, television, or video.

I will ask you to turn in two sheets of paper with selected shots taped or glued into a final sequence.

Sample

See this sample page of the storyboard you will create with the steps below.

(Just for fun, here's a sample of Hitchcock's storyboard for the film Family Plot.)

Steps

A. Orient a blank sheet of paper in a landscape direction (rather than portrait), and write the following across the top:

  1. Title (of your imagined movie, show, music video that these shots would be part of)
  2. Intended Mood (a word or two to suggest the feelings you're after)
  3. Music (whether heard in your sequence, or just as inspiration for yourself in creating this)
  4. Genre (see above)
  5. Your name

B. On your desk or table, lay out the slips with your shots on them. With the title, mood, music, and genre in mind, organize and sequence the shots. Create new shots on additional slips of paper as desired.

C. On the sheet of paper, tape or glue the first four shots in order (left to right, top to bottom) leaving space between them for notes.

D. Number the shots to show the order.

E. Between the first and second shots, draw an arrow and next to the arrow write the name of the kind of transition or closure using McCloud's vocabulary from Chapter 3.

Then do the same for the transition between shots 3 and 4.

F. Write notes next to these transitions briefly describing how you intend your shots and transitions to achieve the mood and meanings you intend.

G. On a second sheet of paper, do the same for shots 5-8. You don't need to repeat the title, etc., but do put your name.

H. Staple both pages together and bring to class to turn in for credit. ~15C

Day 28. Distributed Postmodern Literacies, Augmented Space, and Exam Review

Resources

 

 
WEEK 16
FINALS WEEK
Tuesday 12/11 8 a.m.

Online Final Exam
Tuesday, 12/11
8:00 - 10:00 a.m.

Timing

Because we have a dedicated time for the Final Exam--unlike the Midterm, which was done as homework--you will need to take the exam during the two-hour window indicated above.

You can spend up to 2 hours writing responses to two of the three questions.

Moodle

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

Directions for the Take-Home Portion

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

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.

.