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Spring 2002 |
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English 119 |
Rice 109, (440) 775-8653, |
Media and Memory
Calvino, The Castle of Crossed DestiniesFaulkner, As I Lay DyingMomaday, The Way to Rainy RiverO’Brien, The Things They Carried
Films on reserve; other readings to be distributed in class.
The most basic aim of this colloquium is to introduce students to a broad area of inquiry: the relationship of form and content in organizing our perceptions of the past. In terms of content, the class is less an introduction to a new academic field than a new perspective on types of cultural products with which you may already be familiar. We will work to understand different cultural forms—including poetry, fiction, cinema, monuments, visual art, oral narrative and electronic textual forms—as models and modelers of memory. We will also move between a number of registers of memory, from the subjective to the collective, the mythic to the historical. In the process, students will be encouraged to define and pursue interests of their own that relate to these questions.
The goals of the course in relation to student skills are manifold. First, this class is a colloquium, a word connoting a gathering for conversation. Thus, the development of considerate, effective and risk-taking discussion and presentation skills will be a focus. (As you’ll learn, memory has always been associated with strong oral skills) Second, we will undertake a variety of writing assignments, ranging from more or less traditional essay work to some other, rather unusual pieces. Third, we will seek to develop self-awareness and facility with responding to works in a variety of media.
Attendance: required in order to pass the course; more than two absences will diminish your credit for attendance; four absences will result in a loss of credit for the class entirely.
Lateness: unacceptable; attendance will be taken only at the start of class; see above.
Readings/Viewings: must be completed and considered before the class for which they are assigned; bring annotated texts and notes from viewings to class and be prepared to refer to them.
Written and other work: due at the beginning of the class for which they are assigned; work submitted after that time will be considered late and be penalized one-half letter grade per day; no final projects will be accepted late without an incomplete approved by the Dean of Students.
Prep Papers: brief exercises to prepare you for discussion. Eight of these are required throughout the semester: four before break and four after. Some of these will be open topic, in which you can define and explore any relevant issue that interests you; others will be have questions or guidelines that I’d like you to follow. Length should be between 400-600 words. Rather than grade each individually, I will give you a mid-term grade and a final grade on the prep papers as a group.
Essay 1: a 1000-1500 word essay on memory and form in As I Lay Dying and/or Citizen Kane. Due 3/5.
Essay 2: a 1000-1500 word essay on memory and history in The Way to Rainy Mountain, The Things They Carried and/or the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Due 3/22.
Monument Project: this will be discussed in more detail late in the first module and early in the second. We will look at the traces of memorial culture available in Oberlin and then break into groups to prepare presentations on selected topics.
Final Essay: a reflective piece whose scope and design is up to you, in consultation with me. Due at the end of reading period, this piece should allow you to either organize and respond to the themes of the course in your own way or to pursue some aspect of the same in greater depth.
Participation: 20%
Prep Papers: 15%
Essay 1: 15%
Essay 2: 15%
Monument Project: 10%
Final Essay: 25%
2/5 Introduction & procedures;
2/7 Memory and Media intro
Week 2
2/12 American memory: selected poetry
2/14 poetry cont.
Poetry preps due
Week 3
2/19 Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, 3-136
2/21 Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, 137-261
Faulkner preps due
Week 4
2/26 Welles, Citizen Kane
2/28 Welles, cont.
Welles preps due
Week 5
3/5 Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain
Essay 1 due
3/7 Momaday, cont.
Momaday preps due
Week 6
3/12 O’Brien, The Things They Carried
3/14 O’Brien cont.
O’Brien preps due
Week 7
3/19 Maya Lin, Viet Nam Veterans Memorial; A Strong Clear Vision
Burke, “History as Social Memory”
3/21 Lin, cont.
Lin preps due
Monument Project intro
3/22 Essay 2 due
BREAK
Week 8
4/2 Monument Project work
4/4 visit to Allen Memorial Art Museum
Week 9
4/9 Calvino, The Castle of Crossed Destinies
4/11 Calvino, cont.
Calvino preps due
Week 10
4/16 Monument Project presenations
4/18 Girard, 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
Girard preps due
Week 11
4/23 Egoyan, Calendar
4/25 Egoyan/Girard cont.
Egoyan preps due
Week 12
4/30 Nolan, Memento
5/2 Nolan, cont.
Week 13
5/7 Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl
Jackson preps due
5/9
Final discussion