ENGLISH 340:

TECHNOLOGY AND CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CULTURE

Contemporary innovations in the nature, capacity and distribution of technology have presented opportunities and challenges to our culture. They have also come to dominate our collective imagination: every question, whether political, medical, environmental, educational or aesthetic seems to have a technological solution or crisis coming over the horizon. In this course, we will focus mainly on communications technology--a broad category including film, video, photography and other visual arts, literature in a variety of formats, computer networks, virtual reality and so on; however, at times other issues, such as biotechnology, will emerge. Our chief goal is not vocational in any sense; that is, this is not a course in using technology. In fact, we might consider this class as a sort of breathing space apart from the mania for application, upgrade, and innovation which surrounds technological development. Instead, our aim here is to attempt to develop an analytical perspective upon technology and to think critically about its implications for cultural life. This is more difficult than it sounds, since the topic is so all encompassing. What often results is an antinomy we might call the Wired/Unabomber dichotomoy. Technological changes are seen as promising either a starry futuristic dream (of interactivity, globalization, profit and progress) or a dystopian nightmare (of the destruction of nature, surveillance, inequality and privatization). Our method for negotiating between these opposed positions will involve close analysis of selected works by writers, theorists and other artists who exploit, exemplify or examine important dimensions of technology.

Course Procedures:

As a general rule, Mondays and Wednesdays will be dominated by some form of discussion--large or small group, with or without a focused writing or general comments from me. Fridays I will usually review and preview matters by lecturing. Films will be screened Sundays at 12:00 in Mudd 050. Most films will be in AV Reserve if you cannot make the scheduled screening; be aware that the facilities at AV (bizarrely enough) only allow one person at a time to watch a tape. You are responsible for viewing the films by each Monday class for which they are assigned.

Course Requirements:

Week 1

2/4 Introduction

2/6 Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (Reserve)

Week 2

Screening: Peter Greenaway, The Draughtsman's Contract

2/9 Martin Heideggar, "The Question Concerning Technology" (Reserve)

2/11 Fredric Jameson, "The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" (Reserve)

2/13 Jean Baudrillard, "The Implosion of Meaning in the Media and The Implosion of the Social in the Masses"

Week 3

Screening: Oliver Stone, Natural Born Killers

2/16 Don DeLillo, Mao II (pp. 1-93)

2/18 Don DeLillo, Mao II (pp. 94-171)

2/20 Don DeLillo, Mao II (pp.172-241)

Week 4

Screening: Atom Egoyan, Speaking Parts

2/23 Bill Nichols, "The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems" (Reserve)

2/25 Gregory Ulmer, "One Video Theory (Some Assembly Required)" (Reserve)

2/27 Kim Veltman, "Electronic Media: The Rebirth of Perspective and the Fragmentation of Illusion" (Reserve)

Week 5

Screening: Atom Egoyan, Calendar

3/2 Margot Lovejoy, "The Electronic Era and Postmodernism" (Reserve)

3/4 Meet at Allen Memorial Art Museum (You'll need to check your coat and bag; arrive a bit early so class can begin on time. Also, bring a pencil and notepad)

3/6 As above.

Week 6

Screening: Chris Marker, Sans Soleil

3/9 George Landow, "Hypertext: An Introduction" (Reserve)

3/11 Michael Joyce, "Afternoon: A Story" (Reserve)

3/13 Critical Art Ensemble, "Utopian Plagiarism, Hypertextuality, and Electronic Cultural Production" (Reserve)

Week 7

Screening: Katherine Bigelow, Strange Days

3/16 Shelly Jackson, Patchwork Girl (Reserve)

3/18 Richard Grusin, "What Is an Electronic Author? Theory and the Technological Fallacy" (Reserve)

3/20 Midterm Essays Due

Spring Break

Week 8

Screening: Ridley Scott, Blade Runner

3/30 William Gibson, Neuromancer

4/1 cont.

4/3 class cancelled

Week 9

Screening: James Cameron, Terminator II: Judgment Day

4/6 Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" (Reserve)

4/8 Katherine Hayles, "Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers" (Reserve)

4/10 John Christie, "A Tragedy for Cyborgs" (Reserve)

Week 10

Screening: Brett Leonard, Lawnmower Man

4/13 Marguerite Waller, "If "Reality is the Best Metaphor," It Must Be Virtual" (Reserve)

4/15 Andy Cameron, "Dissimulations: Illusions of Interactivity" (Reserve)

4/17 Project Proposals Due

Week 11

Screening: Todd Haynes, Safe

4/20 Kathleen Woodward, "From Virtual Cyborgs to Biological Time Bombs: Technocriticism and the Material Body" (Reserve)

4/22 Mark Seltzer, "Wound Culture: Trauma in the Pathological Public Sphere" (Reserve)

4/24 Anne Balsamo, "The Virtual Body in Cyberspace" (Reserve)

Week 12

Screening: Vincent Ward, Map of the Human Heart

4/27 First Drafts of Final Projects Due

4/29 Jody Berland, "Mapping Space: Imaging Technologies and the Planetary Body" (Reserve)

5/1 Arjun Appadurai, "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy" (Reserve)

Week 13

5/4 TBA

5/6 TBA

5/9 Last Class

5/12 Final Drafts of Final Projects Due

Alta Vista Forum:

Alta Vista Forum is an electronic utility which permits on-line discussion and sharing of work among a number of users. While I may give you an occasional question to post and review answers to, for the most part we shall use AVF as a convenient way to share papers for peer review. Here's the method:

To register on AVF:

1. Open Netscape
2. Go to Oberlin Online (http://www.oberlin.edu)
3. Click on Scholarly Resources
4. Click on Alta Vista Forum
5. Click on "Log in" button
6. Enter log in name. So that others may know who you are, and so you won't forget your log in name, enter your first and last names without spaces. AVF is case sensitive.
7. Enter password. It will be a nightmare if you forget this. So, either use a password you already employ or use the word "password."
8. Click on English 340 forum name

To upload a document to AVF:

1. Create a document either in Word 6 or in a program which you can open in Word 6.
2. After finishing document, Choose Save As... from the File Menu
3. Name the paper using this formula: your initials + paper + essay number + dot + rtf. Eg. Jppaper2.rtf
4. Go to the pop-up menu beneath the words "Save File as Type:" Choose Rich Text Format
5. Click Save to save this file to your desktop
6. Log in to AVF. English 340 forum
7. Click on Add Topic button at top of page
8. Enter the title of your paper (eg. Jppaper2.rtf)
9. Enter any comments you would like readers to have in the text box
10. Under Optional Attachment choose File
11. Click Browse button
12. Find your document and open it
13. Click Okay: file is now uploaded

To download a document from AVF:

1. While in AVF English 340 forum, click on the file's title

A copy of the file will be created on your desktop