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From Gutenberg to Gates Course Syllabus For a copy of the entire syllabus in rich text format, which most word processing programs can open, select the following link: syllabus.rtf. Texts
Reading Schedule The Medium is the Message?: Visions, Histories, and Criticisms of Communications Technologies Note: peripheral readings are optional, except for at least two of your responses, which will need to consult them, or if one of the peripheral readings happens to be a book that you review. Peripheral readings can also be useful, though, as you plan, research, and draft your final project. Most peripheral readings will be on reserve in Moellering Library.
W 8/30 Introductions; introduction to course. M 9/4 Note: class meets on Labor Day. Narratives of literacy in relation to technology. Bennahum, Extra Life; Wired profile on Steve Wozniak, one of the developers of the Apple Computer (photocopy). First written response: write a narrative of your own relationship to some sort of communications medium or technology, to be read aloud in class today. Or, write on some way which, like Bennahum, you became literate: that is, a way in which you became good and fluent at something, either literacy as traditionally defined as reading words, or literacy as a programmer, musician, athlete, and so forth. Possible peripheral readings: selections from Wired Women; From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Video Games; Wired profiles on moguls of the new technology. W 9/6 Bennahum, continued. F 9/8 Bennahum, continued. Class meets in Schnabel 33 for introduction to class web site. M 9/11 Divine conduits/ heretical means. Updike, Roger's Version. Have response to the reading ready today. Possible peripheral readings: Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter; critical articles on Roger's Version; Updike on Hawthorne and Barthes; excerpts, Jay David Bolter, Writing Space, Augustine, Confessions, Barthes, S/Z.
W 9/13 Updike, continued.
M 9/18 NO CLASS.
W 9/20 Transition into the early modern press. Video, A World Inscribed: The Illuminated Manuscript. Possible peripheral readings: annotated version of Eisenstein's 2-volume study, The Printing Press as an Agent of Social Change; Johns, The Nature of the Book; Kiefer, Writing on the Renaissance Stage : Written Words, Printed Pages, Metaphoric Books. F 9/22 Eisenstein, continued, chapters 5 and 6. Sarah, Ryan, and Kevin, prepare a reading response in the form of a summary of Eisenstein's major points in chapter 5; Beth, and Jill, prepare a reading response in the form of Eisenstein's major points in chapter 6.
M 9/25 Eisenstein, continued. Marc, Michele, Mandy, Jen, and Dana, prepare a reading response in the form of Eisenstein's major points in chapter 7. Possible peripheral readings: Foucault, "What Is an Author?" Haraway, Modest_Witness@Second.Millenium: FemaleMan meets OncoMouse, Feminism and Technoscience; MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State.
M 10/2 Chartier/ Haraway, continued. M 10/9 Theorizing technologies II: voices of caution. Birkerts, The Gutenberg Elegies; Marshall McLuhan, excerpts from Understanding Media (photocopy). Have a reading response on Birkerts and/or McLuhan prepared for today. Possible peripheral readings: The Essential McLuhan; David Cressy on reading; Harpers article on college as entertainment for bored college students; Ways of Reading link on the Folger site.
W 10/11 Birkerts/ McLuhan, continued.
M 10/16 Review; presentation of book reviews: Jill and Marc, Playing the Future: How Kids' Culture Can Teach Us to Thrive in an Age of Chaos. When Versions Matter: Two Case Studies M 10/23 When theatre and books converge. Hamlet and readings on significant differences between different early modern versions. Have a reading response prepared for today. Possible peripheral texts: Marcus, Unediting the Renaissance and other readings and video performances tba.
W 10/25 Hamlet, continued. M 10/30 When magazines and novels converge. Twain, Puddn'head Wilson. Have a reading response prepared for today. Possible peripheral readings: Parker on composition of Puddn'head; other readings to be announced. W 11/1 Puddn'head, continued. F 11/3 NO CLASS. M 11/6 Presentation, nineteenth-century magazine culture. Professor Jim Bond, guest presenter. Dangerous Notions: Texts and Censorship of New Media W 11/8 When presses change hands. Milton, Aereopagitica (photocopy). Peripheral readings on Milton tba. F 11/10 Milton, continued, plus other seditious writings tba. M 11/13 Censorship and the entertainment industry. Hellman, The Children's Hour; film The Front (to be shown outside of class M or T eve of this week. Have a reading response prepared for today. Dates/ time to be announced.) Possible peripheral texts: readings on McCarthyism; video Seeing Red; excerpts from Hellman's autobiography.
W 11/15 Hellman/ entertainment industry, continued.
M 11/20 NO CLASS-THANKSGIVING BREAK M 11/27 When virtual and real combine. Dibbell, My Tiny Life. Have a reading response prepared for today. Peripheral readings: Stone, Violation and Virtuality; Initial version of "A Rape in Cyberspace"; Pavel Curtis essay on LambdaMOO; Hamlet on the Holodeck.
W 11/29 Dibbell, continued. Class meets in Schnabel 33 for networked discussion.
M 12/4 Presentation of book reviews: Michele, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace; Mandy and Jen, From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Video Games.
W 12/6 When technology and privacy collide. ReadIngs tba on the Communications Decency Act, The Carnegie-Mellon study of pornography on the internet, and internet privacy. Also: presentation of book review: Beth, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.
M 12/11 Presentations, papers. There will be no final exam in this class.
Attendance.Your presence and participation in class is essential, so please be here, ready to discuss the readings, every time. If you know ahead of time that you will be mIssing class, please let me know; you will, of course, be responsible for knowing material from the days you miss. Persistent absences will negatively affect your grade. Grades. Assignments will be weighted as follows:
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