Course Description

Course Description

Can a highway billboard be counted as literature? Is Bob Dylan a sellout? Who is Lady Gaga? Can Google be used as a poetic constraint? How do internet phenomena like Youtube and Facebook shape our attitudes toward wisdom, knowledge, and information? Are we morally implicated just by watching? Is constructing our own identities a dangerous thing, and is deconstruction possible?

In this course we will try and answer these questions.

We will discuss relatively nascent literary forms, such as children’s literature, graphic novels, genre fiction, fan fiction, and blogging; we will explore the art of adaptation, and talk about the ways in which the narrative techniques used in film and television have shaped our formal understanding of image, character, metaphor, and plot; we will question the mythologizing power of nostalgia and ask whether speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy) can offer us a better understanding of our own world.

Come prepared to both read and write generously. This course will be graded on enthusiasm, regular attendance, and a final portfolio of polished work.

Required Reading List:

Alan Moore, From Hell

Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

Additional reading materials will be provided in photocopy form.

Assignment Nine

Please watch the following music video for Lady Gaga's song, "Alejandro."



After watching the video through a few times, construct a narrative for the images depicted in the video.  In other words, turn Gaga's video into a story. Obviously, there are many ways you could reimagine and recontextualize what you see in the video into a cohesive story. While planning your story, consider a few things to help you get started: who are the men in the video? Who is the woman? Where are they? Who are Alejandro, Fernando, Roberto? What's with all the military, religious, and sexual imagery?

Good luck! Gaga-a-go-go!


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