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.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Narrative, Meta-Narrative, and Form

Take a look at these two links:

http://www.angelfire.com/art2/antwerplettuce/hamlet.html

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA

I've paired these two creations together because it seems to me that they have a lot in common. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on either or both of them, or any connection you might perceive between the two.
Posted by at 13 comments:

Monday, August 23, 2010

Sheena Iyengar: The Art of Choosing

What do you think of this?

http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_on_the_art_of_choosing.html

I'm interested in how (or whether) you think this attitude shapes or defines our understanding of the arts. I have my own ideas about it, but I'll wait until there are a few comments on the wall here before chipping in.
Posted by at 15 comments:
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