Week 1
(Jan. 12-14)Week 2
(Jan. 17-21)Week 3
(Jan. 24-28)Week 4
(Jan. 31-Feb. 4)Week 5
(Feb. 7-11)Week 6
(Feb. 14-18)Week 7
(Feb. 21-25)Week 8
(Feb 28-Mar 4)Spring Break
(Mar. 7-11)Week 9
(Mar. 14-18)Week 10
(Mar. 21-25)Week 11
(Mar. 28-Apr. 1)Week 12
(Apr. 4-8)Week 13
(Apr. 11-15)Week 14
(Apr. 18-22)Week 15
(Apr. 25)
Student Projects |
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Sarah Lovatt and Ruthanne Swanson |
Peter Capucilli and Doug Stern |
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Erica Grimaldi, Katie Streitwieser, and John Murphy |
Dumpa on JhumpaCatherine Bear, Kristin, Concannon, Ashley Phillips, and Maley Thompson |
WednesdayCourse procedures and requirements
Background on canon formation. Examine the following lists: Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20C
Friday
Jean Baudrillard, "The Ecstasy of Communication" (Reserve - Central Library)
Sunday - 7:00 p.m. in Stevenson 1206
Showing of Suture (1993), directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel.
Monday
WednesdayRead Ed Falco's hypertext short story for the Web, "Charmin' Cleary." (This story is presented by the Eastgate Web Reading Room.)
Terri Ford and Erik Lover, "Story Problem." This hypermedia is from Born Magazine: Art and Literature, Together (2002).
Directions: Click on the link for the story or for the magazine. During or after the introductory series of words ("Please explore ... renew ... discover"), click anywhere on the screen. The frontpage of bornmagazine: art and literature appears. Scroll down the menu on the top of the page to 2002, where the hypertexts for that year are arranged alphabetically by title. Click on the item titled "Story Problem." You need Macromedia Shockwave to play this hypermedia piece. If you do not have Shockwave, a message will tell you so. Download and install Shockwave. Click on "Begin a new performance."
Friday
Read Mary-Kim Arnold and Matthew Derby's hypertext, "Kokura." (This story is presented by the Eastgate Web Reading Room.)
Sunday - 7:00 p.m. in Stevenson 1206
Showing of Memento (2000), directed by Christopher Nolan
Monday
Wednesday
Brian Kerr, "Part of the Old Brick Chimney"
Friday
Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin "The Double Logic of Remediation" and "Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation" (Reserve Room - Central Library)
MondayWednesdayDon DeLillo, White Noise (1985)
Friday
No Class (rescheduled for film screening)
Monday -WednesdayFredrick Jameson, excerpts from Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Reserve - Central Library).
Friday
Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek (1991)
Sunday - 7:00 p.m. in Stevenson 1206
Showing of Being John Malcovitch (1999), directed by Spike Jonze
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
No Class (rescheduled for film screening)
Monday
WednesdayJhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
Friday
First paper due (5-7 pages) - 4:00 p.m.
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MondayRobert Stone, Damascus Gate (1998)
WednesdaySlavoj Zizek, "Welcome To the Desert of the Real," The South Atlantic Quarterly 101 (2002): 385-389. (Available to Vanderbilt University community only or to subscribers to ProQuest).
Friday
MondayWednesday
Toni Morrison, Jazz (1992)
Chronology of Morrison's Jazz (to be revised by the class).
Friday
MondayWednesdayOnline Resources:
Harlem 1900-1940, An Exhibition Portfolio for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (highly recommended)Photography of James Van Der ZeeAnniina's Toni Morrison Page
Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark (2000)
Friday
No Class (Rescheduled for final project presentations)
MondayWednesday
Friday
MondayWednesday
Ann Patchett, Bel Canto (2001)
Canon debate - Analyze the following list: Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20C.
Friday
Monday
Wednesday
James Der Derian, "Prologue" from Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network (Reserve - Central Library)
Friday
No Class (Rescheduled for final project presentations)
Monday
Wednesday
Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl (1990)
Kirby Farrell, Post-Traumatic Culture: Injury and Interpretation in the Nineties, pp. 5-14 (Reserve - Central Library)
Friday
Quiz
MondayPresent Final Projects. We will also have to schedule an additional session to finish presenting student projects. This extra meeting will count as a makeup class for the canceled sessions earlier in the semester.
Second paper (5 pages) due - 4:00 p.m., as email attachment. Final projects are also due at this time.
Wednesday, 12:00-1:30, Wison Hall 122
Make up class. Presentations continued.
Procedures and Requirements
Papers or Projects:
- Option 3:
- Research paper (15-20 pages) due Apr. 25 - 60% of the semester's grade.
Regular reading quizzes will count for 30% of the grade.
Class participation will count for the remaining 10% of the grade. Learning to speak articulately about cultural issues is a valuable skill, which literature seminars are designed to foster. Pushing oneself to voice an informed opinion in public often forces a person to think more deeply and to respond to others, whereas listening passively can foster the tendency to accept others' ideas rather than work out one's own position. Speaking about specific features of the text also demonstrates that one has read the assigned material carefully.
Class participation grades will be calculated as follows:
Attendance at the great majority of classes will constitute the minimum passing standard and will establish one's participation grade as a D.
Speaking up only a few times during the course of the semester will constitute satisfactory performance and earn a grade of C.
Entering the discussion every couple of weeks will constitute average performance and will earn a grade of B.
Frequent participation, which is intelligent, respectful of others, and clearly oriented toward contributing to the class experience rather than scoring points or showing off, will constitute excellent performance and will earn a grade of A.
Jay Clayton Vanderbilt University
