COURSE DESCRIPTION

The purpose of this course is primarily to establish an intellectual context within which other, often more advanced, graduate work, such as in the field of Communication, can be put into perspective.  The premise of the course is that technology plays a fundamental role in the formation of thinking and generally in all arenas of human enterprise.  In seminar format, and with special emphasis on the interrelationship between technology and communication, the course examines the complex ways in which technology constructs—and is constructed by—society.  Discussions will focus on how technological change is expressed in  literature, art, architecture, philosophy,  and social movements, and how they, in turn, influence the future direction of technology.  Within these contexts, the course will also consider theories of invention, literacy, ethics and esthetics.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Bolter, J. David. Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. 2nd Ed. Mahwah, NJ and London:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001.

Bronk, Oppen and Schwerner. Sample Poems.

Hayles, N. Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

_____. Writing Machines. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 2002.

Ihde, Don. Bodies in Technology. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2002.

Malloy, Judy. its name was Penelope. (This text will be supplied by the instructor.)

Morris, Errol. Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. Sony Pictures, 1997. (This is a film that can be rented or borrowed from a video store or library, respectively.)

Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London and New York: Routledge, 1982.

Stone, Allucquère Rosanne. The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.

Strickland, Stephanie, The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot (http://wordcircuits.com/gallery/sandsoot/).

Electronic Literature Directory

New Media Series

Humanities Computing Links
 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

* Weekly Group Summaries and Discussion Questions; each group will summarize a portion of the weekly reading and will
    furnish one question based on the group's reading each week, the question subsequently to be answered by each other group
    in the class. Follow-up questions, posed by the instructor or any class member, are to be answered individually, forming the
    basis for open-ended and otherwise unstructured examination by the class of the week's reading. Summaries and questions
    are to be posted separately. Summaries should point out a text's main motifs and salient features. Group work will be posted
    by one member of the group. All group postings should be signed by all members of the group who have participated in the work
    leading to the posting (i.e., a posting will be followed by the name of the group and the names of all participating group members).
* End-of-term research paper of no less than four thousand and no more than seven thousand words, topic to
   be decided and developed in conference with instructor. The paper must be argumentative.
* Term Paper Announcement (consisting of: Working Title, one-sentence Thesis Statement, One Paragraph Description of writing
   strategy to be adopted in the term paper, and Bibliography of at least five sources, one of which must have originated as hard copy).
* Annotated Bibliography of sources to be used in the research paper.
* Final Examination of no less than two thousand words (to be done at home).

All writing must be spell checked, and to the best of one's ability grammar checked.  If on occasion use is made of the ideas or words of someone else in one's writing, then the source(s) of those ideas and/or words must be cited; that is, when appropriate, papers must be fully documented (you must cite sources--using footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical documentation, which include specific page numbers keyed to particular passages in one's text, and complete bibliographical information).

N.B.: Lack of participation in weekly class activities will result in term papers and exam being disqualified.
 

COURSE SCHEDULE (see Calendar for dates)

I.:     Analysis of poems by William Bronk, George Oppen, and Armand Schwerner
        (available here).
II:     Ong,  Orality and Literacy (pages 1-77).
III:    Ong, Orality and Literacy (pages 78-179).
IV:    Bolter,  Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print (pages xi-120).
V:     Bolter,  Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print (pages 121-214); Malloy; Strickland
         (see Required Texts, above).
VI:    Stone, The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age (xi-97).
VII:   Stone, The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age (99-183).
VIII:  Ihde, Bodies in Technology (xi-63).
IX:    Ihde, Bodies in Technology (67-138).
X:     Hayles, How We Became Posthuman (xi-xiv, 1-130, especially: xi-xiv, 1-63, 84-130).
XI:    Hayles, How We Became Posthuman (131-291, especially: 131-67, 188-251, 279-291).
XII:   Hayles, Writing Machines (4-45). Annotated Bibliographies due.
XIII:  Hayles, Writing Machines (46-143).
XIV:  Morris, Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. Research Paper Announcements due.
XV:   Final Exam and Research Papers Due.
 

Course Grade:
Class participation, 30%
Final Examination, 30%
Term Research Paper, 30%
Term Paper Announcement, 5%
Annotated Bibliography, 5%