ENC 1102--WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE
Autobiography, Media, & Culture
SCHEDULE
SECTION I: THE STORIED SELF:
Reading and Writing Traditional Autobiography
Week 1: Introduction to the Course
- TH 4 Jan: Syllabus Overview
Textbook Overview
Student Information Sheets
Week 2: Telling the Story of the Self--Traditional
Strategies
- TU 9 Jan: Hamper, Rivethead--first half
(Chapters
1-6)
Text Book:
(TB hereafter) Pratt "Natural Narrative" (pp. 1-12)
Journal Entry #1: notes on questions #1 and #2 p. 12, TB,
applied to Rivethead
- TH 11 Jan: Rivethead--finish
TB: "Completing Texts: The Reader's Work" (160-162)
TB: "Interpreting Texts" (172-174)
Log on to the NWE/Introduction to Email
Week 3: Perspective in Autobiography
- TU 16 Jan: Iacocca--Chapters I-XIII
Journal Entry #2: ANECDOTE, #5, pp. 12-13 in TB
Introduction to MOOville
- TH 18 Jan: Iacocca--Chapters XIV-XXIV
TB: "Four Literary Anecdotes" (13-17)
Journal Entry #3 REVISION of JE #2: NEW VERSION OF ANECDOTE based
on TB p.17, #1
SECTION II: VERBAL AND VISUAL STORIES OF THE SELF:
Playing with Autobiographical Form
Week 4: Conflict and Generational Autobiography
- TU 23 Jan: Coupland, Generation X (all)
TB: Chopin "The Kiss" (22-24)
Journal Entry #4: TB pp.24-25, #1 and #3--think about and
apply to Hamper, Iacocca, and Coupland
Introduction to HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language)
- TH 25 Jan: TB: Goffman "Character Contests"
(31-34)
Using TB #6 p.34, ESSAY #1 DUE: HAMPER & IACOCCA
LETTERS
Screening: Reality Bites
Week 5: The Hypertextuality of Autobiography
- TU 30 Jan: Garcia, Harrington Street
TB: Merwin "Separation" (57)
TB: "Metaphor as a Basis for Thought" (76-90)
Journal Entry #5: Using TB: #1 p.86, #5 p.87, and #1
p.90--
what metaphorical concept(s) do you feel most structure(s) your
life? your "identity"?
- TH 1 Feb: TB: "Metaphor and Metonymy:
Advertising" (120-126)
Journal Entry #6: Using TB #1 and #2 p. 127, investigate
ads and homepages on the web; how do each use metaphor and
metonymy? How are homepages "ads" for the self? Focus on the
interrelationship between words and images in these texts.
ESSAY #2 DUE: TAKE THE ANECDOTE FROM J.E. #2 or #3, PUT IT IN
HYPERTEXT, AND ADD 5 (ORIGINAL) MARGINALIA A LA
COUPLAND
SECTION III: THE "TRUE" SELF:
Blurring the Fiction/Non-Fiction Boundary
Week 6: The Surrealism of Autobiography
- TU 6 Feb: Postcards from the Edge (all)
TB: "Metaphor and Dream" (60-63)
TB: "Surrealist Metaphor" (64-65)
Journal Entry #7: Apply TB p.65 For Discussion to any or
all of the three versions of your anecdote (JEs #2 and #3;
hypertext Essay #1); how could you further develop your anecdote
hyptertextually using these concepts?
- TH 8 Feb: More on Surrealism
Week 7: The Ideology of Autobiography
- TU 13 Feb: Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl--"Preface"; "Introduction"; Chapters I-XXIV
TB: "Identifying with Texts" (186-187)
TB: Banks "Bambi: A Boy's Story" (187-194)
TB: Allen "From Play It Again, Sam" (194-200)
- TH 15 Feb: Incidents--Chapters XXV-XLI through
"Correspondence" (251)
Week 8: Pop Culture Texts and Identity
- TU 20 Feb: Screening: Play It Again,
Sam
- TH 22 Feb: Journal Entry #8: TB p.207, #3
Journal Entry #9: How do the characters in Reality Bites
look to media texts (e.g., films, television shows, songs) as
models and points of reference for their lives?
Journal Entry #10: TB p.207, #5
SECTION IV: THE SOCIAL SELF:
Politicizing Autobiography: The Intersection of Race, Class,
and Gender
Week 9: Fragmented Autobiography
- TU 27 Feb: Jones, Bulletproof Diva--
Sections 1-3 (1-205)
TB: "Experiments with Texts: Fragments and Signatures"
(209-212)
TB: Barthes "From A Lover's Discourse" (212-218)
- TH 29 Feb: Bulletproof Diva--Sections 4 & 5
(209-end)
Journal Entry #11: TB pp.218-219, #1
Journal Entry #12: TB Apply same question to each chapter
of Bulletproof Diva.
Week 10: The Collective in the Self
- TU 5 Mar: TB Angelou, "Graduation" (220-
230)
TB: Trilling, "From Of This Time, of That Place"
(230-239)
Screening: Higher Learning
- TH 7 Mar: Journal Entry #13: Notes on film applied to
Fragments of a Student's Discourse
ESSAY #3 DUE: Fragments of a Student's Discourse TB
p.219, #3; p.239, #1 & #2 (one per band)
11-15 MARCH -- SPRING BREAK
Week 11: Politically Strategic Autobiography
- TU 19 Mar: Abu-Jamal, Live from Death Row
(all)
- TH 21 Mar: Wall Tappings: An Anthology of Writings
by Women Prisoners--Excerpts
SECTION V: THE ELECTRONIC SELF:
Hypertextualizing Autobiography
Week 12: Autobiography as Mystory
- TU 26 Mar: TB: "Mystory" (275-278)
Journal Entry #15: TB p.278, #1: Summarize our "list" of
"counter-rules" for our Electronic Mystory so far.
Journal Entry #16: TB p.278, #2: Also apply your answer to
our final projects and their distinction from traditional
autobiographies.
- TH 28 Mar: NO CLASS
Week 13: Mystorical Methodology
- TU 2 Apr: TB: Leiris "From The
Autobiographer as Torero" (279-282)
TB: Lipton "History of an Encounter" (282-287)
Journal Entry #17: TB pp.287-288, #2.
- TH 4 Apr: TB: Howe "Incloser" (288-297)
Journal Entry #18: TB p.297, #1
TB: Dali "From How to Become Paranoia-Critical"
(298-300)
Journal Entry #19: TB p.301, #3
TB: Momaday "From The Way to Rainy Mountain" (302-
305)
Journal Entry #20: TB p.306, #1 & #2
Week 14: Hypertextualizing the Mystory
- TU 9 Apr: ESSAY #4 DUE: THE MYSTORY
Groupwork on Electronic Mystories
- TH 11 Apr: Workshop
Week 15: Final Projects
- TU 16 Apr: Workshop
- TH 18 Apr: Workshop
Week 16:
- TU 23 Apr: Last Day of Class
FINAL PROJECTS: ELECTRONIC MYSTORIES DUE
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