Monday, September 16, 2013
Monday, September 9, 2013
La Jetee - PLEASE POST A RESPONSE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION FOR OUR CLASS ON SEPT 16
La Jetée: Critical Analysis and Formulating a Thesis
1) Prepare a one-paragraph statement that answers this question:How does La Jetée convey a message about the impact of technology on humanity?
When you’ve completed the paragraph:
2) Summarize its point in a one-sentence thesis
answering the question.
3) Post the paragraph, followed by the thesis, to
the blog, before 9 am Monday, September 16 so we all have a chance to read them.It will help to consider:
What is the story really about?
How does the plot present the story?
What role do science and technology play in the plot?
What makes this film unusual?
What do these
unusual formal and stylistic features contribute?
Please do not
consult any resources--criticism, reviews, fan pages, etc.--available online or
in print before you write. Rely on your own analysis and ideas.
You
can find a copy of La Jetée to review
here at the class blog and on DVD on reserve in the Corcoran library.
A helpful guide to How to Write a Thesis Statement is available at Indiana University WTS.
AS2000B Humanities I -
Children of Frankenstein (3 cr) - Fall 2013
The
Corcoran College of Art and Design
Dept.
of Arts and Humanities
The Humanities Course at the Corcoran is a required two-semester survey of works
of literature, philosophy, and social
theory, and of the ideas that give them enduring value. The goal of this course
is to provide thoughtful training in the methods of the humanities that you'll
employ in all college work and in your personal investigation of ideas, books,
and art:
§ close reading and interpretation
of texts
§ independent and collaborative
research
§ exchange of ideas in discussion
§ persuasive critical writing.
As befits a college of art and
design, we emphasize the development of innovative and original ideas and
perspectives as much as rigor in academic research, reasoning, and
presentation.
The two-semester Humanities sequence is intended to enhance students’
skills in:
§ Comparative historical study of
world cultural traditions through examination of defining issues
§ Interpretation of texts according
to genre, cultural context, and solid reasoning
§ Asking critical questions about
texts and about the methods and assumptions of the humanities
§ Dialectical exchange of ideas in a
collaborative learning community, cultivating a healthy practice of self- and
peer-assessment
§ Development of arguments that test
significant ideas and find support in meaningful evidence
§ Research enabled by library and
internet resources
§ Writing with personal integrity
according to the standards of contemporary academic discourse, incorporating a process of prewriting,
self-assessment, and revision
§ Analysis of contemporary media as
historically evolving means for dissemination of ideas
§ The cultivation of personal
values, perspective, and life goals through consideration of outstanding
examples of thought and literature from other times and places
Our topic this semester is: Children of Frankenstein - Myth
and Meme in Modern Culture. The rapid development of new industrial and
post-industrial technologies is the pre-eminent characteristic of the modern
era. It has transformed our essential relation to nature, to work, and to
society and the state. As we are now said to inhabit a technosphere—bounded by our relation to technology rather than to
nature—even our fundamental definitions of humanity have shifted, and we have
re-imagined ourselves as robots, androids, and cyborgs.
Our
central text, written by a young woman the age of most sophomore college
students, embodies in narrative form the crucial idea that new technologies may
one day overwhelm humanity entirely. Frankenstein’s monster, which has long
since escaped from the boundaries of Mary Shelley’s novel to haunt the imagery
and ideologies of modern culture, has proved a lasting and focal means for
expressing concern about the limits of human knowledge and power. It’s in this
sense that we explore the operation of the Frankenstein theme as both a myth—a
powerful, popularly transmitted narrative condensation of a central problem for
a culture—and a meme—a cultural unit that spreads and endures because it seems
to help make some shared sense of our condition. But even this does not exhaust
the possibilities of Frankenstein:
feminist, psychoanalytic, and political readings, along with creative
adaptations in a variety of media, show how enduring works can be refreshed
reinterpreted in the attempt to understand changes in society and culture.
-Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition, by Mary Shelley. J. Paul Hunter,
ed. – 2nd edition. (The 1818 version.) W. W. Norton, 2012. (Please
use this edition, so we can count on all having the same text.)
-Digital People: From Bionic Humans to Androids, by Sidney Perkowitz. Joseph Henry
Press, 2004.
All other
readings listed on the schedule will be available online at the course Blackboard site at: https://corcoran.blackboard.com,
along with the syllabus, assignments, and other important and useful
information. We can also use the Blackboard page to submit assignments, share
resources, and send notices or comments to the whole group.
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