ENGLISH
210: INTRODUCTION TO TEXTS
Section 002, HHH 222, MW 5-7:15 pm,
Fall 2011, UWEC
PROFESSOR BOB NOWLAN
Office: HHH 425 Office Phone Number:
(715) 836-4369
Office Hours: MW, 2:50-3:20 pm and
7:15-7:45 pm, as well as By Appointment
ranowlan@uwec.edu
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan
COURSE EXPLANATION
English 210: Introduction to Texts, the principal
foundational core course for all UWEC English major and minor emphasis
areas, focuses on basic
concepts and practices useful for interpreting a wide variety of texts
by situating these in relevant and useful cultural contexts.
Introduction to Texts is a course in Cultural Studies.
Cultural Studies is a cross-disciplinary field of intellectual work
that emerged in the 1980s, with particular emphasis in the arts and
humanities. Cultural
studies engages the "writing" and "reading" of all "texts" of culture
(and not just conventional "literary"–or print or verbal–varieties of
texts). According to cultural studies, we "read" whenever
we interpret what something "means," and we "write" whenever
we create something which others must interpret so as to determine what
it means. This leads us to
approach all products of culture as "texts" insofar as they are written
and read, insofar as they are understood as possessing or bearing
meaning. "Texts"
include everything from the seemingly
most "profoundly meaningful" to the seemingly most "mundanely
meaningless" (as, after all, to be considered insignificant, or of
little or no meaning, is to be judged to mean in a particular way as
well). Cultural studies thus focuses on making sense of
"texts" such as films, television shows, music and video productions
and performances, paintings and drawings, sculpture and architecture,
sports teams and games, trends in clothing and fashion, commercial
advertisements, individual dreams and plans, shopping lists and
checkout receipts, buildings and rooms, kinds of food and drink, roads
and vehicles, manners and gestures, ceremonies and rituals,
personalities and personal relationships, and individual actions and
specific incidents. Cultural studies focuses on making sense of
the meaning of
human products and practices–as well as of the meaning of the
social relationships humans form in the course of interacting with each
other. Cultural studies further inquires into the ways meaning
often, in fact, changes over time, from one period to another, and
varies across space, from one location to another. Likewise,
cultural studies further inquires into the ways meaning, even at one
place and in one time, is often multiple, complex, and
contradictory. Cultural studies attempts to explain what accounts
for meaning–and especially what accounts for the ways that it emerges,
develops, and changes, as well as for the ways that it is complex and
contradictory, in particular as site, and stake, of conflict and
struggle among social groups representing different social positions,
maintaining different social interests, and striving toward different
social ends.
From the vantage point of Cultural Studies, literary
texts are not the only kinds of texts that English engages, not by far,
yet “literature,”
taking a cue from literary and cultural studies theorist Terry
Eagleton, here refers to whatever a particular
culture (or subculture) happens to regard as especially "highly valued
writing." This flexible definition recognizes that what is
defined as “literature” and what is not–and especially “good” or
“great” literature–varies considerably across time and space, and
remains a continual focus of popular debate and critical
contestation. But it also recognizes that literary studies
maintains a crucial place within a larger field of cultural studies:
inquiry into what makes for different conceptions of highly valued
writing within and across different historical cultures (and
subcultures), as well as interpretation and appreciation of those texts
that do maintain the status of “literature.”
Within Cultural Studies, however, and also
throughout the history of the existence of this particular course,
English 210: Introduction to Texts, practitioners tend to emphasize
texts that are not conventionally conceived as great works of art–or
the mainstays of ‘high’ or ‘fine’ culture–instead focusing on the vast
array of cultural processes and productions we find in the broad,
diverse arena commonly referred to as “popular culture.”
In doing so, work in Cultural Studies shows how it is possible–and
useful–to bring to bear concepts and practices for interpretation of
cultural texts of all levels and kinds. At the same time,
cultural studies takes ‘great works of art’–and, more broadly, texts of
‘high’ or ‘fine’ culture–seriously too, focusing on showing how these are related
to texts of popular culture, including, often, as deliberate
critiques of, rejections of, departures from, escapes from, and ways
of, even if only partially and temporarily, transcending the
qualitative problems and limitations of popular culture.
English 210 aims to help you to engage critically with
all of these different texts of culture, thereby far less easily
subject to manipulation, indoctrination, dogmatism, demagoguery, or any
other tendencies to end up as mere mindless consumers, shallow
conformists, or passive victims versus the power exercised by dominant
social–and political–groups. Ultimately, English 210 aims to help
you engage as producers (and not merely consumers) of your culture, and
of your cultural experience.
In the first half
of this course we will focus on learning and initially applying
key concepts and practices for interpretation of cultural texts,
particularly from the field of semiotics (or
semiology, as it is also known). Semiotics inquires into the
nature and operations of all forms of meaningful expression,
representation, and communication in human culture. We will
concentrate in this half of the course on working with ways of
reading–and writing about–cultural texts. And we will concentrate
in this part of the semester on working with texts from popular
culture. In the second half of
this course we will transition from working with ways of
reading–and writing about–cultural texts to focus as well on learning
and initially practicing writing–that is
creating–cultural texts. Here we will begin by reading,
discussing, and interpreting a series of three recent plays that offer
overtly challenging, frequently ‘dark’ (including ‘darkly humorous’),
often disturbing, and deliberately provocative interpretations of a
broad range of complex, serious, and persistently topical issues:
Edward Albee, The American Dream;
Harold Pinter, The Hothouse;
and Jo Clifford, Every One.
These plays will present stimulating challenges to your own
interpretive abilities, especially in drawing out implications from
what each represents that will enable you to make illuminating
connections with diverse other cultural texts–and contexts. All
three playwrights have achieved the stature of major writers of our
times, while scholars, critics, and general audiences have lauded all
three plays, even as each play deals with sensitive issues through
often bold and unsettling means. What you will be doing, after we
take the time initially to read, discuss, and interpret these plays, is
to divide into three groups where each group will be working together
to compose, produce, and ultimately perform–for the rest of the class–a
short play of your own. These plays you write will be related to
and inspired by one of the plays we earlier read and discussed from
Albee, Pinter, and Clifford, while set in the here and now as well as
otherwise significantly adapted and transformed. So, in sum, in
the second half of class you will gain the opportunity to bring to bear
the key concepts and practices you have learned in the first half of
class toward the creative writing of a cultural text of your own.
And you will gain the benefit of working closely with drama, which
tends to be taught and studied considerably less often in other English
literature and creative writing courses, at many US colleges and
universities, than is the case with poetry, fiction, and, even creative
non-fiction.
TEXTS
The following books are required:
1. Brummet, Barry S. Rhetoric and Popular Culture.
3rd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2010.
ISBN#: 978-1412975681.
2. Berger, Arthur Asa. Signs in Contemporary Culture: an
Introduction to Semiotics. 2nd Edition. Salem, WI:
Sheffield Publishing Company, 1999. ISBN#: 1-897215-37-3.
3. Albee, Edward. The American Dream and The Zoo Story.
1960-1961. New York: Plume/Penguin, 1997. ISBN#:
978-0-452-27889-9.
4. Pinter, Harold. The Hothouse. New York: Grove
Press, 1980. ISBN#: 0-8021-3643-5.
5. Clifford, Jo. Every One. London: Nick Hern
Books, 2010.
All of these books are available for you to purchase
at the UWEC Bookstore. You may purchase them elsewhere, as you wish, as
long as you do acquire them in time to use for class; these days many
students find many required texts for their classes through on-line
booksellers. All are readily available through that means from
multiple different vendors. I will supply additional written
texts, as need be, in the form of photocopied handouts, or on
Desire2Learn and the W (the Student-Faculty Shared) Drive. I will
also supply copies of the visual, audio, and audio-visual texts that we
may make use of from time to time as well. Please note well that
I originally also ordered Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman and Caryl Churchill’s
Cloud Nine for this class, but
we don’t have time to work with that many plays, so you don’t need to
purchase those books.
SCHEDULE
Part One
W 9/7: Introduction and Orientation.
M 9/12: The Rhetoric of Everyday Life, The Building Blocks of Culture:
Signs, Definition–Signs and Semiotics, and How Signs Work.
Read
for Class, M 9/12: Rhetoric
and Popular Culture, Selections From Chapter 1, pp. 4-13 (“The
Rhetoric of Everyday Life” and “The Building Blocks of Culture:
Signs”–Including “Indexical Meaning,” “Iconic Meaning,” “Symbolic
Meaning,” and “Complexity of the Three Kinds of Meaning”); Signs in Contemporary Culture,
Chapter 1 (“Definition” and “Honor in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I”) and Chapter 2
(“How Signs Work” and “Sherlock Holmes”), pp. 1-21.
W 9/14: The Building Blocks of Culture: Artifacts; Language and
Speaking; Forms of Signs; and Who Uses Signs?
Read for Class, W 9/11: Rhetoric
and Popular Culture, Selection From Chapter 1, pp. 13-19 (“The
Building Blocks of Culture: Artifacts”–Including “An Action, Event or
Object Perceived as a Unified Whole”); Signs in Contemporary Culture,
Chapter 6, pp. 39-45 (“Language and Speaking” and “Fashion”), Chapter
8, pp. 53-61 (“Forms of Signs” and “Eight Hypotheses on Digital
Watches”), and Chapter 16, pp. 121-126 (“Who Uses Signs?” and “Poetry
as Signs”).
M 9/19: Definitions of Culture; Characteristics of Cultures; and Signs
and Identity.
Read
for Class, M 9/19: Rhetoric
and Popular Culture, Selections From Chapter 1, pp. 19-32
(“Definitions of Culture”–Including “Elitist Meanings of Culture” and
“Popular Meanings of Culture”–and “Characteristics of
Cultures”–Including “Cultures Are Highly Complex and Overlapping,”
“Cultures Entail Consciousness, or Ideologies,” and “Cultures Are
Experienced Through Texts”); Signs
in Contemporary Culture, Chapter 17, pp. 127-139 (“Signs and
Identity,” “Teeth as Signs,” “Logos and Corporate Identity,” “The
Un-Cola Country,” and “The Onion of Culture Metaphor”).
W 9/21: Codes.
Read
for Class, W 9/21: Signs in
Contemporary Culture, Chapters 25-26, pp. 195-216 (“Codes,”
“Baseball,” “Characteristics of Codes,” and “Foods as Signs”).
M 9/26: Writing About Cultural Texts.
Read
for Class, M 9/26: To Be Announced.
* M 9/26: Short
Paper #1 (Beginning to Work with Key Concepts and Practices in Reading
and Writing About Cultural Texts) Assigned. *
W 9/28: Texts as Sites of Struggle, Characteristics of Critical
Studies, and Finding a Text.
Read
for Class, W 9/28: Rhetoric
in Popular Culture, Selections From Chapter 3, pp. 77-93 (“Texts
as Sites of Struggle”–Including “Texts Influence Through Meanings” and
“Texts Are Sites of Struggle over Meaning”; “Three Characteristics of
Critical Studies”–Including “The Critical Character,” “Concern Over
Power,” and “Critical Interventionism”; and “Finding a Text”–Including
“The First Continuum: Type of Text” and “The Second Continuum: Sources
of Meaning”).
M 10/3: Defining a Context, “Inside” the Text, and The Text in Context:
Metonymy, Judgment, and Power.
Read
for Class, M 10/3: Rhetoric
in Popular Culture, Selections From Chapter 3, pp. 93-116
(“Defining a Context”–Including “The Third Continuum: Choice of
Context” and “The Fourth Continuum: Text-Context Relationship”;
“‘Inside’ The Text”–Including “The Fifth Continuum: From Surface to
Deep Reading”; and “The Text in Context: Metonymy, Power,
Judgment”–Including “Metonymies,” “Empowerment/Disempowerment,” and
“Judgment”).
W 10/5: Metaphor and Metonymy, Denotation and Connotation, Imaginary
Signs and Signs that Lie, and Manifest and Latent Meaning in Signs.
Read for Class, W 10/5: Signs
in Contemporary Culture, Chapters 4-5, pp. 29-38 (“Metaphor:
Communicating by Analogy,” “Love Is a Game,” “Metonymy: Communicating
by Using Associations,” and “Political Cartoons”), Chapters 11-13, pp.
77-105 (“Denotation and Connotation,” “Comics and Ideology,” “Imaginary
Signs,” “Freud on Dreams,” “Signs that Lie,” and “On Parody”), and
Chapter 23, pp. 177-185 (“Manifest and Latent Meanings in Signs” and “Robinson Crusoe”).
* F 10/7: Short Paper
#1 Due by 4 pm in my English Department Mailbox, HHH 405 *
M 10/10: Visual Aspects of Signs, Signifiers and Life-Style, Coherence
in Signs, Signs and Images, Sign Modifiers, and Analyzing Signs and
Sign Systems.
Read
for Class, M 10/10: Signs in
Contemporary Culture, Chapter 9, pp. 63-70 (“Visual Aspects of
Signs” and “Postmodern Design”), Chapters 14-15, pp. 107-120 (“Men’s
Looks: Signifiers and Life-Style,” “Denimization,” “Coherence in
Signs,” and “Formulas in the Public Arts”); Chapter 19, pp. 149-158
(“Signs and Images” and “Photography”), Chapter 22, pp. 171-176 (“Sign
Modifiers” and “Cartooning”), and Chapter 24, pp. 187-193 (“Analyzing
Signs and Sign Systems” and “‘Reach Out and Touch Someone’”).
W 10/12: Screening, Groundhog Day.
* W 10/12: Learning and
Contribution Reflection Paper #1 Assigned *
M 10/17: Discussion of Groundhog Day,
including of Simulational Selves and Simulational Culture in Groundhog Day.
Read for Class, M 10/17: Rhetoric
and Popular Culture, Chapter 8, “Simulational Selves,
Simulational Culture in Groundhog Day,”
247-258.
W 10/19: Screening, Eternal Sunshine
of the Spotless Mind.
* W 10/19: Learning and
Contribution Reflection Paper #1 Due in Class. *
M 10/24: Discussion of Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
in Comparison and Contrast with Groundhog
Day, as well as Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vis-a-vis the idea of Simulational
Selves and Simulational Cultures.
* M 10/24: Short
Paper #2 (Beginning to Work with Key Concepts and Practices in Reading
and Writing About Cultural Texts) Assigned. *
Part Two
W 10/26 and M 10/31: Discussion, The
American Dream.
Read
for Class, W 10/26: The
American Dream.
W 11/2 and M 11/7: Discussion, The
Hothouse.
Read for Class, W 11/2: The
Hothouse, Act I. Read for Class, M 11/7:
The Hothouse, Act II.
* F 11/4: Short
Paper #2 Due by 4 pm in my English Department Mailbox, HHH 405 *
W 11/9 and M 11/14: Discussion, Every
One.
Read
for Class, W 11/9: Every One,
Act One. Read
for Class, M 11/14: Every One,
Act Two.
W 11/16, M 11/21, W 11/23, M 11/28, W 11/30, M 12/5, W 12/7, and M
12/12: Work in Groups on Writing, Producing, and Practicing Performing
Short Plays.
* W 11/23:
Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #2 Assigned. *
W 12/14: Performances of Short Plays.
M
12/17: Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #2 Due by 4 pm in my
English Department Mailbox, HHH 405.
* THIS SCHEDULE
IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE *
** THERE IS NO
FINAL EXAMINATION IN THIS CLASS **
ORGANIZATION
AND CONDUCT OF CLASS SESSIONS
We will work continuously throughout the 135 minutes
we have each period. (If you need to take a short restroom break,
you should feel free to go ahead and take it–but try to keep it
short.) Class will follow a variety of formats, but throughout
you will be consistently actively involved. In other words, while
I will devise the structures for what we do, and direct all of our work
together, this will be a discussion-emphasis as opposed to a
lecture-emphasis class. From time to time I will make short
presentations, but that’s it, as it will be up to you to help us work
our way toward a consensual understanding of key concepts and
practices–what they mean, how and for what they are useful, and what
their significance happens to be. You will need to work with me
in order to enable your learning and that of your peers; I find that
students learn better, in this kind of class, through active
participation and extensive collaboration (including often as part of
smaller groups and teams) rather than by remaining largely quiet and
merely taking notes during the course of long lectures. Plus, we
will be making use of your prior, and other, knowledge, skill, talent,
and experience as a crucial point of connection with everything “new”
you encounter in this class. And since we will be focusing a
great deal on contemporary American popular culture, each of you has a
lot to offer. We collectively maintain “expertise” in many of the vast
array of different areas in which people in the US today interact–in
all of the diverse rituals, conventions, routines, customs, traditions,
habits, and myriad other forms of meaningful activity that give shape
and substance to our everyday lives. “Popular culture” includes
all of that, as well as all of the ways we commonly make sense of this
participation (i.e., what we think, feel, and believe about it).
While working, toward the end of the semester, on your short plays you
will be working in three separate classrooms. I will give you
directions, including targets, for what you should aim to accomplish
each day. I will also ask you to account in precise detail for
what you do as part of these teams throughout the process, as well as
precisely to evaluate your teammates’ contributions toward your
collective work.
UWEC
MISSION AND GOALS OF THE BACCALAUREATE
The following is the official mission statement of
the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a mission which includes us
all, and which each of us helps realize, bringing to bear our own
distinct talents, abilities, knowledges, skills, backgrounds, and
experiences:
We foster in one another creativity, critical
insight, empathy, and intellectual courage, the hallmarks of a
transformative liberal education and the foundation for active
citizenship and lifelong inquiry.
This is a mission to aspire to meet, and each of you has a vitally
important role to play in helping us do so.
The following, in addition, are the five most
important, official goals all
UWEC undergraduate courses are designed to help you meet, and this class aims
to help you, in particular, with goal number two:
1.) Knowledge of Human Culture and the Natural World
2.) Creative and Critical Thinking
3.) Effective Communication
4.) Individual and Social Responsibility
5.) Respect for Diversity Among People
These goals require your striving
to meet them. Striving means learning actively and deliberately,
completing assignments in a thorough and timely fashion, participating
in class discussion, and making connections between what we do while
meeting in class and what you do when engaged outside of the classroom.
GENERAL
EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS
I expect students in this course to strive to become
sincerely interested in learning about the subject matter of this
course, and to be consistently intellectually serious as well as
academically diligent in your pursuit of this learning. I expect
students to strive to bring actively and extensively to bear–in your
essays and contributions to class discussion–insights you gain through
your engagement with the texts and topics addressed as part of this
course, and I expect you to strive at the same time to relate these
texts and topics as closely and as fully as possible to subjects of
genuine interest and concern in your own lives, past and present.
And I expect you to let me know right away when and if you have any
questions or problems about any aspect of how you are doing in and with
the course, so that I can do whatever I possibly can to help answer
these questions and solve these problems. In addition, you need
to be ready to engage seriously, thoughtfully, and respectfully–at all
times–with positions that you don’t necessarily agree with, and even
with ones that you may find troubling. After all, great works of
art–including many great works of literature–are often created with the
deliberate aim of disturbing, even shocking many people who will
encounter these. Often the intent is to provoke strong response,
as well as thought–and action–that goes beyond what has become
familiar, conventional, commonsensical, and, especially, merely
“safe.” You are capable of dealing with these kinds of challenges
in an intellectually serious, mature adult manner–and I will expect you
to do so.
SPECIFIC
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE GRADE
General Standards for Evaluation of
Student Work
In evaluating all work done for this class, I will
take account of how carefully, seriously, intelligently,
enthusiastically, and imaginatively students engage with the concepts,
issues, positions, and arguments addressed in the class and represented
by the texts we read, by me, and by each other. I will also take
account of how carefully, seriously, intelligently, enthusiastically,
and imaginatively students engage with class activities, projects, and
assignments.
Attendance
This course cannot contribute effectively to
students' learning if students do not attend class. What happens
in class is indispensable. Therefore, the following attendance
policy will apply:
1.) Students may miss a maximum of four
classes without needing to provide an official excuse, although
students should always let me know,
preferably beforehand, if and when you are not going to be able to
attend a class, just as the same as you would for a shift at a
paid job, because we will count on everyone in the work we will be
doing together this semester.
2.) If you need to miss more than four classes
total over the course of the semester you should seek to arrange an officially authorized absence,
through the Dean of Students’ Office. Otherwise you will lose
one full letter grade, off your final grade, starting with your fifth
absence from class. If you need to miss more than four
classes, please contact me, as well as the Dean of Students’ Office, as
soon as possible, so we can work together to make arrangements to help
you make up what you miss.
3.) Students are
expected to arrive for class on time and to stay through the very end
of class. If you don’t do so, you won’t be counted as
attending class. In addition, you need to be awake, alert, and
attentive while in class; this means you can’t expect to sleep or rest
in class. Again, if you do so, this will count as an absence from
class. And the same is true of doing other school work in class
or attending to other–personal–matters irrelevant to what we are
focusing on at that point in time in class. You should avoid
text-messaging, or web-searching, or facebooking, or playing games on
your cell phone–just to mention a few common temptations–while we are
working together in class. If you repeatedly do any
of these things you will suffer a loss of one to two full letter grades
(depending on the severity of the issue) for learning and contribution
during each period of the semester where this becomes a problem.
Since you are all mature, responsible adults, I respect, if you choose
to ignore this warning, that you also choose to accept the
consequences. In other words, I won’t repeatedly warn you not to
do any of these things; instead I will just note what you are doing,
and adjust your grades accordingly. I know that cell phones–and
other electronic devices, especially providing access to the internet
and the world wide web–present plenty of temptation, and most of us are
used to being plugged in and connected all the time, but you can and
will concentrate better, learn more, and contribute more and better if
you set these devices aside and put them away while we are working
together in class, unless you are using these devices as part of work
on class activities or projects. If I can do so, you can too.
4.) IT IS VERY IMPORTANT IN THIS CLASS THAT
YOU COME TO CLASS HAVING DONE THE READING REQUIRED OF YOU PRIOR TO
CLASS. The quality of your own learning, and that of the rest of
your classmates depends upon you taking this seriously and carrying it
out conscientiously.
Short Papers–Beginning to Work with
Key Concepts for Reading and Writing about Cultural Texts
These papers will provide you an opportunity to test
out your developing grasp of exactly that: key concepts and practices
for reading and writing about cultural texts. They will involve
the opportunity to apply what you have learned to specific texts of
your own choosing. I will provide a thorough explanation at
the time that I distribute each of these paper assignments to you,
including specifications for length (although I will mention here that
I tend to be quite flexible in working with different lengths depending
upon what works for different students). Please seek out my help
as you are working on these papers; I will be glad to give it.
Each of these papers will be worth 15% of the
overall course grade, for a combined total worth 30% of the
course grade.
Learning and Contribution/Learning and
Contribution Reflection Papers
My foremost aim in teaching this course is to help
you to learn something of significance and value. I will judge
you to a significant degree on what you learn, how–and how hard–you
strive to learn, and on how–along with how well–you contribute to the
learning for the rest of the class.
Class participation represents an important
opportunity to learn, not just a place in which to demonstrate what you
have learned. By raising questions, testing and trying out ideas,
taking risks and making mistakes, you learn a great deal–and help
others learn a great deal as well. You learn through talking, not just
talk to show what you have learned. At the same time, quality of
participation is much more important than quantity, although a
sufficient quantity is indispensable to insure quality. Still, I
want to emphasize here that I perceive talking for talking’s
sake–especially talking which pulls us off on far-fetched tangents,
which remains disconnected from and disengaged with the reading and the
rest of the class, or which effectively silences others–to be negative
participation. Quality class participation does not, moreover,
involve merely asking questions of me and responding to my questions;
quality class participation requires you to work to advance a
thoughtful discussion with your peers about the texts and topics
subject to discussion.
Contribution to the class certainly can extend far
beyond mere speaking in class: it may include a variety of ways in
which you can bring to bear your insights to help yourself as well as
the rest of us gain from the experience of this class. Excellent
writing for class is also a valuable way to contribute to
class. At the same time, listening carefully, respectfully,
and thoughtfully in class discussions is yet another important means of
contribution–as is taking time to meet and talk with me outside of
class. In fact, meeting and talking with me outside of class can
be an excellent way to contribute–as well as to show me how seriously
interested in and engaged with the course material you are.
Learning and contribution will constitute a
significant proportion of your overall course grade. As part of
this grade, you
will write two short learning and contribution reflection papers.
For these papers I will ask you, simply, to assess how, along with how
well, you have been learning and contributing in the class over the
course of the preceding approximately one-half of the semester.
As I see it, these short papers provide you a useful opportunity to
communicate with me how you believe you are doing with the course, as
well as why so, and to demonstrate your critical self-reflexivity, the
hallmark of a liberal arts education. As you are assessing your
own learning and contribution, you may include thoughts in reaction to
issues raised in class discussion that you did not have the opportunity
or did not feel comfortable enough to share in class; these additional
reflections can help me get a better sense of what you have been
thinking about and how you have been responding to class discussions,
as well as to the readings. I will take into account what you
write in determining your learning and contribution grade for the
preceding half-semester; performance on these papers represents a vital
component of your learning and contribution grade.
I will provide you specific directions in the
assignments I give you for each of these papers. Each learning
and contribution grade (including each learning and contribution
reflection paper) will be worth 15% of the
overall course grade, making for a combined total worth 30% of the
overall course grade.
Small Group Project: Leadership of a
Section of a Play
As part of a group of students you will be
responsible for leading our discussion for approximately one-half
period of a significant section from one of the following three plays–The American Dream, The Hothouse, and Every One. Your aims here
will be: to help your fellow students better understand and appreciate
(the meaning, value, and significance of) the section of the play for
which you are responsible, and to do the same for the play as a whole,
as well as to help stimulate an interesting discussion of the play,
including by drawing connections (comparisons and contrasts) with other
cultural texts and contexts. If you can come up with some good
ideas to help the students who will subsequently be working with this
play as source material for composing, producing, and performing their
own short play that will be great. Each group will meet with me
in a conference prior to the day in which you will be responsible for
half of class; I will help you prepare. Your performance on this
assignment will be worth
10% of the overall course grade.
Large Group Project: Composition,
Production, and Performance of a Short Play
Here you will be working together with a group of
your peers from class to compose, produce, and ultimately perform–in
class, for the rest of us–a short play directly inspired by one the
three plays we will be reading and discussing in class: The American Dream, The Hothouse, and Every One. You will be
updating and translating the play so that it is focused on the here and
now. At the same time, you will be maintaining significant
elements of plot, character, style, mood, tone, and even setting from
your original source-play. And you will be working to find ways
to make use of the key concepts for reading and writing about texts
that we discussed in the first half of the semester; you will be
bringing these to bear in how you compose, produce, and perform your
play, demonstrating how your “writing” here of a cultural text reflects
your critical “reading” of (and is in fact another way of “writing
about”) a series of other cultural texts. In other words, your
play will offer a critical as well as creative take on some significant
aspects of contemporary American culture, linked with and inspired by
Albee’s, Pinter’s, or Clifford’s creative and critical takes on
significant aspects of American and British culture (from 1960 through
2010). I will provide more details when I give you the specific
assignment for this project. I will also give you instructions as
well as suggestions and recommendations throughout the time you will be
working on this assignment. And you should note well that even as
this is the kind of assignment that students overwhelmingly tend to
enjoy working on, and that includes students initially skeptical or
worried about it, you will need to take it seriously, and make
productive use of your time. Plus you almost certainly will need
to work on it outside of as well as inside of class, even though you
will have eight 135 minutes long class periods to work in your teams on
composing, producing, and rehearsing your short plays. Please
feel free to consult with me outside as well as inside of class as you
are working on this project; I will be glad to help in any and every
way I can. I will be doing everything I can to help you in class
throughout that period of time. Finally, I will be giving each
member of each team an evaluation sheet to fill out and turn in after
your play has been performed in class, where you will evaluate your own
and each other member of your team’s contribution to the collective
project you have worked on; I will take what teams write on these
evaluation forms, about yourselves and your teammates, significantly
into account in determining your individual grades for this
project. Please also feel free to let me know right away, at any
point in the process, if any members of your team are not contributing
constructively to your collective project. The grade for your
work as part of a team of peers involved in composing, producing, and
performing a short play will be worth 30% of the
overall course grade.
Extra Credit Opportunity
You may, if you wish, write a sustained critical
analysis of the dramatic work of Edward Albee, Harold Pinter, or Jo
Clifford in which you incorporate research into the life, times, and
outlook of the playwright as well as key shaping influences on the
playwright and his or her playwriting; the history of his or her plays’
production, performance, and reception; scholarly interpretation of his
or her plays; and the relation between the play we read in class and at
least one other play that he or she also wrote. Let me know as
early as possible if you are interested in this extra credit
opportunity, so that I can help you on it. This extra credit
paper will be worth
10% of the overall course grade.
General Formatting Requirements: Papers
All papers should be typed, double-space, on
standard white letter-sized (8" X 11") typewriter, computer printer, or
photographic paper. You may use any standard font you wish but
your print size must remain between 10 and 12 points. Pages
should be numbered, and your name should be at the top of the first
page. The pages of your paper must be stapled together and you
are responsible for doing so; I do not bring staplers to class.
You are also responsible for proofreading your paper before you turn it
in; if you catch any typographical errors, you should neatly cross
these out and write your corrections on top of these with a pen.
I will expect you, furthermore, to observe the rules and conventions of
Standard Written English to the best of your ability in writing these
papers, including MLA format for citation and documentation of sources
outside of those read for–and discussed in–class.
Late Papers
Late papers will lose credit unless you have made
arrangements ahead of the time with me to turn in these papers late due
to a serious personal or family problem. Alternately, if you
provide a reasonable explanation why you are late shortly after the
paper is due, you won’t suffer any grade penalty. It is best to
talk with me directly about this, and to make sure to do so within a
week’s time of the due date at the absolute latest. I do
understand that at times real problems come up for all of us, no matter
what we might intend or prefer.
Plagiarism and Academic Honesty
Plagiarism, cheating, and other forms of academic
dishonesty are serious offenses. They not only undermine the goal
of learning but also are exploitative of the work of others.
Deliberate dishonesty in written work as part of this course will
result in a failing grade. In addition, plagiarism may result in
further disciplinary action on the part of the University
administration, ultimately including expulsion from the
University. Also, if you directly echo someone else’s thoughts as
articulated in the course of class discussion you should add the last
name, followed by the letters CD (for class discussion), followed by
the date, in a parenthetical citation right after the end of the
sentence, viz: (Nowlan, CD, 9/26/11).
CONFERENCES/EXTRA
HELP
I encourage you to meet with me in conference during
office hours or at another mutually convenient time to discuss any
issue of interest or concern related to what we are doing in this
course. Learning that takes place in conferences can be equally
as important, and at times even more important, than what takes place
in class. Please do not hesitate to meet with me during office
hours or to ask for an appointment at any time you think this might be
helpful; making myself available for conferences with you outside of
class is part of my responsibility as your teacher. Moreover, I
always sincerely do welcome getting to know and work with my students
outside as well as inside of class. I am ready to do whatever I
can to help you in your understanding of issues addressed in
discussions and readings, as well as to help you in your writing for
and participation in this class. I want to make sure that I do
all that I can to help you succeed in this class and I want to help
you, as far as I can, to gain as much out of it as possible through
your participation in and work for it. You may also feel free to write
me via e-mail, and to call me–or leave a message for me on the
answering machine–at my office. Keep in mind “my office hours”
are for you, so please do not
worry about “disturbing” me in coming to talk with me; these are times
I have set aside to work with
students; that is their purpose. I am only designating a
total of two regular hours
for this purpose this semester because I don’t want to waste a lot of
time holding regular office
hours if students are not taking advantage of these specific
hours. At the same time, however, not scheduling that many regular office hours means I can
be more flexible in arranging to meet with you at other times–which I
will gladly do. But you need to let me know that you would like
to meet with me, and not assume that this is a big deal of any kind; I
think it’s great when students want to meet, talk, and work on matters
related to a class I am teaching. I am pleased whenever you do
so.
* Any student who
has a disability and is in need of classroom accommodations, please
contact both the instructor and the Services for Students with
Disabilities Office, Old Library 2136; for more information on the
services the latter office provides you, check out their webpage: http://www.uwec.edu/ssd/index.htm
CONCLUSION
In the interest of accountability–me to you–I am
here providing you a weblink to: 1) my autobiographical profile: http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/PROFILE.
You are also welcome to look me up 2.) on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1755562371
[If you are interested in becoming facebook friends, feel free to
contact me about that]. I encourage you to check these sites out;
it is useful for you to know who your teacher is, what he’s about, and
where he’s coming from–and I like to be open, honest, and forthright
with you about all of that. I look forward to a great semester
working together with you!