ENG 500 detailed schedule

Weeks which have passed are at the bottom of the page.

Week 15 (Dec 8 or 10) 

Preparation:

• Review the course syllabus, especially the introduction, and reading rationale. Please bring printed copies of these documents to class with you.
  
• Leading discussion: Tracey Winbigler (Macomb).

Activities:

• Chris Morrow will visit the Macomb class to discuss his academic specialties. (Really!)
  

• Any questions about projects and portfolios which are suitable for the group. (Individual questions: office, phone, email, etc.)
  
• How do the selected texts epitomize the course?
• Professional development workshop: I'll review and discuss materials, noting positives and negatives, working with both materials and documents which guide them (like job advertisements). 
• Read job ad Charity shared.
• Look at materials from Sarah, Bill, Travis, Miranda, Lindsay, Katie,
  
• Time permitting in Macomb, individual work on portfolio materials.

Exam week (Dec 15 or 17)

Preparation:

• No assigned reading. Finish all assignments; use the weblog and contact me for questions as needed.
  

Activities:

• No class meetings. Submit all assignments to my mailbox in Simpkins (Macomb) or by other means (QC).
  

Past weeks

Week 1 (Aug 25 or 27)

Preparation:

• Read the syllabus, including all three major assignments.
• Read McComiskey's introductory chapter to English Studies (at the least, pp 1-26), and Tyson's introductory chapter to Critical Theory Today (pp 1-10). If you're in Macomb, you can borrow the copies taped to my door and make a photocopy. Or you can download the essays here (the two McComiskey links are the same content; use the one which works better for printing). All links are PDFs.
  
• McComiskey, one page per sheet
  
• McComisky, two pages per sheet
• Tyson's introductory chapter
  
• Order textbooks.
  

Activities:

• Introductions.
• Read syllabus assignments, McComiskey selection, and Tyson introduction if you have not already (we'll begin with a reading period).
• Discuss all readings, especially syllabus and assignments.
• Discuss McComiskey's brief history of English. Where do you situate yourself? What are your professional goals--why are you studying English in graduate school?
• Discuss introduction to Tyson.
  
• Review and discuss plan of study form.
  
• Provide an email address and username for creating a weblog account; I'll do that at the break. (Actually, I'll ask you to do it yourself.)

Week 2 (Sep 1 or 3)

No class in Macomb this week. See you on the weblog!

Preparation:

• Email me the week you'd like to lead discussions--the sooner, the better.
  
• Read as much of Tyson, Critical Theory Today, as you can. Skim all the chapters you feel comfortable with. Don't miss the "Some questions..." sections in each chapter; they provide a quick summary. 
• Which schools of critical theory are you familiar with? Where do you see yourself? Which seem especially useful or questionable? Why?
  
• Read weblog help if you need to. Set up and configure Google Reader or email notifications if you like. (If you don't have a Google account, get one.)
  

Activities:

• Finalize leading discussion schedule.
  
• Use the weblog to discuss the readings, syllabus, and assignments.
  
• In class (QC only), discuss any remaining questions about syllabus or assignments.

Week 3 (Sep 8 or 10)

Preparation:

• Continue reading Tyson and start Graff, Clueless in Academe (parts I and II, 1-112). 

Activities:

• Leading discussion: Sarah Horowitz (QC), on Graff.
  
• Lots of discussion...
• Pick one chapter in Tyson which gives you the most trouble, and one which you really identify with. (This is continued from week two.)
• How does Tyson's work (and the disciplines she represents) relate to Graff's arguments about the academy, school, and intellectual cultures in general?
• What do you think about Graff's portrayal of the academy? of English studies? Discuss the relation between them.
  
• Discuss Graff's "six degrees of obfuscation" as first introduced (25-40).
  
• Discuss the problems Graff identifies with education: do you find them troubling as a student? as a teacher, if you are one?
• What role does "argument" serve for Graff? Discuss his definitions, their sources, and the implications.

Week 4 (Sep 15 or 17)

Preparation:

• Finish Graff.

Activities:

• Dr. Peggy Otto will visit the Macomb class to give a short talk about English Education.
• Leading Discussion: Katie MacLennan (QC), Danelle Jordan (Macomb).
  
• What's the trouble with academic writing, as identified by Graff, but in your experience as well? Whose writing would you classify as obscure, stupefying, etc? Whose do you hold up as successful?
  
• What's the point of academic writing, anyway? For us, for our students, for our children...
• We've all applied to colleges. Let's talk about that—then put Graff and Hoberek's argument about the process to the test.
• As Graff concludes his book, he turns to teaching. Even if you aren't a teacher, consider the pedagogical suggestions he presents (for example, the selections from the text around 168): too pie in the sky? Giving up the farm for English studies?
  
• Discussion and review of research methods and approaches. Discussion of reading methodologies. (Not in Graff; I may have a handout. At the least, I'll write a post about this subject.)

Week 5 (Sep 22 or 24)

Preparation:

• Read Dobrin, Constructing Knowledges.
• Review selections from Tyson as needed (when you encounter relevant material in Dobrin's book).
• If you encounter any references to movements or terms you don't understand or know little about (for example, expressivism), do a little research to get some context, then take the result to the weblog to help others. (We'll probably dedicate one post and comments to this.)
  

Activities:

• Dr. Amy Patrick will visit the Macomb class to give a short talk about writing studies and ecocriticism.
• Leading discussion: Miranda Wetzell (QC), Bill Iavarone and Travis Moran (Macomb).
  
• What's this composition and rhetoric, or writing studies, or whatever it's called, then?
• Definitions and discussion: theory, pedagogical imperative, literacy, radical pedagogy.
  
• Discuss Dobrin's representation of theoretical frameworks Tyson wrote about (for example, postmodernism).
• Spend some time discussing research methodology: keeping notes, using online databases, managing the scope of a research question, etc.

Week 6 (Sep 29 or Oct 1)

Preparation:

• Read Fitzpatrick, The Anxiety of Obsolescence.
  

Activities:

• Leading discussion of Fitzpatrick: Laura Staley (QC), Charity Weiss and Dan Harris (Macomb).
  
• Dr. Roberta DiCarmine will visit the Macomb class to give a short talk about film and media studies.  Cancelled 9/29
  
• Dr. Everett Hamner will visit the Quad Cities class to give a short talk about his specialties and interdisciplinarity.
  
• Discussion of sources for research in English studies (Google Scholar, databases, etc).
• More on prospectus form and content.
  
• Let's talk about the writing style and form of all the books we've considered to date.

Week 7 (Oct 6 or 8)

Preparation:

• Read DeLillo, White Noise.
• Review sections of Fitzpatrick which discuss DeLillo.
  

Activities:

• Discuss form and content of project prospectus. I will post samples which can help.

• Leading discussion: Jeffrey Presley (QC), Sara Naslund and Mahmoud Moamenah (Macomb).
  
• Let's be a book club, and talk about White Noise without worrying about critical apparatus: what did you like about the novel? What bugged you?
  
• How does the portrayal of academic culture in White Noise resonate with our other texts (Graff, in particular)?
• What critical approaches seem well-adapted to reading White Noise? Why?

Week 8 (Oct 13 or 15) 

Preparation:

• Write project prospectus. Take any questions or concerns to the weblog.
• Read Johnson, Everything Bad Is Good For You.
• Review discussions of television, the novel, and other forms in Fitzpatrick as needed.
  

Activities:

• Leading discussions: Lindsay Craig (QC), Luke Thompson and Craig Finlay (Macomb).
  
• Give a very short presentation which epitomizes your project to everyone. Submit project prospectus.
  
• Compare and contrast (ahem) Fitzpatrick and Johnson.
• Discuss Johnson.
• Do you buy his "Sleeper curve" argument about the complexity of Lost and similar popular culture forms?
• Are the critical commentaries and fan-created content Johnson points to worthy of our attention? Why (not)?
• Does anti-intellectualism figure in Johnson's argument? How is anti-popularism (for lack of a better word) related?
  
• Determine Tyson selections to review.

Week 9 (Oct 20 or 22)

Preparation:

• Review Tyson selections and representative essays.
  

Activities:

• Leading discussion: Nan Norcross (QC), Michael Baumann (Macomb).
  
• Dr. Tim Helwig will visit the Macomb class to talk about his specialty, antebellum American print culture.
  
• Give a short talk (three minutes) based on your prospectus.
  
• Return prospectus hard copies. Discuss any issues with the prospectus.
• Discuss Tyson selections and supplementary essays.
  
• Macomb: Deconstruction and structuralism.
  
• Quad Cities: New historicism and cultural criticism, and structuralism.
  
• Field trip to a computer classroom for hands-on work with research: library databases, Google scholar, CiteULike, etc.
• Macomb: we'll duck into Simpkins 309 (nextdoor) to use the databases &c.
• Quad Cities: meet in Olin Hall, Room 105. Note this is a computer classroom and food is not allowed. There's a lounge at the end of the hall; we will start with our picnic there then move. If you park in the usual lot, walk over the pedestrian bridge then look for the big white building. Or park in Lot H. Here's a campus map. Please come early so you can find where to go!

Week 10 (Oct 27 or 29)

Guest instructors this week: Dr. David Banash (Macomb), Dr. Merrill Cole (Quad Cities).

Macomb Preparation:

• Read Barthes, Mythologies. Pay special attention to “The Romans in Films,” “Toys,” “The Brain of Einstein,” “Photography and Electoral Appeal.” “Striptease,” and “Plastic.” Also, carefully read the long essay, “Myth Today.”
• One way to understand what Barthes means by “mythology” is to read it as “ideology” in the Marxist sense. Refer back to Tyson's Critical Theory Today (pp 56-61) as needed.
  
• Pay special attention to pages 121-137 in “Myth Today.” These pages are key to understanding Barthes's analysis, and to making sense of all the earlier examples. Have questions prepared for anything you don't understand in these pages.

Macomb Activities:

• Before discussion of Mythologies begins, Dr. Banash will speak a bit about his academic specialty, and take your questions.
  
• Identify one passage from one of the mythologies (i.e. “Plastic” or “Toys.”) listed above, and prepare a question you would like the class to work through.
• Identify a concept or passage from “Myth Today” you are wrestling with, and articulate it as a question for the class.
• Barthes is a writer of deep beauty and lyricism. He shows us that critical writing can be deeply personal and extraordinarily moving. Choose a passage for the class that you feel is particularly elegant, emotional, graceful, personal, or simply beautiful. How can you use what we see in Barthes's writing to make our own critical writing more deeply personal and beautiful?

QC Activities:

1. Introduce myself. Speak about my Joint-Ph.D. (emphasize critical theory/queer theory/psychoanalysis/Marxism), book, theoretical specialties, current interests.
2. While I have a very high regard for Roland Barthes, I find that some of the statements he makes in Mythologies to be peremptory and completely lacking in argumentative or evidential support.  I would like to start by having you separate into small groups.  Each group should identify a problem area in the book, perhaps a passage that seems unjustified or just plain questionable.  Be prepared to present the group’s findings to the class.
3. 20-30 or so minutes for group work.   Come back together for discussion of problem passages.
4. Next, let’s find what seems well-argued and useful for our own work in Mythologies.  Again I’d like to break up into groups, but I don’t want you to form the same groups.  Identify an analytical tool that might be helpful to advanced students of literature and culture.  Be prepared to present the group’s findings to the class.
5. 20-30 or so minutes for group work.  Come back together for discussion of passages.
6. 15 minute break.
7. One of the main themes that critics have drawn from mythologies is attention to how what is cultural and historical gets mythologized as natural by contemporary ideological discourse.  What I’d like you to do now is to prepare a short essay in which you provide a Barthesian analysis of a particular aspect of contemporary American culture that reveals its mythology to the critical gaze.  Two handwritten pages.
8. 30 or so minutes.
9. Students read their analyses.

Week 11 (Nov 3 or 5)

Guest instructors this week: Dr. Marjorie Allison (Macomb), Dr. Dan Malachuk (Quad Cities).

Preparation:

• Read Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Make sure you read the introduction, which provides very important context.
• Comment on the weblog thread regarding selection of texts for Week 12.
  

Activities:

1. Incidents was first published under a pseudonym, "Linda Brent," and that name is used throughout the novel. Is Jacobs creating a character "Linda" in the same way that DeLillo created Jack Gladney? Why or why not? If so, how?
2. Perhaps continuing #1: the book is presented as a "narrative" which is "no fiction" (5), with two testimonies which "witness" its "truth" (158). Yet falsehood plays a huge role, from the trading of false letters (102, 135), to the attitude of mistrust which Linda says is embedded in her by slavery (128). Can we trust Linda? Why or why not? What role do trust (or deception) and truth (or falsehood) play in Incidents?
3. How does the text blend argumentative, documentary, and narrative elements?
   
4. Religion comes up quite often. For example, see chapter 13, especially "There is a great difference between Christianity and Religion at the South" (62), or the characterization of Mrs. Flint as she calls for a fugitive to be punished (98-99). Faith is critical for many characters, from Linda's grandmother to Uncle Fred. What roles does religion play in the text? How does Linda portray it?
5. It's impossible to ignore gender and related concerns: the opening note by Child; motherhood; female sexuality; Linda's attempts to resist Mr. Flint. How is gender important in Incidents?

Week 12 (Nov 10 or 12)

Class cancelled in both locations.

Week 13 (Nov 17 or 19)

Bradley will be back this week.

Preparation:

• Prepare your presentation for class. This handout can help. You’ll have longer than last time: ten minutes total. (Fifteen in the QC.) I suggest half and half presentation and conversation, so that’s a five minute talk. (Seven in the QC.) Note handouts are required this time. Remember a good handout complements, not duplicates, your presentation.

• No assigned readings.
  

Activities:

• Submit project and portfolio drafts in class (QC) or to my mailbox in Simpkins (Macomb) by Weds, Nov 19.
  
• Turn in your project draft by 11/19/2008. I usually do hard copy, but this time I want to try something a little different: Google Docs. So, please make a Google account and upload your draft to Google Docs, where I will comment on it. Share with cbdilger@gmail.com. (Unless your project form doesn’t allow it, in which case we’ll figure out something else.)
• Please turn in your portfolio draft on the same day. I want hard copy for this one because I will be marking it up with little stuff in mind.

Week 14 (Dec 1 or 3)

Preparation:

• Read Hayles, Writing Machines:
• Hayles describes her book as a "pamphlet" and credits the designer as a co-author. Why?
• What does materiality mean to you? What role does it play in your reading? What should it play?
• How does Hayles's tactic of creating the persona "Kaye" function? Can you see yourself adopting a similar persona in your writing, or the tactic of scholarly biography?
• In the end, does the book function well as a scholarly text?
• Have a look at the WebTake and Web Supplement made for Hayles's book. They don't work perfectly, but they provide additional information and are certainly interesting.
  
• Continue work on semester project, and continue using the weblog to discuss any issues you have.
• Comment on another student’s draft using Google Docs or similar means. You must have this done by Dec 1, but the earlier the better.
  

Activities:

• Chris Morrow will visit the Macomb class to discuss his academic specialties.
• Questions about drafts; discussion about revision strategies.
• Select texts to review in week 15.
• Leading discussion: Andy Koski (QC), Marc Fortuna (Macomb).
• Two presentations in Macomb (Danelle, Bill); one in the QC (Miranda).