Syllabus

Course Format

This class will meet for four hours each week, according to the following format: two hours of lecture and instruction will be followed by a one hour of seminar for group discussion and a fourth hour of applied lab work, exploring contemporary writing and editing software.

Prerequisites: Two English courses at the first year level.
Recommended Follow-Up Courses:  Any second year course in English.

Course Description and Objectives

For centuries, writers, in both western and non-western contexts, have worked to develop specific approaches to literature that incorporate technology into their writing. Beginning early on in the modern period with invention of the printing press, and continuing up to the present day’s deluge in electronic multimedia devices, technology has provided an especial point of focus for authors interested in challenging traditional modes of literary presentation.  In this course, we will investigate some of the more prominent experiments in the history of writing and technology, ranging from early avant-garde innovations in form and typography to the new electronic literary formats currently available online or on CD-ROM. Such works, along with the critical commentary accompanying them, will provide a vital survey of the various ways authors have experimented with literary forms in an effort to integrate writing, design, and visual communication with technology. 

This course aims to offer an effective introduction to new literary genres and to provide contemporary students with the tools and methods essential for studies in English beyond more traditional approaches defined exclusively for print modes of communication.

Because a central component of this course will look at more recent electronic writing technologies and how they too have inspired different modes of literary production, many of the actual works discussed will comprise digital formats, including asynchronous and synchronous critical discourse, fictional Web logs or blogs, hypertext novels and MOO environments. For this reason, students taking the course should have ready access to a computer with an Internet connection.

Required Texts

Jackson, Shelley. Patchwork Girl. CD. Watertown MA: Eastgate Systems, 2003.
Vitanza, Victor J. Ed. CyberReader. Toronto: Pearson, 2005. 

Simias Rhodius, "Wings of Eros in Theocritus / Eidullia Theokritou Triakonta" 1516
George Herbert, "Easter Wings / The Temple," 1633
Marinetti: “Futurist Manifesto,” 1909
Apollinaire:"L'Esprit nouveau et les poètes," 1917
Hugo Ball: "Karawane" score, 1917
Giacomo Balla "Canzone di maggio" score, 1914
Gabriel Pomerand: from “Saint Ghetto des Prets,” 1949
Alain Satie: from “Ecrit en Prose,” 1971
Dom Sylvester Houedard: "Linga Chakra"
John Furnival: The Tower Poems, 1964
Harry Matthews, “The Dormouse Poem,” 1995
Dan Graham: Schema, 1966
Lawrence Weiner: “Tracce/Traces” 1970
George Brecht: “Events” 1961
Janet Zweig: “Mind Over Matter,” 1993
Darren Wershler-Henry: “Grain: A Prairie Poem,” 1998
Neil Hennessy, “Jabber,” 2001
Brian Kim Sefans: “Dreamlife of Letters,” 2001

Recommended Texts

Coupe, Rosemary, et al.. The Capilano Guide to Writing Assignments. 2003 ed. North Vancouver, BC: Capilano College, 2003.

Gibaldi, Joseph, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 6th Edition. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.

Course Evaluation 
  

• Participation
• In-Class Essay
• Mid-Term Thesis Assignment
• Research Project
   

• Forum Discussions
• Glossary
• Two Summary Analyses
• Blog Assignment