Module 3: Text/Image

Clarice Lispector was a fascinating writer. Even though she is still virtually unknown in America, she was the biggest star in Brazil's literary world of the whole 20th century. 

For our next class on September 30, read the texts on the links below. The first is the story itself, the second is a response to the story in academic prose. The last link is from the publisher of her short stories. Altogether, plan to devote about 90 minutes to the readings before class on Thursday. There might be a quiz. 

Clarice Lispector's "Amor" full-text.

Academic Essay about Lispector's story, "Love".

 The Complete Stories of Clarice Lispector

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Familiarizing yourself with this particular Clarice Lispector story is the first step for this module's assignment. Pay special attention to the language and the imagery. As you're reading the story, copy down passages that you find striking: maybe they're highly visual passages, maybe there's something surrealistic about her use of language in a particular passage, maybe it's something else that intrigues you.  

The second step is to create a visual representation of some aspect of this story. This genre is sometimes called a broadside, sometimes a poster, sometimes a visual poem. Think of it as an interpretation of the story that operates primarily by visual means. This could be your own drawing (freehand or computer-assisted), painting, collage, photography, typographic design, etc. It can be black and white or color (or both). Some students in the past liked to incorporate a brief passage, kind of like a caption, that anchors the artwork. 

The third and final step is for you to write a brief text (1-3 paragraphs, 200-300 words) that describes the process of you making the image and the intention behind it. What does it mean to you? Write it down.

Module Schedule

Thursday, Sept 30: Discussion of the story, initial                                   brainstorming. 

Tuesday, Oct 5:     Draft of broadside due, workshop.

Thursday, Oct 7:     2nd draft of Broadside and Text                                due no later than 3:00 pm.                                            Upload to Populi.

Tuesday, October 12: Final Due

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

Leaves and Paragraphs

 

Above you see six different renderings of a leaf, leaves, or leafiness. Any favorites?

Below we're going to give close readings of paragraphs from different student essays. The names of the authors have been removed. Can you tell if it's an introductory paragraph, a body paragraph, or a concluding paragraph? What features tell you? 

Write something positive about each paragraph Be specific as possible. What could be improved? Again, be as specific as possible. Lastly, do you see any mistakes in grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. ? Mark all of these things in the handy worksheet that I will hand out at the start of our critique.

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What are the generic features of a TED talk?

The most famous graphic designer of the last half of the 20th century was Milton Glaser. His portrait of Bob Dylan, below, is perhaps his most well-known work.

Glaser gave a TED talk back in 1998 when TED talks were a fairly new thing. In the 23 years since Glaser's talk TED talks have become a really big deal. Amy Cuddy's 2012 TED presentation about body language has been viewed more than 62 million times. The only TED talk with more views is Ken Robinson's wonderful "Do Schools Kill Creativity" talk from 2006. 

How have the genre conventions of a TED talk evolved from 1998 to 2012? What good is knowing a particular work's genre conventions? What's the point?

Take a look at this academic essay about the genre conventions (frequent features) of a TED talk. 

Comic Strip Versions of "The Last Leaf"

 

Comic Strip Version of "The Last Leaf"

Storyboard Version

Example of a DCAD Student Essay on Genre and The Last Leaf"

 

GENRE MARKERS

 

It's always good to identify and understand the genre of any kind of cultural product you are consuming. How we do this is through recognizing "genre markers," those features that are usually present in that "kind" of work. For instance, the Japanese manga tradition often follows similar patterns. We can expect certain things. There are different and sometimes overlapping genre markers that both manga and Marvel comics share. This blog does a great job of explaining how genre works and why we need it. This is another great resource to help break down why genre matters. 

Your assignment for Thursday is fairly simple. You will take O Henry's short story, "The Last Leaf" as your starting part. All of the other versions or adaptations of the original story were made to fit the genre expectations of that chosen form. You will then choose one or more of the other versions and explain why that version made the changes that it did. What was the reason? Did it improve the original story or just make it different? Did it fall short of the nuances of the original printed story? If you choose the audiobook or one of the films, what are the different effects on you the reader? Why is understanding genre important? Please do not answer the questions above like a laundry list. Instead, understand the spirit and direction of the questions and ask your own. 

Like our first essay, format this the same way. Use a two-column format, single-space it, 10-12 point serif font (Times New Roman or Garamond), include a "leaf" image (see below), proofread it carefully before uploading it. 

Due: Thursday, September 3, no later than 3:00 pm. 

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

Module 2: Genre Conventions and O Henry's "The Last Leaf"

 

Module 2: Genre Conventions and O Henry's "The Last Leaf"

 

In this module we're going to examine a key concept in college writing: understanding genre conventions. Whenever we write something, we are (almost) always writing for an audience that has certain expectations. For instance, a writer could accurately depict an event in two totally different ways, yet keep faithful to what happened in that event. Case in point: You go to a really fun party. You might send a text to your best friend. You might tweet about it. You might post an Insta. You might make a FaceBook post (no, only old people use FaceBook). You might write a snap. You might write a standard email message. You might write a postcard. You might write a traditional, old-fashioned letter. All of these different formats bring with them their own "rules" or expectations. These are called genre conventions.

In this next essay (draft due Sept 21, final due Sept 23), write about how these different versions of O. Henry's short story, "The Last Leaf" operate. They all tell the same basic story, but they do it in wildly different ways. Which version do you prefer? Why? Is the original always the best? Do adaptations always lose something? Or do they add relevance to contemporary culture? The questions above are suggestions to get you started; they are not a list of questions you must answer. Find your own angle of approach. 

Use the same two-column format with an image in the top left corner that we used in our first brief essay. For this essay, the image should be an actual leaf (drawn, photographed, scanned, appropriated, etc.). You can include the branch it's clinging to or not. If you want to make it a conceptual idea of "leafiness", go for it.

Questions? As always: csmith@dcad.edu

Here's an article about Genre Conventions to get us started. 

Links Below to 15 Versions of "The Last Leaf" 

First Appearance, 1906, page 198

Original Story

Film Version

Longer Film Version

Mormon Film Version

Children's Animation

Learning English

Audiobook

Japanese Anime Version

1963 Pop Song

Tom Waits & Keith Richards Version

Storyboard Comic Version

Quasi-Documentary Version

Reader's Digest Version

I did not include a link to the version by heavy-metal band, Monolord. Curious students can easily find it with a Google search, but it's too disturbing for general consumption. 

Thursday's Final Essay: Revision, Reformatting, Copy-Editing, Uploading

 The final (graded) version of your first short essay is due no later than 3:00 pm this Thursday, September 9.

Take your draft and make it better. This is called revision. Maybe include a different story, maybe give your sentences more detail and specificity, check to see if you need to vary your sentence structure. After finishing your revision, the next step is re-formatting. Select all of the text (Command + A) and in the layout menu choose "columns" and then 2. While the text is still highlighted, switch from double-spaced to single-spaced. You should now have a document with two single-spaced columns. In the top left corner, you have the option of inserting an image the somehow connects with your piece of writing. It could be your own drawing or photograph, it could be a meme or something that you lift from the internet. The image could be anything as long as it connects somehow to the writing. If the writing is longer than a single page, two-columns, single-spaced, then your essay can continue on to a second page. You could also use a smaller font. Here's an example of a "standard" formatted paper:

Here's the same paper reformatted according to the directions above:

Copy-editing is not the same as revising. When you're copyediting, you want to focus on issues of correctness and style. This is when you fix spelling errors, typos, punctuation mistakes, etc. Uploading is the final stage and it doesn't need much explanation.

James Baldwin: "The Creative Process"

 

James Baldwin was a writer (novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, etc) who wrote not only about Civil Rights, but about all facets of American life. His work has found new readers in recent years because so many of the struggles that he identified have still not been resolved. 

Baldwin has very strident views about the role and responsibility of the artist. Read his short essay, "The Creative Process" and his short story, "Sonny's Blues" for next Tuesday, September 13. 

Be ready to address these (and related) questions:

1. How do the ideas in Baldwin's"The Creative Process" find expression in the short story "Sonny's Blues"?

2. Is what Baldwin is saying equally true for art-making as it is for writing? Explain. What are the differences? Do they matter? Why?

3. If you wrote a short essay called "The Creative Process," how would your approach be different from Baldwin's. Why?

4. What about Sonny makes him a great musician (artist)?

If you're curious to read more by James Baldwin, check out this online collection.

WELCOME!

 

Brief Essay One: Due One Week from Today at the Start of Class! 

James Joyce wrote his famous "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." Now you're going to write a short essay (4-6 paragraphs) due one week from today on September 9. The title of your essay will be "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Writer."

Upload a draft (ungraded) to Populi before class starts on Tuesday. Final due next Thursday, September 9.  Be sure to revise and edit your work before uploading it. 

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

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Your essay should be full of your personality, but more importantly, it should be full of your ideas. Think of it as a story (or stories) you would tell, but a story that you had time to compose precisely the way you want. 

The art and craft of writing gives us this opportunity to evade time. We can write something we like, then wake up and understand the mistakes or wrong turns. The same thing happens with making visual art. Revision and editing is crucial. 

Be sure to "unpack" your stories. Tell your readers why you are telling them. You don't have to have answers. Good writers ask questions.  

You can write about "school-based" writing (like this assignment) vs. other kinds of writing: texts, memes, podcasts, graffiti, intermedia, etc. 

Do you have memories of when writing made you feel good, smart, and full of literary creative energy? Maybe it never happened at school. Maybe it's never really happened, and that's totally ok. Maybe it's something you experience through manga or fan-fiction.

You can write a brilliant essay about how reading/writing is changing in our digital online lives. For instance: maybe we do more listening/speaking than reading/writing these days. The reading/writing that we do practice online is abbreviated language. 

You could write about the future of writing. For instance, is the ink on paper method of reading/writing on the way out (or on the way to the museum)? Is this a good thing? bad thing? inevitable thing? Why does it matter? Will libraries become museums? Please find your own way. 

I hope all the essays are different but relatable. 

Remember that the draft due on Tuesday is ungraded. 

Send me an email message at this address if you have questions.  

Casey: csmith@dcad.edu