Introducing Module 7: New Forms and Modes of Literature

What is the future of literature? of reading and writing, ink on paper, pixels on screens? The image above is a still from The Hawtplates Visual EP "Make Me Down" (2020), a video that combines song, poetry, dance, typography, and cinematography. 

Will we always be tapping out letters to make words on a qwerty keyboard? Will we always use handwriting? Will we desire different ways of telling and receiving stories, poems, and songs?  Are we, in fact, going back to the oral tradition of story-telling that existed for millennia before the invention of writing? Or will there always be some basic and primordial need for traditional alphabetic literature that we read to ourselves or others without multimedia technology? 

In some ways, history has already answered this question. Movies, television, popular music, video games, and the internet itself are far more popular than books, magazines, and newspapers. 

Here are four links to get ready for the new module. The first three have been selected (curated) by me, and the last link is kind of the "open-source" choice for those of you who don't want to write about "video-literature" or vidlit. You can not choose an artist or writer that isn't one of the three selected choices or one that appears on ubuweb.

1) The Hawtplates with DCAD alumni, Breck Omar Brunson, Make Me Down

2) Claudia Rankine and John Lucas, Situations

3) Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, Assorted Videos

4) Ubuweb: This is probably my favorite site on the internet. You could live your whole life and not get to all the content. Some of the pages are slow to load, so be patient.  

For your final paper, write a sharp and insightful essay that gives your reasoned and well-argued position on this issue. Is traditional literature dead, dying, hanging on but insignificant? Or is there something truly enduring and irreplaceable about the old ways of accessing literature? The act of reading a book is really different from the act of watching a video or listening to an audio track. Different parts of our brains and imagination are activated.  What do you think and why? Engage your ideas directly with the work on one of the links above (Hawtplates, Rankine/Lucas, Trecartin/Fitch, ubu.com.  Have fun with this essay. You are an authority on this subject, each of you.

We're back to our two-column, single-spaced format that we used earlier this semester. Remember to put an image in the top left quadrant. You are free to continue your essay on a second page. Go for it. Don't neglect to revise and proofread your essay carefully before uploading it to Populi. I am not requiring a preliminary draft for this essay, because the training wheels are off at this point of the semester. However, if you would like me to look over a draft, you can send it to me as an attachment. You can also set up an appointment with Emma Lena at the DCAD Writers Studio. 

Due: No later than noon on Tuesday, December 8 

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

Last Day with E.A. Poe

 

Here is an excerpt from his famous essay, "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846). We can see Poe as someone who crafts language in a very calculated way. We typically don't think of artists making their work in this manner. We tend to think that artists (musicians, poets, etc.) make their work with intuition and a "let's see what happens" attitude. Sometimes this is called "waiting for the muse." What do you think? Let's read this excerpt and have a brief discussion.

The question now arose as to the character of the word. Having made up my mind to a refrain, the division of the poem into stanzas was, of course, a corollary: the refrain forming the close to each stanza. That such a close, to have force, must be sonorous and susceptible of protracted emphasis, admitted no doubt: and these considerations inevitably led me to the long o as the most sonorous vowel, in connection with r as the most producible consonant.

The sound of the refrain being thus determined, it became necessary to select a word embodying this sound, and at the same time in the fullest possible keeping with that melancholy which I had predetermined as the tone of the poem. In such a search it would have been absolutely impossible to overlook the word “Nevermore.” In fact, it was the very first which presented itself.

The next desideratum was a pretext for the continuous use of the one word “nevermore.” In observing the difficulty which I at once found in inventing a sufficiently plausible reason for its continuous repetition, I did not fail to perceive that this difficulty arose solely from the pre-assumption that the word was to be so continuously or monotonously spoken by a human being — I did not fail to perceive, in short, that the difficulty lay in the reconciliation of this monotony with the exercise of reason on the part of the creature repeating the word. Here, then, immediately arose the idea of a non -reasoning creature capable of speech; and, very naturally, a parrot, in the first instance, suggested itself, but was superseded forthwith by a Raven, as equally capable of speech, and infinitely more in keeping with the intended tone.

I had now gone so far as the conception of a Raven — the bird of ill omen — monotonously repeating the one word, “Nevermore,” at the conclusion of each stanza, in a poem of melancholy tone, and in length about one hundred lines. Now, never losing sight of the object supremeness, or perfection, at all points, I asked myself — “Of all melancholy topics, what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?” Death — was the obvious reply. “And when,” I said, “is this most melancholy of topics most poetical?” From what I have already explained at some length, the answer, here also, is obvious — “When it most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world — and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.”

One on One Conferences: Tuesday, November 24

No Zoom Class Next Tuesday, November 24

This is for both Academic Writing Lab at 10:50 and Reading & Composition (2:00 & 3:30)

You don't need to prepare anything for your conference. You just need to be ready to talk honestly about your progress as a college writer.

Conferences will take approximately ten minutes each. Please note your assigned time and set the necessary notification. I will have the "Waiting Room" function enabled, so you might need to wait a minute or two as I finish up the previous conference. Missing your assigned time will count as an absence. This is not an optional kind of thing. OK? If you can't make it to your assigned time, you must let me know as soon as possible and we'll reschedule it.

The Zoom link is the same as my FYE rotation:

https://zoom.us/j/91283381716#success

(You might have to copy and paste this into your browser.)  Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

10:00    Hailey Crawford

10:10    Manases Davilla

10:20    Dylan Drace

10:40    Charissa Forman

10:50    Marjani Griggs

11:00    Valentino Harvey

11:20    Kalyiah Jenkins

11:30    

11:40    Hayley Locke

12:30    Shaunna O'Neal

12:40    Gianna Pilotti

12:50    Karen Plata

1:10    Max Sartor

1:20    Ashleigh Umbrecht

1:30    Haley Rose Wilks

2:00    Zavier Jimenez

2:10    Amanda Nokes

2:20    EB Roberts

2:40    Lucas Smith

2:50    T-Lo Thomas

3:00    Joel Stover

3:20    Kenny Bolden

3:30    Gwen Cierniak

3:40    Mia Crawford

4:00    Dani Ilyayeva

4:10    Tamiya Johnson

4:20    Shaye Robinson

4:30    Renee Ballard

Joe Biden Loves William Butler Yeats

 

President Biden is a complete maniac for the poetry of Ireland's WB Yeats. Obama is too. Check it out.  Donald Trump's favorite poet is... I'm drawing a blank. I'm not sure if he's ever read a poem. 

DCAD Writers Studio Always Helps!

 

Talk to Liberal Arts faculty member, Emma Lena. Arrange for a free tutorial. Click here.

Checklist for Research Paper: A Baker’s Dozen 

If you can answer “yes” to the following questions, the draft of your research paper is probably in fairly good shape. This will enable you to really focus on the ideas, nuances, and details for your final version, due this Thursday, November 19, no later than noon.

 ___ Does my paper conform to the basic MLA format? Double-spaced, one-inch margins, serifed font (Times New Roman, Garamond, Georgia), page numbers in top right corner, indented paragraphs without an extra space between paragraphs, a final page with the words “Works Cited” centered at the top with at least three sources cited properly and in alphabetical order by author’s last name? 

 ___ Does my paper have a lively and meaningful title that relates to my main idea?

 ___ Does my paper have a “hook” that grabs the reader’s attention from the start? 

 ___ Does the first paragraph end with a clear statement of the paper’s central idea? 

 ___ Is it possible for an intelligent person who knows Poe’s story to disagree with the paper’s central idea?

 ___ Do the “body” paragraphs advance a clear idea in the first sentence with evidence to support it in the following sentences? 

 ___ Do most of my paragraphs have between 5 and 8 sentences? 

 ___ Do the paragraphs link together with transition words, phrases, and ideas?

 ___ Does every paragraph end with your words, not the words of Poe or a secondary source? 

___  Does my paper stay away from slang, overly informal language, and too much "I" voice?

 ___ Does my paper use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, in-text citation, etc.? 

 ___ Does my paper end with a clear conclusion that advances an idea that has relevance in the real world, not just the imagined world of Poe’s story? 

 ___ Do I like my paper? Am I proud to show it to my classmates and teacher?

Research Essay DUE Next Week

 

Next week your research paper is due. You're submitting an ungraded draft on Tuesday (upload no later than noon) and a final version two days later on Thursday.

This assignment counts for 20 points, which is a fifth of your final grade for the class. Please remember that it's not something that you can easily do in an evening. This kind of writing requires time. 

Look carefully at all the blog posts about this assignment, and also the assorted resources (like the PowerPoint about MLA format below this post).

Make sure your argument isn't obvious. What are you bringing to your interpretation that a reader wouldn't automatically understand?

This is a more formal type of academic writing, so keep slang, profanity, and casual language out of it. You can use your "I" voice, but this should be kept to a minimum, probably just at the start and conclusion of your essay. The body of your essay should be a close examination of Poe's text that includes secondary sources. However, please remember that it's your voice and your ideas that are central to your paper.