Literature in a Wired World
Syllabus

Note:  This syllabus is subject to change.  You are responsible for all changes announced in class and/or by e-mail.  If you miss some or all of a class session for any reason, contact a classmate about changes to the syllabus. Supplementary readings from other sources may be assigned on a class-by-class basis or through the e-mail reflector list.

Wednesday, January 29: Startup

Introductions.  Discuss course policies and syllabus.  Start the discussion.
Due:

Monday, February 3: Media and Literature

Read Interface Culture, Preface and Chapter 1.
Explore Dickinson Electronic Archives (username: dickinson, password: ink_on_disk), William Blake Archives, and the Electronic Poetry Center.
Due:

Wednesday, February 5: Ut Pictura Poesis

Read William Carlos Williams’ “The Dance” and “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," and observe the paintings by Brueghel they are inspired by.  Explore some other similar works in Harry Rusche's resource at Emory University, "The Poet Speaks of Art."
Due:

Monday, February 10: Inspirations and Translations

Read “The Interloper”(title also translated as "The Intruder") by Jorge Luis Borges.  Play "The Intruder" by Natalie Bookchin.  Read famous haiku by Basho (here), and play Basho's Frogger, by Neil Hennessy.
Due: Assignment #1

Wednesday, February 12: Reading vs Looking

Read Johanna Drucker, The Art of the Written Image.
Due:

Monday, February 17: Snow Day


Due:

Wednesday, February 19: Snow Day


Due:

Monday, February 24: Concrete Poetry

Read concrete poems by Noigandres Group (Eugen Gomringer, Decio Pignatari, Augusto de Campos and Haroldo de Campos) in “Historical” section of UBU Web and their “Pilot Plan for Concrete Poetry” in the “Papers” section. Read in UBU Web Papers: Paul deVree, "Manifesto" (see also how it was originally published and formatted in the "Historical" section). Henry Chopin, "Why I Am the Author of Sound Poetry," and Bob Cobbing, "Some Statements on Sound Poetry."  Explore also the section on "Sound," particularly recordings of sound concrete poems by the abovementioned authors.
Due: Questions by Adam Axelrod and Michael Stern.

Wednesday, February 26: Humanities Computing

Read "As We May Think" by Vannebar Bush, "A Short History of Hypertext," and Chapter 4 of Interface Culture.  Read Jerome McGann, "Visible and Invisible Books," and explore The Gutenberg Bible website.
Due:  Questions by Matt Mattice, Eric Donellan, Dionysus Blazakis, and Sam Nasseri.  E-mail Assignment #2 to me by Friday, February 28.

Monday, March 3: The Book as Machine

Read Johanna Drucker, "The Artist's Book as Idea and Form."
Due: Questions by Linh Nguyen and Garret Huntress.

Wednesday, March 5: Online Resources

Explore the websites to be covered in presentations.
Due:Assignment #3

Monday, March 10: Cyberpunk Fiction

Read William Gibson, "Johnny Mnemonic" and "New Rose Hotel."
Due: Questions by Ariel Agami and Igor Slutskiy.

Wednesday, March 12: Cyberpunk Fiction

Read William Gibson, "Dogfight" and "Burning Chrome."
Due: Essay #1, Questions by Ari Nahmani and Edd Miracco.

Monday, March 17: The Metaphorical Interface

Read Interface Culture, Chs. 2-3.
Due: Assignment #4. Questions by Eric Gladstein and Evan Silverman.

Wednesday, March 19  Midterm Exam

Monday, March 24  Spring Break

Wednesday, March 26  Spring Break

  Monday, March 31: Comics and the Web

Read all 6 of Scott McCloud's "I Can't Stop Thinking" essays.
Due: Questions by John Frooshani and Eric Wojnar.

Wednesday, April 2: Computer-Generated Texts

Read Interface Culture, Chapter 5.  Test a few Haiku generators listed in Yahoo! and generate a poem at RandomPlace.com.  Read Neil Hennessy's essay on "Jabber."  Use the Jabber program.  Read Lewis Carrol's famous nonsense poem "Jabberwocky."
Due: Questions by Naveed Krabbe and  Mike Barlas.

Monday, April 7: Hypertext Fiction

Read "Mystic Knot," "Crossed Ends," and "Seed Voices" in Samplers.
Due: Questions by Hilary Strahota and Frank Carnevale. Assignment #5 due for the three assigned stories.

Wednesday, April 9: Hypertext Fiction

Read "Century Cross," "Firewheel," and "Devil's Claws" in Samplers.
Due: Questions by  Jared Blumengold and Geoff Sockol. Assignment #5 due for the three assigned stories.

Monday, April 14: Kinetic E-Poetry

Print out and read "The Art of Inmemmoriability" by Charles Bernstein.  (Note: any markings on scanned document were made previous to this class, so please ignore them.)  Read also: Brian Kim Stephans The Dreamlife of Letters, Loss Pequeño Glazier Colibrí, Neil Hennessy  paddle, puddle, David Knoebel Oh, and Robert Kendall Faith.
Due: Questions by Owen Billman and Jason Caylor.

Wednesday, April 16: Responsive E-Poetry

Read Jim Andrews Seattle Drift, Stir Fry Texts. Simon Biggs Precession, M. D. Coverley Eclipse Louisiana, David Knoebel Walkdon't, and Jennifer Ley The Body Politic.
Due: Questions by Kristine Ruff and Travis Weiss.

Monday, April 21: Mutable E-Poetry

Play Jim Andrews Arteroids. Read Gisselle Beiguelman Recycled, Loss Pequeño Glazier White-Faced Bromeliads on 20 Hectares, Dirk Hine Snaps, Ian Campbell Fiat,
Due: Questions by Sam Schreiber and Divya Gulati.

Wednesday, April 23: Scheduled and Aural E-Poetry

Read Annie Abrahams Alone, Thomas Bell Try, David Knoebel A Fine View, Thoughts GoHow I Heard It. Jim Andrews Nio, Duc Thuan Chronicle of Deaths Forgotten.
Due: Questions by Daryl White and Adam Albanese.

Monday, April 28: Online Publishing Venues

Explore the following websites: Riding the Meridian, Lume, Beehive, Cauldron & Net, Alt-X, Trace, and The Electronic Poetry Center (EPC).  From Agami to Huntress focus on the first three sites (Riding to Beehive).  From Krabbe to Wojnar focus on the next three (Cauldron to Trace).  Everyone give close attention to the EPC.  Be prepared to do group work and brief presentations on the three sites you have been assigned to focus on.  You will be analyzing content, editorial principles, audience, and design, among other things.  Take notes on the three sites assigned, since we will not have computers available for consultation.
Due: Essay #2. Questions by Thomas Nastasia.

Wednesday, April 30: MUDs, MOOs, Blogs

Explore the following site: http://www.topmudsites.com/, with an eye open for the types of MUDs listed and the main genres.  Here's the fun part: create a character in Achaea and complete the first three training quests.  Class will meet in CSS 1410, where we will all log in and go for a walk.  Also do a search for Blogs and explore several different ones.  Read some of William Gibson's Blog entries.
Due: Questions by James Simonds.

Monday, May 5: Presentations

Readings TBA.
Due:

Wednesday, May 7: Presentations

Readings TBA.
Due:

Monday, May 12: Shutdown

Final exam review & course evaluations.
Due: Essay #3

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