Senior Seminar

ENGL 4384.02W

Senior Seminar: Remediation

Instructor: Dr. M. Crafton				TR 5:30-6:45 – Pafford 309
mcrafton@westga.edu http://www.westga.edu/~mcrafton				Office: TLC 225 Office Hours: T,R 9:30-11:30; 4:00-5:00 Wednesday 9:30-11:30
Course description: A capstone seminar designed to assess students' learning in the program. The course will integrate literature, theory and writing, centering on an Idea, a theoretical issue or critical concern in literary studies. Required for the English major. Cannot be taken until ENGL 1101, 1102 and core area F have been completed with a minimum-passing grade of C. A minimum of 18 hours of upper level classes must also have been completed. Requires permission of the department chair. Not offered during the summer session. May be taken to satisfy 3 hours of WAC requirement. This capstone course, a culmination of study in the English major, allows students to examine a critical/theoretical issue within the discipline and use their coursework and literary interests to choose a research project which will become part of a published anthology of essays from the class. This semester we will use the concept of “remediation” as our organizing conceit. Remediation is the name given the phenomenon of one media trying to improve upon another medium and then results therefore. What happens to a novel when it becomes a film? Or when a film becomes a play into a film or a film into a play, as is happening recently? How does the computer and hypermedia affect these transformations? What can we say about computer or video games that seem to remediate a movie or book? I will focus the first half of the semester on remediations of the King Arthur legend.
Course Goals * Students will understand and apply select theoretical and practical issues in the discipline of literary studies. * Students will become conversant with representative texts and a selected issue in literary history that allows for integration of the aims of the discipline. * Students will develop the ability to work both independently and collaboratively toward the publication of an anthology of essays by class members. * Students will propose, research, and execute a substantive literary argument appropriate to the seminar topic. * Students will be able to make effective oral presentations, both individual and collaborative. * Students will participate in an end-of-semester exit interview to assess how the course and the major have served their professional goals * Students will demonstrate in both oral and written work a discipline-specific critical facility through convincing and well-supported analysis of related material. * Students will demonstrate their command of academic English and the tenets of sound composition by means of thesis-driven analytical prose. You can read more about the goals and programs goals and other policy matters at this address: http://www.westga.edu/~engdept/fr/CourseGuid/4384.html

Course requirements: 1. Daily attendance, preparation, and completion of all class assignments. 2. Class presentations. 3. Two short essays. 4. Final paper to be published in the class anthology. For more information on the assignments, see below.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Lancelot. Chretien de Troyes. Trans. Burton Raffel. New Haven: Yale, 1999. Once and Future King. T.H. White. Berkeley, 1996. Remediation: Understanding the New Media. Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Anonymous. Online. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” Chaucer. Online. Other online sources: Arthuriana King Arthur: Wikipedia Prof. Bonnie Wheeler’s Syllabus of Arthur Thomas Green’s Arthurian Resources Bayeux Tapestry Sites http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/bayeux-tapestry.htm (Summary) http://hastings1066.com/ (Source of images) http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/ (Source of Victorian Copy)
Daily Assignments:
Jan 8		Thurs	Introduction to class, syllabus, policies, and texts
Jan 13		Tue	Begin reading Remediation, Introduction Discussion of some of the basic concepts using the Bayeux Tapestry as an illustration
Jan 15		Thurs	Continue, chapter 1 More discussion of Bayeux Tapestry
Jan 20		Tue	Chapters 2 and 3 of Remediation. Wikipedia article on King Arthur			You Tube Bayeux Las Meninas (1656), Diego Velazquez Thematizing Remediation – Californication Mark Bauerlein, Dumbest Generation
Jan 22		Thurs	Continue with chapters 2 and 3 Wikipedia article on King Arthur			Relative Perceptions of Hypermediation What is real? Reefer Madness.
Jan 27		Tue	Remediation, chapters 4-9			Film Links
Jan 29		Thurs	Remediation 10-14
Feb 3		Tue	Lancelot			Arthur Chronology
Feb 5		Thurs	Lancelot; begin Sir Gawain and the Green Knight			Tristan Lancelot Notes Capellanus
Feb 10		Tue	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight			BT and Remediation
Feb 12		Thurs	Chaucer
Feb 17		Tue	Once and Future King			Paper # 1 due
Feb 19		Thurs	Once and Future King			Essay Excalibur facts
Feb 24		Tue	Once and Future King
Feb 26		Thurs	Camelot
Mar 2		Mon	Last Day to Withdraw with a W
Mar 3		Tue	Monty Python and the Holy Grail			Paper # 2 due Group Project http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cNS7xCO0N4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc-f8MGH9Uo
Mar 5		Thurs	A Knight’s Tale Begin work on Student Presentations
Mar 10		Tue	Group Presentation # 1 (Topics TBA but on some critical treatment of remediation)
Mar 12		Thurs	Group Presentation # 2
Mar 17		Tue	Spring Break – No Classes
Mar 19		Thurs	Spring Break – No Classes
Mar 24		Tue	Outline and Topic Workshop
Mar 26		Thurs	Bibliography Workshop
Mar 31		Tue	Peer Draft Work
Apr 2		Thurs	Peer Draft Work
Apr 7		Tue	Workshop and Prepare for Individual Presentations
Apr 9		Thurs	No class today: Work on Paper			***
Apr 14		Tue	Individual Student Presentations			Draft 2 due
Apr 16		Thurs	Individual Student Presentations
Apr 21		Tue	Targeted Editing Workshops
Apr 23		Thurs	Targeted Editing Workshops
Apr 28		Tue	Last Class			Final Draft
Exam Period Tuesday, May 5^th 2:00-3:15 – Assemble Anthology
GL	1		2		3
C	RM
May 7-10			Medieval Congress in Michigan

Evaluation Procedures

Seminar Paper (including drafts)

Presentations

Response Papers

Participation

Grade Weights

50%

20%

10%

Project Selection: First do some long and hard reflection upon your coursework---review old syllabi, readings, conflicts of interpretation regarding some texts that engaged you, and especially anything thing involving multiple media. Active engagement with the criticism and theoretical implications of our topics might result in these kinds of seminar papers and projects:

1. First, you may choose a project that allows you to use materials we have studied together in the case study of Arthuriana.

2. You may choose any text (fiction, drama, poetry, film) or story or character you are familiar with and which has adequate critical sources for research in terms of remediation.

3. The critical evaluation will involve a text as manifested in at least two media but possible more.

4. The paper will have to engage the effects of the different media on the reception of the text both in the pragmatic sense of audience response (popularity, circulation) as well as the critical reception as altered by the different medium in question.

Plagiarism Statement:

The Department of English defines plagiarism as taking credit for the words and ideas of others as they are presented in electronic, print, and verbal sources. The Department therefore requires accurate documentation of all sources in all assignments. Plagiarism will result in your failing the course and your being reported to the appropriate student conduct officials.

See more at this address:

http://www.westga.edu/~engdept/Plagiarism/index.html

Links to bibliographies

Bolter

http://www.seminar.net/reviews/remediation-understanding-new-media-revisiting-a-classic

Remediation and Hypertext

http://classweb.gmu.edu/bhawk/611-CW/bib.html

http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/gender/hoofd/bibliogr.html

http://www.educ.fc.ul.pt/hyper/eng/bibliography.htm

http://www.philobiblon.com/isitabook/bibfuture.html

http://www.rpi.edu/~zappenj/Rhetoric/DR/drsb.html

http://www.technorhetoric.net/10.2/coverweb/walker/bib.html