"Only connect! . . .Live in fragments no longer.” E. M. Forster, Howards End (1910), ch. 22
‘One
day when I was twenty-three or twenty-four this sentence seemed to form
in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form when we are
half-asleep, ‘Hammer your thoughts into unity’.
For days I could think of nothing else and for years I tested all I did
by that sentence [...]” William Butler Yeats (cited in Frank Tuohy, Yeats,
1976, p.51 )
E 379S, Senior Seminar 33565
Literature, Architecture, and Art
Instructor: Bump; <mailto:bump@mail.utexas.edu>; Office: PAR 132 Office phone: 471-8747
Computer-Assisted Instruction*
Substantial Writing Component
2-3:30 PM PAR 104; office hours: Tu. 6:30-9 PM TH 3:30-4 and by appointment.
“Larger universities must find ways to find ways to create a sense of place and to help students develop small communities within the larger whole.” Carnegie’s Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America’s Research Universities (http://notes.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf)
You will enhance your awareness of U. T. as your Alma Mater by becoming more conscious of your sense of place and the genii locii or "ghosts" who inhabit places. Some class meetings will be outside, devoted to drawing and writing about places on campus and nearby in Austin and comparing them to comparable places in Europe. You will also compare your college experience to that of your predecessors here and at Oxford and Cambridge.
At times we will explore the contemporary relevance of our readings by, for example, establishing the Victorian context of the evolution-vs.-intelligent-design debate and by tracing the roots in our own culture of the antimodernism that is sweeping the Islamic world and is so threatening to us. In the process we will become familiar with the concept of “Gothic,” and its key principle of “Truth to Nature.”
*Computer-Assisted Instruction. Because of its importance in the workplace, this course emphasizes computer dexterity as well as writing ability. Hence, even if you are good at writing, if you are computerphobic, this course may not be for you. You will be required to use U.T.'s Blackboard software to receive and send email several times a week, to post and reply to journals and projects on its Discussion Boards, and to convert your writing documents into hypertext, multimedia projects and upload them to U.T.'s Webspace system. In addition, we will be using a Virtual World of U.T. and Oxford to explore the college experience. This virtual world is a MOO (a multi-user, object-oriented environment) which evolved from the old Dungeons and Dragons text-based adventure games. Probably about half of the students in the course will make their projects part of this virtual world, by writing about places in it and/or creating "bots" (robots), characters who seem to be able to carry on a conversation with a visitor to the virtual world.
Grades. About 50% of the final grade will be determined by the multimedia projects (15% for each first draft -- 150 points each, 10% for each revision -- 100 points each), 14% by the final portfolio of all your work (140 points); 30% by informal writing (300 points); 6 % by class participation (60 points). 900 points (out of 1,000) are required for an A-; 800 for a B-; 700 for a C-; 600 for a D-. Grades are not negotiable: students will receive exactly the grade recorded in the online gradebook in Blackboard, even if it is one point short of the next higher grade.
Formal Writing. All students will create two multimedia writing projects on paper or on the web, of at least five to seven pages each, which can be combined to make a longer project. In any case, they must be extensively revised. The basic question is “How Would My Life Be Different and How Would It Be Similar if I Attended U. T. in Earlier Times or One of the English Universities Whose Seals Appear on the West Wall of the Main Building.” Most initial comments on the projects will be made in Blackboard Discussion format by the other students, with the instructor then focusing on polishing subsequent hard copies for word choice, punctuation, etc.
Rewriting (the secret of almost all great writing) and preparing almost perfect final drafts will be stressed. For these activities, good time managment is crucial. It will be rewarded and procrastination heavily penalized.
Another basic principle of this course is reading. The first test of reading throughout the course will be the ability to read directions and suggestions for assignments, and especially the ability to search through details and “read the fine print,” as they say.
Projects can be devoted to creating virtual worlds of U.T. or Oxford. Some students will enlarge the places and genii locii of our virtual world known as the MOO. Check it out at Mappa Mundi (Mac users should use Firefox.) Use "Browse" for now. When you get your password you will be able to converse with the ghosts. Can you find your way to Oxford from U.T.?
Informal Writing includes reading journals posted in Blackboard Discussion Boards, in-class exercises and quizzes, and your individual learning record (LR), short essays that encourage students to set their own goals and become aware of their learning styles and obstacles. The LR includes a personal narrative, an analysis of the learning and writing tendencies of your psychological "type," and short interpretive essays written at midterm and semester's end. Late papers will be penalized.
Class participation consists of showing up in class on time with the right books, having read the material assigned for that day, and being prepared to talk about it. Students are encouraged to post journal pages about the readings the day before class. In any case, it is important to share in class: one of the goals of the course is better spoken as well as written communication, and learning to listen when others are speaking.
Portfolio. The final portfolio consists of clean copies of your essays (no highlighting, corrections, or extraneous comments), your third-hour reports, learning record, other informal writing, and any other relevant materials.
More features of my teaching philosophy can be seen at my web site:
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump
Printed Texts consist of the Writing Skills Handbook by Charles Bazerman; The Illustrated Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm (Yale); Carroll’s The Annotated Alice (W. W. Norton); and Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure. Students will also immediately need the course anthology, a collection of xeroxed materials from Jenn's, 2000 Guadalupe (basement of the Church of Scientology at 22nd , 473-8669). It will cost from $40 to $50. Jenn’s takes major credit cards, of course. If you don’t get there within the first few days you might want to call ahead to make sure they have a copy reserved for you (sometimes they do not print them all right away).
Computer literacy required. Students should be familiar with keyboarding, operating systems, word processing, electronic mail, and web-browsing. Students will be expected to check their email frequently (maintaining the correct email address in the U.T. Direct system) along with the course Discussion Boards and Online Gradebook. Students are encouraged to download pictures from our class web site and use multimedia to fulfill all the writing requirements and ultimately collect everything on one portfolio web site. Even if a relatively traditional essay format is chosen for projects, pictures must be scanned into the text, if need be, and text wrapped around them, if possible.
HTML. If students are going to do advanced web projects, they must have or acquire basic HTML skills on their own in the first month. Website project students should expect to spend a considerable amount of time outside of class, sitting in front of a computer, and may thus find it useful to attend some of the free classes and workshops on various technical topics offered by ACITS, TeamWeb, or the General Libraries. See http://www.utexas.edu/computer/classes/http://www.utexas.edu/cc/training/handouts/tutorials.html#internet
