Schedule of Readings and Assignments for English 149

The first eight classes of the course focus on selected readings designed to start students thinking about the relation between literary interpretation and other paradigms of research. These classes will run in normal discussion mode. From Class 9 on, the course will enter workshop mode where everything is geared toward facilitating--and keeping the rest of the class informed about--team projects. Some of the workshop classes will feature presentations of projects-in-progress; others will be "studio" sessions giving team members a chance to work side by side.

= Solo assignment = Team assignment

Section 1: Theory

Class 1 (January 8) — Introduction: Literature+ [Class 1 Notes]

•  Sir Thomas Wyatt, "They Flee From Me" (1557) [commentary by Ian Lancashire]
• John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819)
• Archibald MacLeish, "Ars Poetica" (1926)
• Cleanth Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase" and "Keats's Sylvan Historian," from his Well Wrought Urn (1947) [in course reader]

Class 2 (January 10) — Graph [Class 2 Notes]

• Franco Moretti, Graphs, Maps, Trees (Verso, 2005), pp. 1-33

Class 3 (January 15) — Map [Class 3 Notes]

• Franco Moretti, Graphs, Maps, Trees, pp. 35-64, 91-92

Class 4 (January 17) — Model, Simulate, Demo [Class 4 Notes]

• Willard McCarty, "Regularities in Law-less Practices" (posting to the Humanist list, 8 Dec. 2007)
• Willard McCarty, Humanities Computing (Palgrave MacMillan, 2005), pp. 20-37 [in course reader]
• NetLogo (downloadable agent-based simulation-building program) [minimum assignment: browse the NetLogo site and learn about the concept] [maximum assignment: download and run the NetLogo program, which comes with many starter simulations]
• Shirley Shor and Aviv Eyal, "DEMOing: An Emerging Art Form or Just Another Digital Craft?" Intelligent Agent 4.1 (Winter 2004)

  [available online as .pdf file] 

Create a bio for the course wiki, including your intellectual interests. (For details, see Assignments)

Class 5 (January 22) — Text Model [Class 5 Notes]

• Willard McCarty, Humanities Computing (Palgrave MacMillan, 2005), pp. 37-72 [in course reader]
• Geoffrey Rockwell, "What is Text Analysis?"
• Explore text analysis tools in Toy Chest

Class 6 (January 24) — Game [Class 6 Notes]

• Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals (MIT Press, 2004):  [in course reader]
  • pp. 29-37
  • pp. 71-83
  • pp. 94-99
  • pp. 101-5
  • pp. 11-13
  • pp. 106-15

Teams to be formed in class on this date. 

Class 7 (January 29) — Game [Class 7 Notes]

• Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals (MIT Press, 2004):  [in course reader]
  • pp. 363-419
  • pp. 490-501

Class 8 (January 31) — Literature++ (Reprise) [Class 8 Notes]

• Sir Thomas Wyatt, "They Flee From Me" (1557) [commentary by Ian Lancashire]
• John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819)
• Archibald MacLeish, "Ars Poetica" (1926)
• Cleanth Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase" and "Keats's Sylvan Historian," from his Well Wrought Urn (1947) [in course reader]
• Lisa Samuels and Jerome J. McGann, "Deformance and Interpretation," New Literary History 30, No. 1 (Winter, 1999): 25-56 (access from UCSB campus or use Library Proxy server)

 At least one team-meeting outside class by this date to begin brainstorming. (For details, see Assignments)

Section 2: Practice

Class 9 (February 5) — Project Idea Presentations [Class 9 Notes]

Class 10 (Februrary 7) — Project Idea Presentations (continued) [Class 10 Notes]

Class 11 (February 12) — Workshop [Class 11 Notes]

(continued from last class)

Class 12 (February 14) — Workshop [Class 12 Notes]

Write annotated bibliography. (For details, see Assignments)

Class 13 (February 19) — Workshop [Class 13 Notes]

Class 14 (Feburary 21) — Workshop [Class 14 Notes]

Write 4-page research report on one of the items in your annotated bibliography. (For details, see Assignments)

Class 15 (February 26) — Workshop [Class 15 Notes]

Class 16 (February 28) — Workshop [Class 16 Notes]

Class 17 (March 4) — Workshop [Class 17 Notes]

Class 18 (March 6) — Workshop [Class 18 Notes]

Class 19 (March 11) — Final Presentations [Class 19 Notes]

Formal presentations of team projects. (For details, see Assignments)

      [Presentation Schedule]

Class 20 (March 13) — Final Presentations (continued) [Class 20 Notes]

  [Presentation Schedule]

(March 17)

"Interpretive" essay due. (For details, see Assignments)