ENGL 693: A Media History of American Literature (Special Topics)

Course Description

ENGL 693: A Media History of American Literature is a Special Topics course in the graduate program in English at West Virginia University. This course offers an introduction to media history, from type to bits, focused on implications - for literary studies and methodology, and for the institution of “the humanities” - of historical shifts in technical media. The course posits the material and technical conditions of writing as the key to the imaginary effects they produce in fiction and theory. The focus is on the last two centuries of American literature and its theory, technically underwritten by the shift from movable type technology to digital bits. The material studied will include the emergence of the author from the printing press, the alienation of the author by voice recording and transmitting technologies, and the death of the author in the time of automated data processing machinery. Readings in the history of the typewriter, linotype, phonograph, film, digital text, etc. Students will develop projects articulating literary texts and theory, on the one hand, with technical and archival exploration of media technologies.

Requirements

• 10 page conference-style essay, with at least three outside sources, following MLA formatting. Always approach graduate essays as the beginning of a conference presentation and/or publication. Two possible formats for the essay: 1) media-theoretical discourse analysis of a literary work; 2) analysis of the becoming-literary of a selected media technology, based on its technical description, history, and reception. One page proposal due in class 6/30. 40%

• In-class instigation. Not a presentation nor a summary, but leading discussion, raising provocative questions, focused on specifics in the reading and on and critical problems. Instigations will be done in pairs, and must show planning and collaboration. Instigations will start June 1. Requirements: background research as necessary; handout for class (500 words minimum). Sign up for instigations here. 25%
• 5 reading reflections, 500 words minimum. One reflection per week through the end of semester, except for the week of your instigation. For each reflection: choose one work assigned during the week, write three critical questions about the work, and write your own answer to one of the questions. Bring your reflection to class the day that the work is discussed; also, post the reflection to the class wiki here. 5x5 = 25%
• Participation and attendence. I assume that graduate students will attend class and prepare work in a responsible and professional manner. Also, join the CLC website. Select the New User option at http://www.clc.wvu.edu - it's free and easy. 10%

Required Texts

• N. Katherine Hayles, Writing Machines (WM on schedule of readings)

• Friedrich Kittler, Discourse Networks 1800-1900 (DN on schedule of readings)
• Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (CL49 on schedule of readings)
• Electronic Reserve (ER on schedule of readings). Username: baldwin (all lower case), password: 737. Note that some files are available in two formats: a single .pdf of the entire document or several smaller .pdfs. Electronic Reserve materials should be printed out and brought to class.

Academic Integrity

West Virginia University expects that every member of its academic community shares the historic and traditional commitment to honesty, integrity, and the search for truth. Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism, cheating and dishonest practices; and forgery, misrepresentation, or fraud. Here is WVU's Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism Policy.

Social Justice Statement

"West Virginia University is committed to social justice. I concur with that commitment and expect to maintain a positive learning environment based upon open communication, mutual respect, and nondiscrimination. Our University does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, veteran status, religion, sexual orientation, color or national origin. Any suggestions as to how to further such a positive and open environment in this class will be appreciated and given serious consideration. If you are a person with a disability and anticipate needing any type of accommodation in order to participate in this class. Please advise me and make appropriate arrangement with Disability Services (293-6700)."

Schedule

All reading and work is due on the date indicated.

May 22

(meet at 130pm) Introduction. Read and discuss Kittler, "Preface" to DN, and Heidegger from "Parmenides" (handout).

May 23

Pynchon, CL49. Recommended: look at Remedio Varos

• The hermeneutic perspective: "In the material process of cultural transmission, (writing) has a singular status. The remainders and ruins of past lives, of buildings, of tools, the equipment of tombs - all of this is shaken and eroded by the storms of time. Written texts, however, if they can be deciphered and read, contain a pure spirit that speaks to us in an eternal presence. The art of reading and understanding written traces is like a magic art . . . in which space and time are suspended. In knowing how to read what is transmitted, we are partaking of and achieving the pure presence of the past." Hans-George Gadamer

May 24

Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent, Benjamin, Theses on the Concept of History

May 25

McLuhan, "Two Selections" (The Galaxy Reconfigured and The Medium is the Message) ER, Bolz, "Farewell to the Gutenberg Galaxy" (via JSTOR), Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Recommended: Higgins Intermedia.

May 30

Foucault "The Statement and the Archive" (Chapters 1-5) ER, Melville, Bartleby. Recommended: Dead Media

May 31

Derrida, "Signature Event Context" (Margins of Philosophy) ER, McGann and Drucker, Pictographic Text, Shannon, from The Mathematical Theory of Communication (read the Introduction only!). Recommended: Burroughs, The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin, Drucker, The Art of the Written Image.

Jun 1

Kittler, DN 1-69

Jun 6

Kittler, DN 70-173, , Douglass, "Autobiography" ER, Franklin, "From the Autobiography" ER

Jun 7

Crain, "That Mother's Kiss" ER, Howe, "These Flames and Generosities of the Heart" ER, McGann, "Composition as Explanation" ER. Recommended: Dickinson Archive, Color Printing in the 19th Century.

Jun 8

Twain, "The First Writing Machines" ER, Whitman, Song of Myself, I Sing the Body Electric, A Font of Type.

Jun 13

Kittler, DN 175-372. Recommended: Classic Typewriter Page, Kittler images

Jun 14

James, In the Cage, Seltzer, "The Postal Unconscious" (via Project Muse), Stubbs, "Telegraphy's Corporeal Fictions" ER

Jun 15

Gitelman, "Souvenir Foils" ER, The Talking Clock, Padin, Anti-Records and Conceptual Records, Burroughs, Electronic Revolution, Recording Technology History. Recommended: Cage, The Future of Music, Cobbing Sound Poetry, Kostelanetz, Text Sound Art, Higgins, Sound Poetry, Chopin, Sound Poetry.

Jun 20

Stein, "Composition as Explanation," "Portraits in Repetition" ER, Gitelman, "Automatic Writing" ER

Jun 21

Olson, Poetry ("The Kingfishers" and "The Praises"), "Projective Verse" ER, Weiner, "Cybernetics in History," "Progress and Entropy" ER

Jun 22

Gibson, Agrippa Files.

Jun 27

Hayles, WM. Recommended: Humument, From Lexia to Perplexia, Mediaworks Webpage (see Writing Machines link)

Jun 28

Sondheim, The War Room, The Lost Project, Online Life and Times, Trace Projects, Projects for Mobile Phones, fgfgfgfgfg, How could you do this to me?, Jennifer, Read Me, Sondheim's 2004 residency @ WVU. Recommended: Flarf Jacket 30, and Flarf Jacket 29

Jun 29

Last class. Workshop and Conclusions.

July 5

Essay due to Sandy via email.

Historical "understanding" is to be grasped, in principle, as an afterlife of that which is understood; and what has been recognized in the analysis of the "afterlife of works," in the analysis of "fame," is therefore to be considered the foundation of history in general. - Benjamin