Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
ENGL428Y: Book 2.0: The History of the Book & The Future of Reading Spring 2010
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30-4:45 pm Tawes Hall 0201
Section 0101January 26–May 12
Kari M. Kraus, PhDOffice: 3217 Tawes HallOffice hrs: Tuesdays 2:15-3:15 pm or by appt. [email protected]
Department of English 2119 Tawes HallUniversity of Maryland College Park, Maryland
INTRODUCTION
When Shakespeare's Polonius, acting as spy for King Claudius, encounters an aggrieved Hamlet pacing about with an open book, he asks the prince what he is reading. Hamlet's evasive response--"words, words, words"--intentionally misconstrues the question, preferring to treat it as an inquiry about the material properties of the book rather than an expression of curiosity regarding its meaning or subject matter. Taking a cue from this exchange, this course situates the physicality or "thingness" of books--those "poor bits of rag-paper [printed] with black ink," as Thomas Carlyle once described them--within book culture more broadly. Our approach will be expansive as we survey antecedents of the book ranging from the clay tablets of the ancient Near East to the papyrus scrolls of antiquity to the manuscript and printed codices of the middle ages and early modern era. This historical backdrop will set the stage for a speculative consideration of the future of the book, including developments in areas such as electronic paper, wireless reading devices, mobile e-readers, distributed storytelling, DIY publishing experiments, and locative narratives and place-based authoring. Over the course of the semester we will test the elasticity of our mental models by looking at extreme examples of reading and writing technologies, from edible books to self-destructing poems to a nano-edition of the Hebrew Bible inscribed on a surface smaller than the head of a pin. We will read primary texts by William Blake, Johanna Drucker, Cory Doctorow, William Gibson, and the Chinese artist Xu Bing, as well as secondary texts by a variety of influential scholars. Finally, we will supplement our cultural and technological investigations with forays into the cognitive science of reading,
delving into how our eyes scan and our brains process a page or screen of text.
In addition to class participation and lab exercises, course requirements will consist of a short paper, blog entries, one longer paper or project, and a final exam.
READING DEVICES
This class is unique in that it will serve as the basis for a research project examining how students use portable electronic reading devices in the academic environment. Each of you will be provided with a free prototype electronic reader for the duration of the semester that has been developed by a UMD professor and graduate student. The device will contain materials for the course, reference texts (including the Oxford English Dictionary), and special tools like a notebook. You will be asked to use this device to do much of required reading for the semester, and naturally it will feed into some of our class discussions about the future of the book.
While our tools will obviously be very new, the course content won’t be any “harder” for that reason, nor will you be asked to do any additional work beyond providing occasional feedback to the researchers.
You can choose to not participate in the study or terminate your participation in the study at any time. If you received an electronic device for the semester, you will need to return the device upon your decision to terminate your participation. A copy of your data on the device will be provided on DVD after the device is returned. Participation or non-participation in the study will have absolutely no bearing on any aspect of your course grade.
We hope you will choose to give us the benefit of your participation. This is a unique opportunity to play a part in cutting edge research designing the next generation of books. TEXTS The following texts are required and can be purchased online or through the campus bookstore:
1. Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose, A Companion to the History of the Book (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). ISBN: 140519278X
2. J.C. Hutchins and Jordan Weisman, Personal Effects: Dark Art, Har/Pap. (St. Martin's Griffin, 2009).3. Ronald Johnson, Radi Os (Flood Editions, 2005). 09746902444. Stanislas Dehaene, Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human
Invention, 1st ed. (Viking Adult, 2009). 0670021105
5. B.S. Johnson, The Unfortunates, First Edition. (New Directions, 2009). 0811217434
Additional readings will be distributed as handouts, accessible on the WWW, made available on Blackboard (our course management site), or pre-loaded onto our prototype ebook devices.
It is your responsibility to bring copies of the required readings--whether print or electronic--to class on the day we're slated to discuss them.
COURSE POLICIES AND EVALUATION
Academic Accommodations. If you have a documented disability, you should contact Disability Support Services at 0126 Shoemaker Hall. Each semester students with documented disabilities should apply to DSS for accommodation request forms which you can provide to your professors as proof of your eligibility for accommodations. The rules for eligibility and the types of accommodations a student may request can be reviewed on the DSS web site at http://www.counseling.umd.edu/DSS/receiving_serv.html. Religious Observances. The University System of Maryland policy provides that students should not be penalized because of observances of their religious beliefs, students shall be given an opportunity, whenever feasible, to make up within a reasonable time any academic assignment that is missed due to individual participation in religious observances. It is the responsibility of the student to inform the instructor of any intended absences for religious observances in advance. Notice should be provided as soon as possible but no later than the end of the schedule adjustment period. Faculty should further remind students that prior notification is especially important in connection with final exams, since failure to reschedule a final exam before the conclusion of the final examination period may result in loss of credits during the semester. The problem is especially likely to arise when final exams are scheduled on Saturdays. Academic Integrity. The University of Maryland has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student you are responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is very important for you to be aware of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit http://www.studenthonorcouncil.umd.edu/whatis.html
The University of Maryland is one of a small number of universities with a student-administered Honors Code and an Honors Pledge, available on the web at http://www.jpo.umd.edu/aca/honorpledge.html. The code prohibits students from cheating on
exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without authorization, buying papers, submitting fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. The University Senate encourages instructors to ask students to write the following signed statement on each examination or assignment: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this examination (or assignment).”
Late Work. All assigned work is due on the date given on the course calendar, unless you have extenuating circumstances (for which you will generally be required to provide documentation) and have made specific prior arrangements with me. Late work will be docked up to one full letter grade (or not accepted at all if more than a week overdue). If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations with me, please let me know as soon as possible.
Late Arrivals. Attendance will be taken at the start of each class. My policy is to count two late arrivals as one absence.
Attendance. Because it is a relatively small class, ENGL428Y allows for far more student input than a large lecture course would permit: you have a voice in class discussions and your contributions add to our collective knowledge. If you are absent, you will be missed: the class simply won't function optimally without you. I will confer with anyone who seems to be having trouble making it to class regularly, and may ask such persons to drop the course. Please note that it is your responsibility to contact me about material you may have missed.
Email. You are welcome to email me to clarify an assignment, schedule an appointment, notify me about an illness or university-sanctioned absence, or within limits discuss other course-related matters. Please do not send me "what did I miss" emails if you were absent or "why did I get this grade" emails in response to graded assignments. Questions of this nature need to be handled in person. Come see me during office hours or set up an appointment. Additionally, please do not submit assignments to me via email unless I have specifically requested that you do so.
Assignments. I will collect individual assignments and projects on the dates specified on the syllabus and return them to you with written feedback and a letter grade. All grading will use the university's plus/minus system. The requirements for the course, and their weight in determining your final grade, are as follows:
--Participation: 15% (attendance, class discussion, blog entries, in-class exercises). --Short Paper: 20%. --Selected Blog Entries: 20%. --Research project: 35%. --Final exam: 10%.
WEEK BY WEEK COURSE DESCRIPTION (tentative schedule, subject to revision; any changes will be announced in class) Note: “CHB” = Companion to the History of the Book
week 1 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 26 january
Introduction to ENGL 428Y
thursday 28 january
Methods and Approaches
* Theory of affordances (Wikipedia and Interaction Design Encyclopedia)*Skeuomorph*Matthew Kirschenbaum, “Bookscapes: Modeling Books in Electronic Space” (Blackboard)
week 2 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 2 february
The Material Text: Before the Codex
*“The Clay Tablet Book in Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia” (CHB), pp. 67-83“The Papyrus Roll in Egypt, Greece, and Rome” (CHB), pp. 84-94
In-Class Lab Exercise: Writing on Clay
thursday 4 february
The Material Text:Beyond the West
*“China” (CHB), pp. 97-110*“The Hebraic Book” (CHB), pp. 153-164*“The Islamic Book” (CHB), pp. 165-176
week 3 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 9 february
The Codex in the West
*“Parchment and Paper: Manuscript Culture 1100-1500” (CHB), pp. 194-206*“The Gutenberg Revolutions” (CHB), pp. 207-219
In-Class Lab Exercise: Book Formats
thursday 11 february
Printing Workshop (pending scheduling with Pyramid Atlantic)
week 4 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 16 february
Reading and Cognition
Reading in the Brain (Introduction, Chpts. 1-3)
Assignment: Paper #1 (due: 2 March)
thursday 18 february
Writing and Cognition
*Reading in the Brain (Chpt. 4)*Selection from Proust and the Squid (ebook reader)*Procne and Philomela (from Ovid’s Metamorphoses) (ebook reader)
week 5 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 23 february
Reading and Cognition
Reading in the Brain (Chpts. 5-8)
thursday 25 february
ARGs and Transmedia Storytelling
*Jill Walker, “Distributed Narrative” (ebook reader)*Jeffrey Kim, et al, “Storytelling in New Media: The Case of Alternate Reality Games” (ebook reader)
week 6 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 2 march
ARGs and Transmedia Storytelling
Paper #1 Personal Effects
thursday 4 march
ARGs and Transmedia Storytelling
Personal Effects
week 7 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 9 march
ARGs and Transmedia Storytelling
Personal Effects
thursday 11 march
The Illustrated Book: Prints and Printmaking
*Bamber Gascoigne, selection from How to Identify Prints (Blackboard)*William Blake Archive*Joseph Viscomi, “William Blake’s Illuminated Printing”
week 8 ovcrview due readings assignments
tuesday 16 no class: spring
march break!
thursday 18 march
no class: spring break!
week 9 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 23 march
Artists’ Books
*Megan Benton, “The Book as Art” (CHB), pp. 493-507*Johanna Drucker, Artists’ Books Online (in class)*Recommended: Johanna Drucker, “The Artist’s Book as Idea and Form”
Assignment: Selected Blog Entries (due: 1 April)
thursday 25 march
Altered Books Ronald Johnson, Radi Os
week 10 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 30 march
The Book Unbound
B. S. Johnson, The Unfortunates
thursday 1 april
The Book Unbound
Blog EntriesB. S. Johnson, The Unfortunates
Final research projects: due Tuesday, 11 may
week 11 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 6 april
“Digital” Reading:Pointing, Choreographed, and Interactive Hands
*Aya Karpinska's Shadows Never Sleep (in class; available for free from the Apple App store)*Anne Mangen, “Hypertext Fiction Reading: Haptics and Immersion (Blackboard)*William Sherman, “Toward A History of the Manicule” (ebook device)
thursday 8 april
Metaphors of the Book
*Ivan Illich, Selection from In the Vineyard of the Text (Blackboard)*“Some Non-Textual Uses of Books” (CHB), pp. 480-492*Browse the International Edible Books Festival website
*Publishing and Printing Food*Recommended: Anne Fadiman, “The Literary Glutton” (ebook device)
week 12 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 13 april
*Reading and Writing Machines*Visual Representations of Reading
*Thomas Harrison’s Ark of Studies (Blackboard), Ramelli’s Book Wheel, Thomas Jefferson’s Revolving Bookstand and Polygraph, Google’s Book Scanners*Paolo and Francesca (ebook device)*Reproductions from The Look of Reading (in class)
thursday 15 april
Not Reading and Distant Reading
*Selections from Pierre Bayard, How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read (ebook device)*Selection from Franco Moretti, Graphs, Maps, and Trees (Blackboard)*Recommended: NEA Report on Reading at Risk (ebook device)
week 13 overview due readings assignments
tuesday 20 april
The Limits of Reading: Illegible Books, Microscopic Text, and Auto-Destructive Poems
*Xu Bing, Book from the Sky (in class)*Robert Wasler’s Microscopic Text (in class)*Nano-Bible*Miniature Books (in class)*The Agrippa Files (William Gibson)
thursday 22 april
On-Site Visit to Special Collections or Book Conservation
Department
week 14 overview due Readings assignments
tuesday 27 april
Publication Models; the Circuit of the Book
*“The British Book Market, 1600-1800” (CHB), pp. 232-246*Case Study: Cory Doctorow, With a Little Help
thursday 29 april
Publication Models; the Circuit of the Book
*Distributed Proofreading*“reCAPTCHA: Human-Based Character Recognition” (Blackboard)
In-Class Lab Exercise: Distributed Proofreading
week 15 overview due assignments
tuesday 4 may
*Publication Models Continued *Japanese Cell Phone Novels
*Case Study: Emoji Dick (translation of Melville’s Moby Dick into Japanese Emoji icons)*“The Revolution Will Be Crowdsourced (and Cute)”*“Call Me Ishmael. The End”*Mika, Sky of Love (Japanese cell phone novel)
thursday 6 may
The Future of the Book(Place-Based Authoring, Augmented Reality, Ebooks, Mobile Readers)
TBA
week 16 overview due Readings assignments
tuesday 11 may
The Future of the Book(Place-Based Authoring, Augmented Reality, Ebooks)
Final Projects
TBA
