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Literature and the Media – Beginnings

Fall 2018 MWF 12:30-1:20 EH# 304 CRN# 24706

Office, MWF, 1:30-2:30, or by appointment

Course Description

This seminar takes a good look at the precursors to the current dialogue between print and digital culture by investigating the relays between literature and the media network framing literary production beginning with the mid-19th century. In particular, we’ll examine how (naturally, very select) pre-modernist and modernist literature has responded to the cultural effects of the phonograph, the typewriter, and film"the media triumvirate that has shaped the conditions under which much of literature has been written. We’ll ask how the recording and reproduction of sound and motion and the ability to write on a standardized machine has led writers to expand their repertoire of literary themes and forms, while inviting them to reflect on the limits and possibilities of their own medium. Since media innovations are, not coincidentally, often the result of concurrent developments in several countries, and since literary practitioners all write under the influence (of other media, that is), a seminar such as this is, by default, required to look beyond national borders. Thus, while we can focus on only very few writers from England and America, we will also, if only briefly, mention other writers as well. These might include: Mark Twain, Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, Guillaume Apollinaire, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Theorists might include: Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan, Martin Heidegger, Vilém Flusser, Friedrich Kittler. Please stay tuned!

While we will try to center our attention on primary texts and emphasize various critical approaches, I will expect students to reach into their own theoretical tool boxes as well. Class sessions will typically alternate between class discussion, student presentations, and occasional short lectures. Thanks for choosing to take this class. Welcome and enjoy!

Texts and Materials

 
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Voice of Science," "The Story of the Japanned Box," "A Case of Identity
  • Futurist Manifestos
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables
  • Henry James, In the Cage
  • Frank Norris, McTeague
  • George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion [or related text]
  • Bram Stoker, Dracula
  • a packet of a materials on ereserve and various online materials

Let's Connect!


mwutz@weber.eduPhone  801-626-7011
Skype  michaelwutz007

LebenslaufCurriculum Vitae
Weber – The Contemporary West

Mailing Address

 

Michael Wutz, Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor
Editor, Weber - The Contemporary West
Department of English, 1404 University Circle
91¶ÌÊÓƵ
Ogden, UT 84404-1404 USA