Global Digital Modernisms
Blog Assignments
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Blog Posting Instructions
Throughout the term you will post blog entries on the dates indicated on the syllabus. You must also comment on at least one of your peers’ blog postings within 48 hours of their due dates. Our blog will be limited to members of our class and not available to the public. The instructor will provide an assignment for the postings indicated on the syllabus, but you are also welcome to post and comment whenever you feel inspired to do so.
Your blog entries must be at least 250 words and analyze quotations from the text as well as an image, sound, or video clip that you will include or indicate with a link.
Blog postings provide an opportunity to shed light on the contexts that inform the texts we will read. You should build from the topics we have addressed in class and in our projects, taking the readings a step further and posing questions for your classmates to consider. The blog is also a place where you can receive feedback as you develop your projects.
You must use MLA citation format to acknowledge the sources to which you refer or the images or media you incorporate in your posting.
The four required blog entries and comments count as part of your participation grade for the course.
Blog postings are due at least 30 minutes before class. To be counted as one of your four required comments, a comment must be posted within 24 hours of a blog's due date. You can post additional comments at any time.
For MLA style see https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
For quoting practices see: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/01/
and https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/
For avoiding plagiarism see: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/930/10/
Blog Rubric
The instructor will evaluate your blog postings using the following five point rubric, ranging from 0 (no credit) to 4 (exceptional). Grades will be posted on Blackboard
Adapted from http://www.samplereality.com/2009/08/14/pedagogy-and-the-class-blog/
If you have difficulty, try a different browser.
Blog Posting Instructions
Throughout the term you will post blog entries on the dates indicated on the syllabus. You must also comment on at least one of your peers’ blog postings within 48 hours of their due dates. Our blog will be limited to members of our class and not available to the public. The instructor will provide an assignment for the postings indicated on the syllabus, but you are also welcome to post and comment whenever you feel inspired to do so.
Your blog entries must be at least 250 words and analyze quotations from the text as well as an image, sound, or video clip that you will include or indicate with a link.
Blog postings provide an opportunity to shed light on the contexts that inform the texts we will read. You should build from the topics we have addressed in class and in our projects, taking the readings a step further and posing questions for your classmates to consider. The blog is also a place where you can receive feedback as you develop your projects.
You must use MLA citation format to acknowledge the sources to which you refer or the images or media you incorporate in your posting.
The four required blog entries and comments count as part of your participation grade for the course.
Blog postings are due at least 30 minutes before class. To be counted as one of your four required comments, a comment must be posted within 24 hours of a blog's due date. You can post additional comments at any time.
For MLA style see https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
For quoting practices see: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/01/
and https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/
For avoiding plagiarism see: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/930/10/
Blog Rubric
The instructor will evaluate your blog postings using the following five point rubric, ranging from 0 (no credit) to 4 (exceptional). Grades will be posted on Blackboard
Adapted from http://www.samplereality.com/2009/08/14/pedagogy-and-the-class-blog/
Blog Posting 1: Nella Larsen
Due at least 30 minutes before class on Wednesday, February 15.
In your first blog posting, you will assert an argument addressing the role of the city in Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929). How does the location shape the events that take place? Analyze at least two quotations from Passing to support your argument. You might focus on a single moment or conversation in the novel. As you analyze Larsen’s language, examine such aspects as the word choice, tone, and syntax. Your posting must also use the templates from They Say/I Say as you introduce your argument and engage with others' ideas.
As you develop your argument, you must also respond to, by paraphrasing or quoting, one of the following essays in the Norton Critical Edition of Passing: Claudia Tate, “Nella Larsen’s Passing: A Problem of Interpretation” (342-350), Mary Helen Washington, “Nella Larsen: Mystery Woman of the Harlem Renaissance” (350-356), and Thadious M. Davis, “Nella Larsen’s Harlem Aesthetic” (379-387). Whether you are paraphrasing or quoting from a source, you must cite the author and page number in parentheses following your reference to his or her idea.
Your blog posting must be at least 250 words and analyze one image of a location in the novel. The image might be a historical photograph or a site you found using Google Earth. Your interpretation of this image should contribute to your argument. You can include a screenshot using Jing. Make sure to cite the source that you include.
You must include a list of works cited at the end of your blog posting acknowledging all sources you have consulted, including webpages. You must use your own words and cite all sources appropriately in all of your work this term.
Blog Posting 2: Jean Rhys.
Due at least 30 minutes before class on Wednesday, March 1.
In Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight (1938), Sasha Jensen wanders Paris as what Charles Baudelaire calls a flaneur in “The Painter of Modern Life” (1863). (Baudelaire begins to define the flaneur on page 4). A flaneur is “in the action, but not of it,” observing, commenting on, and critiquing life.
Locate at least one place that Sasha mentions using Google Maps. You can also investigate a series of places in the first segment of the novel (possibly for your essay) using Google Maps Engine. As you consider the significance of the places in the novel, you can investigate the locations’ historical or current significance and appearance using such resources as Google Street View. Mecklenburgh Square, near Gray’s Inn Road in London, for instance, is where Sasha takes a “little health-stroll” early in the novel (Rhys 11). As she tells us, “I had looked at this, I had looked at that, I had looked at the people passing in the street and at a shop-window full of artificial limbs” (11). This map depicts the proximity of the roads to each other. By zooming out, we can also see Sasha’s location relative to the rest of London. Further research would enable a more detailed consideration of the history of this area and its role in London life in the thirties.
Your posting will assert an argument that analyzes at least two quotations from the novel, one idea or quotation from Baudelaire’s “The Painter of Modern Life” (make sure to cite the page number), and one image from a map or of a place you have investigated. You can capture a screen shot of a map using Jing. Consider the ways that locating, viewing, and researching the place or places you have selected allow you to understand Rhys’s novel differently. Analyze the language, tone, and imagery of the quotations you have selected in relation to your location or image.
Your blog posting will be at least 250 words and is due at least 30 minutes before class. Remember to cite all sources you consult using correct MLA format.
Work Cited
Rhys, Jean. Good Morning Midnight. 1938. New York: Norton, 2000.
Blog Posting 3: James Joyce
Due at least thirty minutes before class on Wednesday, April 5.
In your fifth blog posting, you will assert an argument analyzing Joyce’s depiction of Ireland, history, memory , or a combination of these subjects, in "The Dead." Topics you might address include: family, weather, music, youth, and transportation. Select a narrow focus to examine in your posting.
In your blog posting, analyze at least two quotations from the story. Your posting must also analyze a quotation or a point from Vincent Cheng's essay from the Norton Critical Edition of the "The Dead."
In addition, you should find an image to analyze and include in your posting by searching the National Library of Ireland Digital Photograph archive. Topics you might search include Galway and the Gresham Hotel.
Your blog posting will be at least 250 words and is due at least 30 minutes before class. Remember to cite all sources you consult using correct MLA format. Also remember that MLA style does not include commas in parenthetical citations. You can also check the “Formatting Quotations” guide here: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/
Blog Posting 4: Mulk Raj Anand
Due at least 30 minutes before class on Wednesday, April 13.
In your sixth blog posting, you will assert an argument analyzing the role of language, history, or geography, or a combination of these ideas, in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable. How are language and geography related? What role does history play in the interpretation of the novel? What passages did you find most compelling and why? What effect does the sound of words have? What is the impact of the structure of the novel on the story it tells? It may be useful to begin with a single word as the focus of your essay. As you narrow in on a topic, Investigate patterns and themes you noticed as you read and throughout the term and draw conclusions based on the text or texts you have selected.
You must use the templates in They Say/I Say to assert an argument addressing the text that you will support with your own analysis of at least two quotations from Untouchable. You will also analyze an image that addresses an aspect of history or geography in Anand’s novel.
Your blog posting will be at least 250 words and is due at least 30 minutes before class. Remember to cite all sources you consult using correct MLA format.
Blog Posting: MoMA: Extra Credit
For extra credit, you can visit the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
How do we contemplate the significance of an original painting when we can see images of it in books or online? In “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936), Walter Benjamin asked a similar question at a time when photography and film were increasing in prominence. In your blog postings, consider Benjamin’s theories in relation to the paintings that you see. Benjamin, for instance, argues that the “aura” of an original work of art includes the ways that the original object changes: “that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art” (221). How does seeing the original alter your sense of more widely available digital images of it? How do you understand well-known images differently after seeing less familiar original paintings? Benjamin observes that “in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it reactivates the object reproduced” (221).
In your blog posting, select one painting to address in depth and, if possible, include an image of it (it may be one that you locate online). Take note of the exhibition caption addressing the painting, write it down and analyze its contents in your posting. You should also analyze the display of your painting and its relation to the exhibition as a whole. In addition, consider such aspects as the overall design of the exhibition, organization of space, elements of mood and tone, order, display, size, and organization of the paintings, and the presence and behavior of other viewers. Does the exhibition have a sense of narrative? Are the paintings organized chronologically or thematically? Are there many paintings on each wall, or do some walls feature fewer or a single painting? What is the impact of these choices? What arguments does the exhibition make? What effect do these elements have on the ways that viewers make meaning? In your response you should also make a connection to at least one text or concept we have addressed this term.
Your blog posting will be at least 250 words and is due at least 30 minutes before class. Remember to cite all sources you consult using correct MLA format.
Work Cited
Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1968. Print.
Due at least 30 minutes before class on Wednesday, February 15.
In your first blog posting, you will assert an argument addressing the role of the city in Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929). How does the location shape the events that take place? Analyze at least two quotations from Passing to support your argument. You might focus on a single moment or conversation in the novel. As you analyze Larsen’s language, examine such aspects as the word choice, tone, and syntax. Your posting must also use the templates from They Say/I Say as you introduce your argument and engage with others' ideas.
As you develop your argument, you must also respond to, by paraphrasing or quoting, one of the following essays in the Norton Critical Edition of Passing: Claudia Tate, “Nella Larsen’s Passing: A Problem of Interpretation” (342-350), Mary Helen Washington, “Nella Larsen: Mystery Woman of the Harlem Renaissance” (350-356), and Thadious M. Davis, “Nella Larsen’s Harlem Aesthetic” (379-387). Whether you are paraphrasing or quoting from a source, you must cite the author and page number in parentheses following your reference to his or her idea.
Your blog posting must be at least 250 words and analyze one image of a location in the novel. The image might be a historical photograph or a site you found using Google Earth. Your interpretation of this image should contribute to your argument. You can include a screenshot using Jing. Make sure to cite the source that you include.
You must include a list of works cited at the end of your blog posting acknowledging all sources you have consulted, including webpages. You must use your own words and cite all sources appropriately in all of your work this term.
Blog Posting 2: Jean Rhys.
Due at least 30 minutes before class on Wednesday, March 1.
In Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight (1938), Sasha Jensen wanders Paris as what Charles Baudelaire calls a flaneur in “The Painter of Modern Life” (1863). (Baudelaire begins to define the flaneur on page 4). A flaneur is “in the action, but not of it,” observing, commenting on, and critiquing life.
Locate at least one place that Sasha mentions using Google Maps. You can also investigate a series of places in the first segment of the novel (possibly for your essay) using Google Maps Engine. As you consider the significance of the places in the novel, you can investigate the locations’ historical or current significance and appearance using such resources as Google Street View. Mecklenburgh Square, near Gray’s Inn Road in London, for instance, is where Sasha takes a “little health-stroll” early in the novel (Rhys 11). As she tells us, “I had looked at this, I had looked at that, I had looked at the people passing in the street and at a shop-window full of artificial limbs” (11). This map depicts the proximity of the roads to each other. By zooming out, we can also see Sasha’s location relative to the rest of London. Further research would enable a more detailed consideration of the history of this area and its role in London life in the thirties.
Your posting will assert an argument that analyzes at least two quotations from the novel, one idea or quotation from Baudelaire’s “The Painter of Modern Life” (make sure to cite the page number), and one image from a map or of a place you have investigated. You can capture a screen shot of a map using Jing. Consider the ways that locating, viewing, and researching the place or places you have selected allow you to understand Rhys’s novel differently. Analyze the language, tone, and imagery of the quotations you have selected in relation to your location or image.
Your blog posting will be at least 250 words and is due at least 30 minutes before class. Remember to cite all sources you consult using correct MLA format.
Work Cited
Rhys, Jean. Good Morning Midnight. 1938. New York: Norton, 2000.
Blog Posting 3: James Joyce
Due at least thirty minutes before class on Wednesday, April 5.
In your fifth blog posting, you will assert an argument analyzing Joyce’s depiction of Ireland, history, memory , or a combination of these subjects, in "The Dead." Topics you might address include: family, weather, music, youth, and transportation. Select a narrow focus to examine in your posting.
In your blog posting, analyze at least two quotations from the story. Your posting must also analyze a quotation or a point from Vincent Cheng's essay from the Norton Critical Edition of the "The Dead."
In addition, you should find an image to analyze and include in your posting by searching the National Library of Ireland Digital Photograph archive. Topics you might search include Galway and the Gresham Hotel.
Your blog posting will be at least 250 words and is due at least 30 minutes before class. Remember to cite all sources you consult using correct MLA format. Also remember that MLA style does not include commas in parenthetical citations. You can also check the “Formatting Quotations” guide here: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/
Blog Posting 4: Mulk Raj Anand
Due at least 30 minutes before class on Wednesday, April 13.
In your sixth blog posting, you will assert an argument analyzing the role of language, history, or geography, or a combination of these ideas, in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable. How are language and geography related? What role does history play in the interpretation of the novel? What passages did you find most compelling and why? What effect does the sound of words have? What is the impact of the structure of the novel on the story it tells? It may be useful to begin with a single word as the focus of your essay. As you narrow in on a topic, Investigate patterns and themes you noticed as you read and throughout the term and draw conclusions based on the text or texts you have selected.
You must use the templates in They Say/I Say to assert an argument addressing the text that you will support with your own analysis of at least two quotations from Untouchable. You will also analyze an image that addresses an aspect of history or geography in Anand’s novel.
Your blog posting will be at least 250 words and is due at least 30 minutes before class. Remember to cite all sources you consult using correct MLA format.
Blog Posting: MoMA: Extra Credit
For extra credit, you can visit the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
How do we contemplate the significance of an original painting when we can see images of it in books or online? In “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936), Walter Benjamin asked a similar question at a time when photography and film were increasing in prominence. In your blog postings, consider Benjamin’s theories in relation to the paintings that you see. Benjamin, for instance, argues that the “aura” of an original work of art includes the ways that the original object changes: “that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art” (221). How does seeing the original alter your sense of more widely available digital images of it? How do you understand well-known images differently after seeing less familiar original paintings? Benjamin observes that “in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it reactivates the object reproduced” (221).
In your blog posting, select one painting to address in depth and, if possible, include an image of it (it may be one that you locate online). Take note of the exhibition caption addressing the painting, write it down and analyze its contents in your posting. You should also analyze the display of your painting and its relation to the exhibition as a whole. In addition, consider such aspects as the overall design of the exhibition, organization of space, elements of mood and tone, order, display, size, and organization of the paintings, and the presence and behavior of other viewers. Does the exhibition have a sense of narrative? Are the paintings organized chronologically or thematically? Are there many paintings on each wall, or do some walls feature fewer or a single painting? What is the impact of these choices? What arguments does the exhibition make? What effect do these elements have on the ways that viewers make meaning? In your response you should also make a connection to at least one text or concept we have addressed this term.
Your blog posting will be at least 250 words and is due at least 30 minutes before class. Remember to cite all sources you consult using correct MLA format.
Work Cited
Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1968. Print.