ICLT 311 W01: Global Digital Modernisms
Spring 2017
Monday: 2-3:20pm Schure Hall, CLC 3.
Wednesday: 2-3:20pm Anna Rubin Hall, 312.
Instructor: Dr. Amanda Golden
Office: Balding House 208
Office Hours: MW 12:30-1:30pm and by appointment
Email: agolde01@nyit.edu
Course Website: globaldigitalmodernisms.weebly.com
Course Materials
You can purchase digital versions of the books, but we will read the additional content in the Norton Critical Edition of Passing.
Elizabeth Losh, et al., Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. ISBN: 031264096X
Nella Larsen, Passing. Ed. Carla Kaplan. Norton Critical Edition (2007). ISBN: 0393979164
Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable. Penguin (1990). ISBN: 0140183957
Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight. Norton (1999). ISBN: 0393303942
Additional readings will be available on Google Drive
Catalogue Course Description
In this interdisciplinary course students will read, discuss, and write about “Modernism”––that explosion of innovation in the arts and culture of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The majority of texts will be literary, including prose fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Further readings will be drawn from fields such as history, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and theoretical physics. Students will also study the period’s visual arts (cinema, painting and sculpture), analyzing all of these texts for how they represent and enact the societal changes of the early twentieth century. Classroom presentations and a research essay. Prereq: Writ. II.
Course Overview
This course examines global dimensions of literature and culture during the first half of the twentieth century. Reading British, American, and Anglophone writers, we will consider such topics as changes in technology, cities, transportation, media, education, the visual arts, war, and the British Empire. Our course texts will include James Joyce’s The Dead (1914), Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929), Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1934), and Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight (1938) as well as the poetry, prose, and short stories of Sarojini Naidu, Una Marson, Claude McKay, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Virginia Woolf, and E. M. Forster. By completing essays, digital projects, and blog postings, the students in this course will develop a more detailed understanding of the complexity of language, geography, and history.
Learning Outcomes and Instruments of Assessment
Upon successfully completing the course, a student will be able to
1. Identify and discuss major social and cultural issues that modernist works address.
(Core: Communication, Literacy, Critical/Analytical Thinking, Interdisciplinary Mindset and Skills, Ethical/Moral and Civic Engagement, and Global Perspective/World View)
2. Identify and discuss the main stylistic features of the literary texts studied and how these features affect the impact of each text. (Core: Communication, Literacy, Critical/Analytical Thinking)
3. Compose a focused, organized, well supported, and clearly written analysis of literary texts. (Core: Communication, Literacy, Critical/Analytical Thinking)
4. Identify research sources, evaluate their credibility, and incorporate and document them appropriately to advance the persuasive and/or informative purposes of their writing and oral presentation.
(Core: Communication, Literacy, Critical/Analytical Thinking, Ethical/Moral and Civic Engagement )
5. Compare and contrast literary works with texts drawn from other fields
(Core: Communication, Literacy, Critical/Analytical Thinking, Interdisciplinary Mindset and Skills)
6. Work effectively in teams to answer questions about a text and develop textual interpretations. (Core: Communication, Literacy, Critical/Analytical Thinking, Interdisciplinary Mindset and Skills, Global Perspective/World View)
Methods of Assessment include assignments and in-class activities (further described in the next section) that allow the instructor to assess the above learning outcomes as follows:
Writing In-class Responses to Readings—Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 5
Discussing Fictional Texts (written and film)—Outcomes 1, 2, 5
Discussing Relationships between Texts from Different Disciplines—Outcome 1, 5
Participating in Small Group Discussion/Analysis of Texts—Outcomes 1, 2, 5, 6
Participating in Peer Review Process for Essays—Outcomes 1, 2, 6
Giving Informal Oral Presentation on an Author—Outcomes 1, 2, 4
Giving Formal Research Presentation on Persuasive Literary Interpretation—Outcomes 1, 2, 4
Writing Literary Analysis Essay—Outcomes 1, 2, 3
Writing Researched Literary Analysis Essay—Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
Passing Final Exam Demonstrating Knowledge of All Studied Texts, Major Issues and
Writing Techniques They Illustrate, and Connections Between Texts (short answer and essay)—Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 5
Reading Assignments
For every reading assignment, students are expected to read the assigned pages thoroughly and carefully, taking detailed notes that they can refer to in class.
Oral Assignments
Students are expected to participate in class discussion regularly and substantially.
Writing Assignments
All home writing assignments must be typed in 12-point and double-spaced, and thoroughly proofread. Papers must be submitted on Blackboard at least thirty minutes before class on the due date indicated on the syllabus.
Assessment
Analytical Essay: 20%
Blog Postings and Writing Center Reflection: 15%
Research Project Podcast or Video: 15%
Research Project Script: 20%
Class Participation: 15%
Final Exam: 15%
Participation
Some of your required work, both individual and collaborative, will be completed in-class and for homework, all part of your participation grade, which will account for 15% of your course grade. Attendance is a separate course requirement and does not count as part of your participation grade.
These activities count for your participation grade:
Participation in class discussions
Participation in group activities
Discussions
Peer review
Short Assignments
Quizzes
You must be present, prepared, on time, and engaged in seminar discussions. All course readings must be completed before class, and you will be attentive while in class if you want to earn an A or B. Substantive contribution to discussions, active listening, and thought-provoking questions are all considered participation. Being present but doing something else on your laptop is not participation, and will result in a C or lower. Here is a rough breakdown of what you can expect for each grade:
A: Lively engagement in discussions. Applies and/or challenges readings. Engages with and/or motivates peers
B: Actively listens in class and occasionally comments. Good collaboration with classmates
C: Tends to look disengaged. Might use phone or laptop for purposes not related to class. Occasionally tardy and absent
D: Sleeps in class. Rarely pays attention and/or is disruptive. Frequently tardy or absent. Unprepared for peer review or group meetings
F: Doesn’t attend class often. Sleeps through class when present, or disengaged. Disruptive.
You are expected to bring your laptop and a copy of the required readings or writing assignment to each class. This is a basic requirement for a C in class participation.
Blog Entries and Comments
Our course blog website is globaldigitalmodernisms.blogspot.com
Throughout the term you will post at least four 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 the due dates for each posting on the syllabus. 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.
Writing Center Visit Reflections
Over the course of the term, you are required to visit the English Department Writing Center in Balding House at least once, bringing an assignment from this course (such as a blog posting, project, presentation, essay rough draft, or final draft) that you are writing or revising. You can visit the writing center at any stage in the writing process, from brainstorming to editing. You can also visit the writing center to strengthen a particular skill, such as commas, introductions, or any aspect of writing or communication. Following your visit, complete a 250-word response reflecting on your visit. This reflection should include a description of the task or assignment that you brought to the center, the feedback you received, and your plans for moving forward. These reflections will be graded using the blog assessment rubric, and for quotations you should analyze the language of your own writing and the tutor's feedback you receive. Your reflection must also contemplate your own growth as a writer and critical thinker. Your reflections are due on Blackboard (under assignments) no later than the date indicated on the syllabus, but can be uploaded earlier.
Technology Policy
Technology use in-class should be related to what we are doing in class. Set your mobile phone to vibrate. Do not answer your mobile phone unless it appears to be an emergency, e.g. the call is from a child or elder care provider or a parent who would not call during class except in case of emergency. Do not engage with social media or email unless I specifically request that you do so as part of our in-class work.
Tools
We will use the following tools this term
Google Maps
TodaysMeet
WordPress
Prezi
Jing
Voyant
Scalar
Soundcloud
If you do not already have free user accounts for each of these services, you will need to create them. You may create pseudonymous user accounts solely for use in this class, or you can use existing accounts associated with your actual name.
Grading
Grade Scale:
100-94 A 79-77 C+
93-90 A- 76-74 C
89-87 B+ 73-70 C-
86-84 B 69-67 D+
83-80 B- 66-60 D
59-below F
Course Policies
1. Come to class. This is a workshop class that requires your daily attendance and active participation. Four absences will reduce your final grade by a full letter. If you accumulate five or more absences, you will be withdrawn from the class or receive a failing grade. Repeated tardiness will count as absences (3 tardies = 1 absence). If you are using your phone or sleeping in class, you will be asked to leave and marked absent.
2. Make your deadlines. Late assignments will not be accepted. Know and keep your deadlines. All due dates are posted in this syllabus.
3. Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Policies. Each student enrolled in a course at NYIT agrees that, by taking such course, he or she consents to the submission of all required papers for textual similarity review to any commercial service engaged by NYIT to detect plagiarism. Each student also agrees that all papers submitted to any such service may be included as source documents in the service’s database, solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers.
Plagiarism is the appropriation of all or part of someone else’s works (such as but not limited to writing, coding, programs, images, etc.) and offering it as one’s own. Cheating is using false pretenses, tricks, devices, artifices or deception to obtain credit on an examination or in a college course. If a faculty member determines that a student has committed academic dishonesty by plagiarism, cheating or in any other manner, the faculty has the academic right to 1) fail the student for the paper, assignment, project and/or exam, and/or 2) fail the student for the course and/or 3) bring the student up on disciplinary charges, pursuant to Article VI, Academic Conduct Proceedings, of the Student Code of Conduct.
In your writing for this class, you are encouraged to refer to other people's thoughts and writing -- as long as you cite them.
If you are ever in doubt about whether you are citing something correctly, please contact the professor.
You must list all sources you consult in your works cited list. You must cite web pages.
In moments of crisis students sometimes make decisions that they would not otherwise make. If you find yourself in a situation that affects your work in this class, please contact the instructor.
4. Original Work. All of your assignments must be created originally for this class only. Work submitted for other courses or created before the start of this course will not be accepted.
5. Computer Access. According to university policy, all students are required to own or have access to a computer system off campus with connectivity to the Internet and an installed or current version of Microsoft Office. NOTE: Microsoft Works is not compatible with Microsoft Office.
6. Cell phones. Please turn off all cell phones and other electronic devices before the beginning of class.
7. Library Resources. All students can access the NYIT virtual library from both on and off campus at www.nyit.edu/library. The same login you use to access NYIT e-mail and NYITConnect will also give you access to the library’s resources from off campus.
On the left side of the library’s home page, you will find the “Library Catalog” and the “Find Journals” sections. In the middle of the home page you will find “Research Guides;” select “Video Tutorials” to find information on using the library’s resources and doing research.
Should you have any questions, please look under “Library Services” to submit a web-based “Ask-A-Librarian” form.
8. NYIT Withdrawal and Incomplete Grade Policy. A student may withdraw from a course without penalty through the end of the 8th week of class during a 14- or 15-week semester and through the 8th meeting during an 8week course cycle. After this, the student must be doing passing work in order to receive a W grade. Students who are not passing after the 8th week or equivalent will be assigned the grade of WF.
It is the student’s responsibility to inform the instructor of his/her intention to withdraw from a course. If a student has stopped attending class without completing all assignments and/or examinations, failing grades for the missing work may be factored into the final grade calculation and the instructor for the course may assign the grade of WF. The grade of F is used for students who have completed the course but whose quality of work is below the standard for passing.
Withdrawal forms are available in departmental offices and once completed must be filed with the registrar. Students should be reminded that a W notation could negatively impact their eligibility for financial aid and/or V.A. benefits, as it may change the student’s enrollment status (full-time, part-time, less than part-time). International students may also jeopardize their visa status if they fail to maintain full-time status.
The temporary grade of Incomplete (I) shall change to a failing grade (IF) if the student does not complete the work by the end of the allotted time. Grades of IF become part of the student's CUM.
The Department of English Writing Center and Writing Workshop Computer Lab
Discuss your essays with Professors of English. While the Writing Center can help you with grammar and punctuation, it is not primarily an editing service. Rather, you can work with writing instructors to address specific writing concerns or issues. The Writing Center is a place to get additional support for your writing, servicing all students at all levels of writing and at any stage of the writing process. You can also use the Wireless Laptop Writing Workshop, a writing computer lab with laptops and wireless access to the Internet. The Writing Center and the Writing Workshop lab are located in Balding House. No appointment is necessary, but you are welcome to schedule an in-person appointment or online consultation at http://nyit.mywconline.com/. Give us a call at 516-686-7557 and visit us at 101 Balding House. For hours and announcements, visit our website [www.nyit.edu/student_resources/tutoring#WritingCenter], like our page on Facebook [facebook.com/owwriting/], and/or follow us on Twitter @NYITwritingOW
Course Schedule
Assignments and readings are due on the dates below.
Mon. 1/23: First Day of Class. Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times (1936).
Wed. 1/25: Understanding Rhetoric Introduction and Issue 1
Mon. 1/30: Understanding Rhetoric Issues 2 and 4.
In Class: Modernist Journals Project
Wed. 2/1: Read Virginia Woolf, “A Society” (1921) from Monday or Tuesday and E. M. Forster, “The Machine Stops” (1909). You can also use the Audiobooks App.
Mon. 2/6: Read Nella Larsen Passing Part 1 and the first half of Part 2.
Wed. 2/8: Finish Passing Parts 2 and 3. Toi Dericotte, "Passing."
In Class: Workshop Sample Essay.
Mon. 2/13: Read excerpt from They Say/ I Say.
Wed. 2/15: Blog Posting 1 Due . Read 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) in the Norton Critical Edition of Passing.
Mon. 2/20: No Class: Presidents' Day.
Wed. 2/22: Read Jean Rhys Good Morning Midnight first half of Part 1. The Voice of Jean Rhys.
Mon. 2/27: Read Good Morning Midnight second half of Part 1 and Charles Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life” (1863).
In Class: Mapping Paris
Wed. 3/1: Blog Posting 2 Due. Read Good Morning Midnight Part 2 and excerpts from The Cambridge Introduction to Jean Rhys by Elaine Savory and Rhys's autobiography, Smile Please.
Mon. 3/6: Read Good Morning Midnight Part 3 and Lauren Elkin, "When a Biography is Not a Biography: The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys."
Wed. 3/8: Read Mary Wilson and Kerry L. Johnson, “Introduction: Rhys Matters?” and Andrea Zemgulys, “Menu, Memento, Souvenir: Suffering and Social Imagination in Good Morning, Midnight.”
Mon. 3/13: Analytical Essay Rough Draft Due. In class peer review.
Wed. 3/15: Analytical Essay Final Draft Due.
In Class: Mrs. Dalloway film assignment.
Spring Break: March 18-25
Mon. 3/27: Writing Center Reflection Due. Read Una Marson poems and Claude McKay, “If We Must Die,” “America,” “Subway Wind,” “On Broadway,” and “The Tropics in New York.” "Constrained to Honor: A Discussion of Claude McKay's 'If We Must Die."
Tues. 3/28: Attend Mark Hussey Lecture, 12:30-1:30pm, Anna Rubin 305
Wed. 3/29: Read Ezra Pound, “In A Station of the Metro (1913),” T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915), and Virginia Woolf, “Street Haunting” (1930).
In Class: Class meets in Wisser Library Classroom
Mon. 4/3: Read James Joyce, The Dead. James Joyce in Paris in the 1920s, James Joyce Reads From Ulysses.
Wed. 4/5: Blog Posting 3 Due. Finish The Dead, Cheng Essay. Irish News Archive
Monkstown from Mapping Dubliners http://mulliken.okstate.edu/monkstown/
Joyce's Dublin: An Exploration of "The Dead" http://www.joycesdublin.ie/
Mon. 4/10: Read Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable 9-60 and Anand, “A Drink with Bonamy Dobrée in the Museum Tavern” from Conversations in Bloomsbury. Video of Mulk Raj Anand.
Wed. 4/12: Blog Posting 4 Due. Read Untouchable 60-110.
In Class: "India Summit: Salman Rushdie on Contemporary Literature in India" from Emory University (2014).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NAJ30XjaXI
Mon. 4/17: Research Project Proposal Due. Read Untouchable 110-156.
In Class: Work on Scripts and Podcasts or Videos, Finding Secondary Sources.
Wed. 4/19: Read Jessica Berman, chapter 2 of Modernist Commitments: Ethics, Politics, and Transnational Modernism (2012).
In Class: Podcast and Video pitches
Mon. 4/24: Research Project Podcast or Video and Script Rough Draft Due. In class peer review.
Wed. 4/26: Read Sarojini Naidu, The Golden Threshold. Sarojini Naidu Video.
In Class: Poetry | Genius
Mon. 5/1: Podcast or Video and Script Final Draft Due.
Wed. 5/3: In Class: Film of The Dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UVwDllTuoA&list=PL601EE6E270646504
Mon. 5/8: Review for Exam.
Final Exam Wednesday May 17, 3pm, Anna Rubin Hall 312