"Why are the curtains red?"
Enough. It doesn't matter that they were red. Stop and listen. It could be that the curtains are trying to speak to you.
Think of language as light, with words acting as light-rays on a trajectory to an object and a recipient. As each light-ray filters through voices and characters, the original intention is disturbed, distorted, and refracted. Ventriloquizing, accents/code switching, dual meanings, ironizing, and parodying are just a few of the ways that language affects and is affected by social values in the context of storytelling. Russian philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin called this “spectral diffusion.”
In this discussion-based course, you will unlearn and reconceptualize literature through Bakhtin’s framework of language by engaging in open-ended dialogue with media as opposed to “solving the puzzle.” Most of us have been taught to analyze texts through poetic stylistic devices like metaphor, alliteration, or juxtaposition. But by prioritizing private craftsmanship, we ignore the social life of discourse that exists outside of the writer’s mind in public squares, streets, and cities and of social groups, generations, and epochs.
We’ll consider reality television (Jersey Shore) and drama (Shogun) along with a few novels (Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road, Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved), short stories (Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” and “Ken Liu’s “The Paper Menagerie”), autotheory (Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderlands/La Fronteria”), and music (Lil Wayne's "Lollipop", Etta James's "If I Can't Have You").
There will be one creative writing assignment, one final assignment (writing, media, or teaching), in-class discussions, and opportunities for extra credit.
In-Class Discussions: 40%
Weekly Finds: 10%
Written Assignment: 20%
Final Assignment: 30%
Extra Credit: 5%
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