PBDS  718

Imitation And Creativity

 

NOTE: This is representative of the syllabi for this course. It is not necessarily the syllabus being used in any one semester.

 

About the Course

 

I.          Required Texts

 

Bloom, Anxriety of In/luence  

Eliot, The Wasteland and Other Poems

McLuhan and Fiore, The Medium is the Massage

Shakespeare, The Tempest

Taylor and Saarinen, Imagologies,

 

II.        Requirements

 

1.         Attendance and Participation             15%

2.         Document report                                25%

3.         Response assignment                          25%

4          Final project                                        35%

 

 

 

 

Meeting and Readings

 

Sept, 4                         Introduction to the course

 

Sept. 11                       Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual  Talent" (handout)

Borges, "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" (handout)

 

Sept. 18                       Bloom pp.1-16; Eliot, "'The Waste Land"

 

Sept. 25                       Screen Repro Man; re-read "Waste Land"

 

Oct. 2                          Discuss Repo Man; Eliot, "The Love Song of  J. Alfred Prufrock"

 

Oct. 9                          NO MEETING

 

Oct. 16                        Imagologies first half, especially the sections called "Communicative

                                    Practices," "Simcult," "Media Philosophy," and "Superficiality"

 

Oct. 23                        Imagologies second half, especially "Interesting,"  "Netropolis," "Speed," "Body

Snatching," and "Gaping"

Read all of The Medium is the Massage

 

Oct. 30                        NO MEETING

 

Nov. 6                                     Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

Nov. 20                       Discuss Tempest and Forbidden Planet

 

Nov. 27                       NO MEETING

 

Dec. 4                          Screen Prospero's Books

 

Dec. 11                        Discuss Prospero's Books  and final projects

 

 

 

Document Report

 

25% of your grade will be based on a brief (10-15 minute) oral report given on one occasion during the semester.  Sign up on one of the nine evenings available.  Bring to class some document (meaning an advertisement, graphic, example of layout, illustration, drawing, painting, video clip, audio sample, Web site, poem, prose passage, etc.) that is clearly an imitation of some other production.  Be prepared to identify the "original" and to discuss the relationship between the earlier and the later document.  Try to choose something that raises questions about everyday assumptions concerning imitation and creativity.  Write up a 1-3 page summary of your report and hand it in when you present.

 

 

Response

 

25% of your grade will be based on a response statement prepared for one item of assigned reading or viewing during the semester.  Sign up on one of the available evenings.  Write a 1-2 page handout outlining your reaction to the text we have under consideration.  This should not be merely a "gut check" (e.g., "who does this Bloom guy think he is?") but a thoughtful consideration of issues and implications raised by the reading or film.  Or you may ant to point out some aspect of the text that isn't immediately apparent, so long s it provides an interesting basis for discussion.  Or you may simply want to list some questions about the text, again as a starting point for deeper inquiry.  The major consideration here is service to the class:  a good response statement helps frame and stimulate class discussion.