Professor Landow (office: 338 Carr House; office hours: 10:-10:50, MWF; Class meets 9:00-9:50 am in in Multimedia Lab Classroom in the Grad Center; occasional evening screenings. [Note: The Registrar has mistakenly assigned us to meet in Smith-Buonanno 207, so we'll meet there the first day in case visitors or shoppers drop by.]

Weekly discussion Questions and Commentary

1. The weekly reading and discussion question has three parts: (a) depending upon whether the week's subject involves video, film, or literature, you will either describe a scene or include substantial passage of 1-3 paragraphs (please don't forget page numbers — and to give your question set a title); (b) a graceful and effective introduction to the passage or the aspect of the work that suggests why the reader wants to examine it closely; and (c) 4-5 questions, chiefly concerning matters of technique, for which you do not have to have answers. These exercises, which provide the basis of class discussion, should be e-mailed to me no later than 6 pm the day before we begin discussing the reading. (You can skip a single set of questions during the semester.) Follow for an example of such reading questions for another course.

2. Begining with week 9, weekly contributions will take the form of three interlinked documents, one or more of which should contain questions and discuss materials on the site created by earlier classes as well as materials encountered in previous weeks. These assignments may be mailed in on Wednesday or Friday. [Student projects]

Part One. Cyberspace, Cyberpunk, and Simulated Worlds

Weeks 1 and 2. Wednesday 6 through 15 September. Physical, Virtual, Digital Reading: William Mitchell, Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City. Landow, Hypertext 3.0, 1-49. Web materials: What is a Medium? and What is Information technology? -- Discussion questions.

Weeks 3 through 6. Monday, 18 September, through Friday, 6 October. Gibsonian Cyberspace & Cyberpunk Sci Fi. Reading: The Neuromancer Trilogy: Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Discussion questions and commentary.

Columbus Day Weekend: 7-9 October (no classes 8 October)

Weeks 7 and 8. Wednesday 11 October through Friday 20 October. Simulation. Tuesday lecture on the history of literary studies and critical theory in relation to information technology. Reading:

Discussion questions on Baudrillard. [Discussions of Baudrillard by members of English 111 and 65.]

Week 9. Monday, 23 October, through Friday, 27 October. Cyborg Self, Simulations of Self (1). Viewing: Max Headroom, "the first cyberpunk tv show," and Bubble Gum Crisis. Reading: Anime section of the class web, materials on Max Headroom and discussion questions. Note: If we cannot obtain a copy of Bubble Gum Crisis 5, we'll do another Max Headroom, either the pilot Blipverts or one on genetically engineered babies. Evening screening: Blade Runner.

Week 10. Monday, 30 October, through Friday, 3 November. Who's Human? Whose Human? Evening screening: Ghost in the Shell. On-site materials about Blade Runner. Three-part projects.

Part Two. Cyborg Bodies, Virtual Bodies

Week 11. Monday, 6 November, through Friday, 19 November. Cyborg-Feminists and Writing the Body. Reading: Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. Stein, The Prosthesis Project. Commentary on Haraway and cyborgs.

Part Three. Virtual Worlds/Virtual Politics/Virtual Narratives

Week 12. 20-22 November. Cyborg Writing and Reconfiguring Narrative. Reading: Landow, Hypertext 3.0, pp. 215--264; Readings: Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl and My Body. Read Mini-essays on Patchwork Girl.

Thanksgiving Recess: Wednesday noon, 22 November to Sunday, 3 December.

Week 13. Monday, 4 December, through Friday, 8 December. Tuesday, 26 April. More Digi-lit: Cyborg Academic Discourse, Fiction, and Poetry

Thursday, 7 December, through Monday, 11 December: Reading period. It may be used as an expansion week; 12-20 December: Final Exam Period

Final projects by members of the 2005 and 2006 seminars.

Assigned readings and viewings

Web Resources

Course Website cyborg Body & Self

Last modified 4 January 2007