Professor McGuire		Office Hours MWF 1-2
Skiles 365		Virtual Office Hours: TBA
894-7003
pm2@prism.gatech.edu

 

Our Goals

By the end of the quarter you should:

have a solid understanding of the basics of cultural studies

improved critical reading skills


be able to write a 1000-word essay incorporating a clear point, a well-focused argument, convincing evidence, and a clear prose style.


be able to use a networked environment to brainstorm with your classmates about essay topics and possible arguments, to edit and revise each other's work, and to communicate with me about ideas or writing problems.

Texts
Munns and Rajan ed., A Cultural Studies Reader
Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
The client software for Palace.  (More about this in class.)

The WebCrossing site at www.lcc.gatech.edu/cgi-bin/

Assignments

three 1000-word essays:  due on October 23, November 20, and on the final exam date.




six sets of summaries and responses to readings (Two will be randomly selected for grading.)




participation in on-line discussions in and out of class

• essay #1   20%
• essay #2   30%
• essay #3   30%
• summaries of and responses to readings    10% total
  
• quality of participation in on-line discussion groups   10% total

Attendance:

You are expected to attend all classes.


You must be present on the due dates for essays 1 and 2.


You are graded on the quality of lab work, so lab attendance would be prudent.

Assignment due dates and times:
Fairness dictates that everyone gets the same amount of time to complete assignments, so there is a grade penalty for late work.
 

Lab use
A number of classes share the lab; we get it for 50 minutes periods to use Palace and Web Crossing.  We don't get it for any other uses, and we have no free lab times.

So, plan to use your own PC’s for:

Web browsing

 

e-mail handling




printing




communicating with your Palace/WebCrossing group outside of class hours




writing essays and summaries




storing anything (the lab PC’s are wiped each day)

Other rules that keep things civilized:  

• Leave all food and drink outside the lab.


• Stay really quiet in the lobby, day-long classes are meeting in the other rooms.
 
• The food outside is theirs, not ours.

You will be reading two kinds of texts: the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin and a number of essays in the discipline of cultural studies.  We will spend most of our class time discussing the essays and seeing how they can be used to explain and illuminate some specific aspects of the novel.  In the part one of the course, we will look at the various cultures represented in the novel and how conflicts among cultural assumptions drive the novel’s plot.  In part two of the course we will look at how Stowe uses her novel to represent each of these cultures to create specific effects in her audience.  In part three of the course we will look at how individual characters in the novel attempt to create their own identities within or without their cultures

About half of our classes will take place in a traditional classroom where we will do things in a fairly traditional way.  I will lecture; you can ask questions; we can all discuss.  Some of these classes will concentrate on the essays; others will concentrate on writing and editing techniques.

The other half of our classes will take place in a computer lab where we will work on the same content in a different way.  The class will divide into five-person discussion groups.  Group members will work together on-line to improve their understanding of the assigned essay’s  meaning and significance.

In the days following the class, each of you will use the results of your own reading and the group discussion to create your own one-paragraph summary and one-paragraph statement of significance.  You will post these paragraphs to me electronically.  I will read them all and grade about a third of them.  Each of you can expect to have two of your postings graded during the course of the quarter.

Three times during the quarter I will ask you to use what you have learned and compose a three-page essay.

In sum, each week will include reading, on-line and face to face discussion, and writing.  Careful attention to the weekly work will make the three-page essays less difficult than they might have been for you in the past.

Help with reading and writing will be available in a variety of ways.  In addition to the in-class collaborative work, we will also have an on-line discussion group that you can access at any time.  I will be available immediately before and after class, in scheduled office hours, and by e-mail.  I will also check in on the discussion groups, provide information and make suggestions.

Unit 1: What is "culture" ?

From September 23 to October 23 we will be looking at ways to define the term "culture."  We will read two essay's, Matthew Arnold's "Sweetness and light" and Henry Nash Smith's "The Myth of the Garden and Turner's Frontier Hypothesis."  We
will also read the first 20 chapters of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom's
Cabin.

We will begin by trying to define Arnold's argument.  "Sweetness and light" is part of a larger work, Culture and Anarchy, written in England in 1869.  As we read it, we will be interested first in the problem that Arnold is trying to solve and in why he thinks that the problem is important.  Then we will talk about Arnold's argument.  We want to see what he assumes to be obvious, what kind of evidence he thinks will persuade, and how much weight he gives to reason and emotion as persuasive tools.  By the time we are finished with our analysis, each of you should be able both to summarize Arnold's argument and to evaluate it.

 We will talk about the essay in class; you will discuss it in groups in the lab and in asynchronous discussions in WebCrossing.  By 8 AM on Friday, October 2, each of you will write and post to our WebCrossing "Assignments" folder your own summary of and response to the essay.

The following Monday we will go through the same process with Henry Nash Smith's essay, and by 8 AM, Friday, October 16 you will post a similar summary of and response to that essay.

  During this time we will devote at least one class to discussion of Uncle Tom's Cabin and several classes to issues of essay writing, focusing on developing a point and an argument to support it.
 

Key dates for this project:

• Summary and response paragraphs on Arnold posted by 8 AM Friday, October 2
• Summary and response paragraphs on Smith posted by  8 AM Friday, October 16.
• Essay on application of insights from Arnold and Smith to first portion of Uncle Tom's Cabin  submitted on paper during class on Friday, October 23.

Week 1 (9/21)
W  (370) Introduction to course and to cultural studies

F  (Lab in 354) on-line discussion: Arnold, “Sweetness and light”
 

Week 2 (9/28)
M  (370) Arnold, continued

W  (Lab in 354) Arnold, continued

F (370) discussion: Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, chap 1-6
The Arnold posting is due at 8 AM.
 

Week 3 (10/5)
M no class

W (370) discussion: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, chap 7-13

F (Lab in 354) on-line discussion: Arnold’s culture and Stowe’s society
 

Week 4 (10/12)
M (370) discussion, shaping the point and argument of an essay

W (Lab in 354) on-line discussion: Geertz, “Thick description . . . “

F ( Lab in 354 again) on-discussion, Arnold and Geertz
The Geertz posting is due at 8 AM.
 

Week 5 (10/19)
M (370) on-line discussions: posting and reviews of draft first paragraphs of essays

W (370 again)  Stowe, chap 14-20

F  (Lab in 354) review of each others essays
Essay 1 (1000 words, 2 printed copies) is due at the beginning of class.
 
 

Week 6 (10/26)
M (Lab in 354) on-line discussion: McLuhan, “The medium is the message”

W (370) Stowe, chap 21-27

F (Lab in 354) on-line discussion: medium and message in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The McLuhan posting is due at 8 AM.
(Graded essays returned.)
 

Week 7 (11/2)
M (370) Stowe, chap 28-35

W (Lab in 354) on-line discussion: medium and message in Uncle Tom’s Cabin

F (370) discussion: Ohmann,  "Doublespeak and ideology"
 

Week 8 (11/9)
M (Lab in 354) on-line discussion: Ohmann

W (370) discussion: Ohmann and McLuhan

F (Lab in 354) on-line discussion: Ohmann, McLuhan, and Stowe
The Ohmann posting is due at 8 AM.
 

Week 9 (11/16)
M (370) Stowe, chap 36-40

W  (Lab in 354) discussion: improving opening and concluding paragraphs

F (370) review of each others’ essays
Essay 2 (1000 words, printed copy)  is due at the beginning of class.
 
 

Week 10 (11/23)
M (Lab in 354) on-line discussion: Johnson, “What is cultural studies anyway?”

W (370) discussion: Johnson

F Thanksgiving Holiday
 

Week 11 (11/30)
M (Lab in 354) on-line discussion Johnson and Stowe
The Johnson posting is due at 8 AM.

W (370) discussion: using best evidence in an essay

F Prepare for final.
 

ESSAY 3 is the final exam and is due on the scheduled final exam day.

Toward a definition of culture
        Richard Johnson," What is Cultural Studies Anyway?" p 574- 608

        Clifford Gertz, "Thick Description . . . " p 236-256

How culture is mediated and/or represented

        Marshal McLuhan, "The Medium of the Message"  p 225 - 235

        Richard Ohmann,  "Doublespeak and Ideology"  P 303 - 315

How individual identity is constructed within a cultural matrix

        Cornell West, "Minority Discourse" p 412 - 419

        Sherry Ortner, " Is female to male . . . "  p 491 - 507