Assignments

Critical Response Papers -- Everyone must complete at least 7 of the 14 possible short critical and analytical response papers; response papers for Week 1 and Week 4 and Week 8 are strongly recommended of all students. Each week, response papers are due on Saturday by noon. Papers are submitted electronically via Moodle: https://moodle.drew.edu/2/course/view.php?id=3184. Email submissions will not be accepted unless previously arranged.

Critical Context & Question Presentation -- You will be a required to sign up for an oral presentation individually or in pairs. For your presentation, research a topic relevant to the week's texts, generate a critical question to get class discussion started, and create a single-spaced, 1-page handout for the whole class. Presentations are 5-7 minutes and may include media.

Cyberpunk Critical Review -- a 500-750 word analytical review of a text you would think could be or should be included in our class. Critical Reviews are due by the last day of instruction and will be posted to the class blog.

Mash-Up "Mixed-Paper" Final Project -- a final paper "collection" where you will You will 1) identify a critical question, claim, or concept that will frame and organize your project; 2) write a page of introduction, a kind of prologue to the project explaining your overall goals; 3) select and revise and order four of your Critical Response Papers, which fit, explore, or support your organizing analytic; 4) include between each part of the project a combination of image, verse, or quotes from the readings or outside research that provides transition and furthers your analytical 'story'; 5) write a page of conclusion, a kind of epilogue to the project; and 6) an academic bibliography with at least five, recent, relevant, and useful sources.

Organizing the Mixed Paper -- suggestions and strategies for developing an organizational analytic and making connections in your "mixed-paper" final project.

Information Sheets

The following are handouts, informational sheets, and readings that will be assigned or used over the course of the quarter. Each student will recieve a copy of each as a handout in class during the appropriate week. If you miss a sheet, feel free to print out a new copy.

Ed's Top Ten List of "Ways to Survive University"

Ed's Top Ten Rules of Writing

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

MLA Citation and Bibliographic Format

What is Close Reading?

Readings

There are six novels required by the class in addition to a reader of short readings. The novels are available via the Drew Bookstore (or through any reputable bookseller). The course reader is available for purchase in the main English office in 108 Sitterly House. Consult the course syllabus for the week's required reading. The following is a full bibliographical list of the class readings:

Bethke, Bruce. "Cyberpunk." Infinity Plus. 1997. 21 Nov. 2012. http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/cpunk.htm.

Bradbury, Ray. "2026: There Will Come Soft Rains." The Martian Chronicles. New York: Bantam Books, 1950. 166-172.

Burroughs, William S. Naked Lunch. New York: Grove Press, 1959.

Bush, Vannevar. "As We May Think." The Atlantic. 1 Jul. 1945. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/.

Butler, Octavia. Dawn. New York: Aspect, 1987. Cline, Ernest. Ready Player One. New York: Crown, 2011.

Dick, Philip. K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep New York: Del Rey, 1968.

Fernbach, Amanda. "The Fetishization of Masculinity in Science Fiction: The Cyborg and the Console Cowboy." Science Fiction Studies. 27.2 (Jul. 2000): 234-255.

Gibson, William. "Burning Chrome." Burning Chrome. New York: Eos Books, 1986. 179-204.

---. "Johnny Mnemonic." Burning Chrome. New York: Ace Books, 1987. 1-22.

---. Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books, 1984.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial, 1932.

Lai, Larissa. Salt Fish Girl. Toronto, ON: Thomas Allen, 2002.

McHugh, Maureen. "A Coney Island of the Mind." Isaac Asimov's Cyberdreams. Eds. Gardner Dozois and Sheila Williams. New York: Ace Books, 1994. 83-90.

Moore, C. L. "No Woman Born." Wopmen of Wonder: The Classic Years. Ed. Pamela Sargent. New York: Hartcourt, Brace, and Co., 1995: 21-64.

Nakamura, Lisa. "Race in the Construct and the Construction of Race." Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge, 2002. 61-85.

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York: Plume, 1949.

Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash. New York: Bantam Spectra, 1992.

Sterling, Bruce. "Preface." Mirrorshades. New York: Ace Books, 1986. ix-xvi.

Tiptree, James, Jr. The Girl Who Was Plugged In. New York: Tor, 1973.

Vinge, Vernor. "True Names." True Names and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier. Ed. James Frenkel. New York: Tor, 2001. 239-330.

Wolmark, Jenny. "Cyberpunk, Cyborgs, and Feminist Science Fiction." Aliens and Others: Science Fiction, Feminism, and Postmodernism. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 1994. 108-138.

Media

Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. Warner Bros., 1982. DVD.

Chang, Edmond Y. & Timothy Welsh, "'Would You Kindly?': Bioshock and Posthuman Choice." In Media Res. 10 Mar. 2011. http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/imr/2011/03/10/would-you-kindly-bioshock-and-posthuman-choice.

The Matrix. Dir. Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski. Warner Bros., 1999. DVD.

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