Assignments

Critical Response Papers -- Everyone must complete at least 8 of the 14 possible short critical and analytical response papers; response papers for Week 1 and Week 5 and Week 10 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=1434. 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.

Posthuman Narratives 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 three novels required by the class in addition to a reader of short readings and one video game. 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. All of the short readings for class are also available via the (class Moodle). Consult the course syllabus for the week's required reading. The following is a full bibliographical list of the class readings:

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.

Castronova, Edward. "Preface." Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. xiii-xix.

---. "Dreams Fashioned in Silicon." Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 3-20.

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.

Cherniavsky, Eva. "Body." Keywords for American Cultural Studies Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 26-29.

Chiang, Ted. "Liking What You See: A Documentary." Stories of Your Life and Others. New York: Tor Books, 2002. 281-323.

Ferguson, Roderick A. "Race." Keywords for American Cultural Studies Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 191-196.

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

Foster, Thomas. "Introduction: Cyberpunk's Posthuman Afterlife." The Souls of Cyberfolk: Posthumanism as Vernacular Theory. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. xi-xxix.

---. "The Souls of Cyberfolk: Performativity, Virtual Embodiment, and Racial Histories." The Souls of Cyberfolk: Posthumanism as Vernacular Theory. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. 137-170.

Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books, 1984.

Halberstam, Judith. "Gender." Keywords for American Cultural Studies Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 116-120.

Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century." Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991. 149-182.

Hayles, N. Katherine. "Prologue." How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. xi-xiv.

---. "Chapter One: Toward Embodied Virtuality." How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 1-24.

Jacobs, Naomi. "Posthuman Bodies and Agency in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis." Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination. Eds. Raffaella Baccolini and Tom Moylan. New York: Routledge, 2003. 91-111.

Lowe, Lisa. "Imagining Los Angeles in the Production of Multiculturalism." Reading Contexts. Ed. Gail Stygall. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005. 481-492.

McGonigal, Jane. "Growing Up Gamer." AvantGame. Sep. 2008. 22 Mar. 2012. http://www.avantgame.com/growing_up_gamer_mcgonigal_sept2008.pdf.

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." Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge, 2002. 61-85.

Niu, Greta Aiyu. "Techno-Orientalism, Nanotechnology, Posthumans, and Post-Posthumans in Neal Stephenson's and Linda Nagata's Science Fiction." MELUS. 33.4 (Winter 2008): 73-96.

Prashad, Vijay. "Orientalism." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 174-177.

Shawl, Nisi. "Maggies." Filter House. Seattle: Aqueduct Press, 2008. 93-115.

Somerville, Siobhan. "Queer." Keywords for American Cultural Studies Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 187-191.

"The Transhumanist Declaration." World Transhumanist Association. 23 Mar. 2012. http://transhumanism.org/resources/TenQuestions.pdf.

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

wolfe, Cary. "Introduction: What is Posthumanism?" What is Posthumanism? Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2010. xi-xxxiv.

Media

Bioshock. Quincy, MA: Irrational Games, 2007.

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

Jackson, Shelley. "My Body--A Wunderkammer." Electronic Literature Collection 1. Eds. N. Katherine Hayles, Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg, and Stephanie Strickland. October 2006. http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/jackson__my_body_a_wunderkammer.html.

"Pilot." Almost Human. Fox. 17 Nov. 2013. Television.

"Pilot." Bionic Woman: Volume One. Universal Studios, 2008. DVD.

Robot Stories. Dir. Greg Pak. Pak Film, 2003. DVD.

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