This page is under construction
and will be revised nearer to the assignment
dates (Last revised
5/3/07
)
Preface
The following are examples of paper topics,
but you should not feel confined to these
topics. You can choose a topic of your
own. The main goal is to think about an
interesting problem that can be developed
through close study of a particular work
or works.
Sample Topics for
the 4-page critical essay:
Take a specific example of contemporary
online communications (e.g.,
email, file sharing, blogs, wikis,
MySpace, FaceBook, etc.) and analyze
it using Lev Manovich’s
principles of new media. In what ways
does it express Manovich’s principles?
What aspects might offer complications
or expose tensions in Manovich’s
argument? Pay careful attention to
the claims Manovich makes for “new
media” and how he explicates
those claims.
How does Thomas Pynchon use the concept
of entropy in The Crying of Lot
49?
What is the function of this concept in the novel? Look at specific moments in
the novel that address the notion of entropy. How do these passages contribute
to the novel as a whole? What aspects of Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver’s
information theory might inform (or complicate) Pynchon’s use of the concept
of entropy? Do you see any problems in Pynchon's use of entropy?
Write an essay on the function of
metaphors and/or puns in Pynchon's
Crying of Lot 49. Focus on specific
examples and their role in the novel,
but try also to conclude with an argument
about how metaphors or puns fit--or
do not fit--with the novel's overall
vision or method.
Do a “close reading” of
a piece of digital literature, digital
art, graphic design, or advanced website
design that we’ve looked at in
class. First develop a protocol for
this kind of reading using Manovich,
Landow, Tschichold, Ong or some other
theorist we have read that might address
the question of how to read “new
media.” Then
develop a reading--an interpretive
thesis--that pays careful attention
to some interesting detail(s) or part(s)
of the piece of “new
media” work
you are considering.
Analyze the history of the computer
in terms of McLuhan’s or Ong’s
arguments about media. Look at specific moments in the development of the mainframe,
the personal computer or networking in the texts we’ve read in class and
analyze these moments given an understanding of what McLuhan calls the “personal
and social consequences” of media. What examples from the history of computing
might speak to McLuhan’s or Ong’s points about media? How might
computing differ from or complicate the examples of media given by McLuhan
or Ong?
Write an essay that uses some of
the readings you have done for this
class to compare specific features
or practices of print media (e.g.,
the book, the newspaper)
and digital media (e.g., a Web page,
a database). Conclude your essay with
a guess about what "reading"
will be like 50 or so years in the
future. (Be sure to base your reasoning
on underlying theses and specific features
or examples. That is, don't over-generalize
about the "book" versus the
"computer.")
Variant topic:
compare oral and digital media.
How might the information theory
elaborated by Claude Shannon and Warren
Weaver extend or complicate McLuhan’s argument that “the medium is the message”?
To what extent might Shannon and Weaver’s understanding of the disparity
between the “semantic aspects of communication” and “the engineering
problem” inform or complicate McLuhan’s claim that the “content” of
any medium is somehow different from its “message”? By way of closely
analyzing the texts, develop a nuanced argument about the tensions and similarities
between McLuhan’s media theory and Shannon and Weaver’s information
theory. How might these two theories enter into dialogue productively to
address the issue of digital communications?
Sample Topics for
8-page critical essay:
Write an essay in which you carefully
think about one aspect of postindustrial
"knowledge work" employment
(as set forth in the readings we have
done on business) that seems to you
to be especially interesting or problematic,
or that is founded on assumptions that
clash with other historical, social,
economic, political, or other values
that are valuable to society. For example,
how does the notion of "lifelong
learning" accommodate the notion
of a "liberal education" (or
well-rounded education in both the sciences
and humanities or arts), or should it?
Write an essay about one or more of
the pieces of business writings we have
read as pieces of writing. For
example, how do the pieces by Joseph
Schumpeter or Peter Senge work as a
kind of "imaginative" writing.
Or how do business writers use metaphor?
Write an essay that analyzes and evaluates
cyberlibertarianism as a belief or practice.
For example, compare John Perry Barlow's
"A Declaration of the Independence
of Cyberspace" to the Declaration
of Independence.
Write an essay that develops a thesis
about some aspect of William Gibson's
Neuromancer.
Write an essay in which you compare
or critique the vision of the future
set forth in the business works we have
read and in cyberpunk fiction or film.
Do a "close reading" of
the work(s) of one or more of the digital
artists we have looked at, and place
that work in a larger context of meaning
or evaluation.
Write an essay in which you critique,
defend, or intelligently evaluate the
position of the Critical Art Ensemble
on the difference between the actions
they recommend and "terrorism."
Write an essay that studies some aspect
of the issue of gender or race in cyberspace.
Write an essay on Califia.
Since this is a large work, you'll want
to be sure to focus on some particular
aspect of it that allows you both to
work closely with something concrete
and to develop larger implications.
For example, write an essay about the
relation between words, pictures, and
music in Califia. Other topics:
the paradigm of the quest or game, the
concept of space, the nature of the
navigation interface, the nature of
history, the role of gender or race,
the relation between Native-American
culture and hypertext, the nature of
memory, etc.
