Archive for October, 2007
proposal and staffers report samples…
…are available at Blackboard.
Note that these are just examples to work from. Your document will be shorter and will not include as extensive a literature review (as I said in the email I sent out).
These are very different topics from what we have been working with! However, these do provide good frames and contexts. In the instance of the staffers report, try to imagine creating headings for, say, a discussion of “gentrification in Roanoke”; or, an overview of the debates on gay marriage.
***in the case of the staffers report, (though now public) you should print that document or view it Blackboard, but not re-post it here (as you can see, it’s the real deal and fairly recent)
There is a link at Blackboard as well to the The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a non-partisan public policy research arm of the United States Congress. There are all sorts of examples and interesting documents at this site!
Jen
Erasing Race
Here’s the full chapter of Erasing Race.
10/15: Twain, Walker, and Animated Irony
Taylorism: http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/dea453_653/ideabook1/thompson_jones/Taylorism.htm
Image from 19th c. illustrated edition
Stereotypes as “automation” and “animation”
Automation: in a Post-Fordism era relies on mechanization as a way of assigning essential qualities. In this reading, Jim’s automated vernacular speech, glances, and gestures are indicative of his capacities and character, and by extension, “stand in” for attributes of an entire group.
Think of “the veil” in terms of the reductive arguments made about “oppressed eastern women” in the aftermath of 9/11.
Animation: focuses instead in how automated stereotypes are “faulty” mechanisms, and how they can be appropriated in creative, productive ways to point to the “faulty” work of stereotypes.
Twain is writing at a moment where these distinctions are crucial: the apex of the Industrial Revolution; melodrama and minstrel forms.
These appropriations make productive use of the “surfaces” of animate characters to expose the faulty workings of stereotypes that “stand in” for a group.
They rely on Irony
“Many critics…have been disinclined…to extend their appreciation of irony into their encounters of racist stereotypes.” (Fisher Fishkin)
Why? As Butler points out in her critical work, this form of “surface” play has been incredibly important to re-working a consideration of sexuality and gender as performatives. Such creative playfulness can have profound affects.
It is this “blindspot” that I think informs many readings of the “failure” of Twain’s text.
What if we were to consider the “gender” scene earlier in the text as a kind of “ironic” preparation for how we are to read Jim?
The ironic trope of “this is how…” doesn’t carry over into issues of race in the text for many readers.
The accompanying image from an earlier edition speaka to this. Twain’s second level of irony is meant perhaps to point out or resistance to reading race and gender in the “same frame.”
Copy of second writing assignment
Feminist Theory
Second Writing Assignment: Genre
This assignment is worth 20% of your grade
The due dates are as follows (NOTE changed due dates!!!!!!)
Draft due in class: 10/22
Final copy due in class: 10/29
1. Write a report or proposal (4-5 pages, typed and double-spaced, and include an annotated bibliography of at least three sources) that is based in a theory, figure, or concept studied in this class. The report or proposal narrative should include one or two well-chosen quotes from one or more of the texts read in class. Base the development of your proposal in a theory, figure, or idea studied in class. There are a couple of ways to do this. The first is to take up directly an issue discussed in class, for example, “The debate on gay marriage.” An alternative approach would be to write a grant proposal on a secondary issue, but to incorporate one of the themes or theoretical ideas into the proposal; for example, a grant proposal on “feminism and science” that introduces the idea of ontology or structuralism.
Options for number 1:
Congressional staffer’s report
Grant or research proposal
2. Develop a creative response to a text/film, theory, or concept studied in class. Your creative response could take the form of a newspaper editorial, poem, story, image-essay, manifesto, or an outline of a dance/performance. You should include a 2-3 page introduction, typed and double-spaced, describing your theoretical framework. The work should total 4-6 pages: intro + creative response.
NOTE: FOR GRANT PROPOSALS OR CONGRESSIONAL STAFFER REPORTS, I WILL BE POSTING FULL EXAMPLES FOR YOU TO WORK FROM; THOUGH YOU MAY WANT TO INVESTIGATE OTHER MODELS ON YOUR OWN.
Fred Moten Article
The Moten article “Black Mo’nin’ in the Sound of the Photograph” for Monday is posted for download at Blackboard
10/1: Huck Finn intro: sites for session on ministrel and intersectional affect
Animation, race, and playing with the affect of surface and depth
