“Truth depends on an encounter with something
that forces us to think and to seek the truth.” (14)
 
“if the resonance has both objective and subjective conditions,
what it produces is of an altogether different nature:
the Essence, the spiritual Equivalent….that breaks with the subjective chain.” (154)

— Deleuze, Proust and Signs (1972)

 
M 30-Nov     Foer: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (through p. 173)
                       (Laura Hampson & Tahara Franklin)
 
 
W 02-Dec     Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (pp. 174-259)
                       (Krystal Sardinas & Paige Miller)

Due: Project Proposal Update (revised/finalized; 7pm, on blog)
(counts as blog entry; add Foer to your “poetics inventory”)

→ Notes from class discussion (plus reminders and clarifications)

 
 
F 04-Dec     Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (pp. 267-326)            (Sarah Zimmerman)

plus: (required): “Mystory” excerpts by Ulmer (PDF)

 
M 07-Dec    Due: Final Project — “Resonance Assemblage” (checkpoint / partial)
 
 

M 09-Nov          read:

Gregory Ulmer, “The Learning Screen.” 4 pages. Networked. 2009.
and Franz Kafka’s parable, “Before the Law”
 


Orson Welles’ version: Watch/Listen (2:50)

 
W 11-Nov     No classes—Veterans Day
                     Due: Response 5 — Prompt (deadline 11:59pm)

 
F 13-Nov     EGO Conference: see schedule below.
                     Due: Blog Entry, “Inventory” about lessons thus far; see more below.

M 09-Nov          read: Ulmer, “The Learning Screen.” Networked. 2009.
T 10-Nov          (guest lecture, optional) Rescheduled Noah Wardrip-Fruin (Asst Professor, UC-Santa Cruz). “Process-Oriented Fictions: Narrative in the Age of Media Machines.” 5pm, 285 Reitz. More Info
W 11-Nov         No classes—Veterans Day                      Due: Response 5	Blog Entry due Friday
R 12-Nov English Graduate Organization	9th Annual Conference
F 13-Nov Class meets in 150 Pugh Hall; choose 2pm or 3:30 session (attendance required; normal policy applies) EGO Conference Schedule Keynote Speaker: Dominick LaCapra (Cornell University). “Sebald, Coetzee, and the Narrative of Trauma” Ustler Atrium, 13-Nov 7pm
additional UF events:
F 13-Nov Good Bye DDR: Memory and Material Culture Dauer Hall (10am-5pm). Schedule –see especially: “Memory and Visual Culture” Facebook
F 13-Nov UF School of Art + Art History “ArtBash” 2009 6-9pm, Fine Arts Complex (Fine Arts Buildings A/B/C/D) Website
13-14 Nov 2009 Florida Writers Festival. Schedule

F 09-Oct                    Due: Response 3 — Prompt
 
                                  Extra Credit for Resp 3. (due 12-Oct)
 

extra credit — part of Resp. 3
200 words (separate entry/post); due M 12-Oct

Read and respond to a classmate’s entry.
Describe the affect expressed (that you intuit from the fragments).
Evaluate the effect of (or the extent to which) the entry’s expressing experience through “unconventional discourse.”
From this, (important) discuss “lessons” to take from Vonnegut, for understanding experience and expression—particularly for expressing experience.
(note: feel free to email me with questions or for further instructions about this reading-reply)

Response 3: Creative Writing Assignment (Responding to Slaughterhouse Five)
500-600 words; 10 points
Due: Fri 09-Oct (11:59pm)

Vonnegut provides the impetus for this imaginative assignment in several ways: the full title(s) of the novel; Billy Pilgrim’s profession (optometry); the Tralfamadorians’ perception (“four dimensional”); the formal (textual) breaks in the narrative, which compel us to “fill in the blanks.”

Tip: Review notes on writing of the disaster and “concealed” or “hidden” (secret) truth of experience: Wed 07-Oct.

 
 
Option 1

Task: Express a particular affect {subjective dimension of “experience”: feeling, mood, disposition, attitude, stance} that Vonnegut conveys through Slaughterhouse Five. Use the aesthetic logic of expression, rather than explicitly stating or describing this affect (in “rational” discourse).

So, first step: decide upon a specific affect that you have intuited from the novel. This can be about Dresden or Vietnam, but likely more general, involving a feeling/stance toward both — I have presented Dresden as Vonnegut’s vehicle for addressing Vietnam, after all.

 
 
Option 2

Similar task, but complementary perspective: use the novel’s elements—characters, settings, (respective) narratives, etc.—to express (an) experience of your choice/invention. This need not be inherently “related,” but probably “parallel” with Vonnegut’s topics. As we do not seek to “reveal” or “unveil” the “truth” of this experience (scientific / rational mode), your composition should not “tell the testimony” of the situation but present an expressive figure that conveys the affect of experience.