All posts by Micheal

Not-at-all Professorial Mixtape

I thought it only fair if I also posted a playlist. Putting it together was harder than I expected: only six songs?! What was I thinking? I should say, “Another Brick in the Wall” isn’t quite my favorite Pink Floyd track (for my real answer, see “Time”), but I couldn’t resist the irony.

Also, I wanted to add a track from Yoko Kanno’s Cowboy Bebop OST, but alas it’s not on Spotify! So you get a Youtube link instead…

Your definitions of “Literature”

Literature is that which broadens your perspective on the human condition and experience by evoking feeling through the use of interpretive expression. — Dimesha, Rowan, Andres, Tyleshia, and Steffany (a.k.a. “The Romantics”)

Literary works reflect our experience and combine old ideas with new ones that further our culture. — Justin, Jason, Neyda, Adina and Natalie (a.k.a. “The Historicists”)

Literature is material that derives from popular culture and is studied by that culture, where it represents all the ideas, interactions, and phenomena of people at a certain period of time. — Albin, Mario, Kusang, and Christopher (a.k.a. “The Culturalists”)

Literature is written language used to encourage thinking, to persuade, describe and react to the world we live in. And also to entertain. — Maria, Kimberly, Serena, and Sheilah (a.k.a. “The Rhetoricians”)

Literature is your understanding of the text, while learning to analyze important details you’ve noticed throughout the author’s work. — Gabriel, Emily, and Joshua (a.k.a. “The Reader Response Critics”)

Mixtape blog

Careful readers of the syllabus will notice that on 3/22 we have no class, as I will be away at a conference. In lieu of class, then, we will have a “mixtape blog” assignment. Here’s what that entails:

  1. Choose one of the songs from your music mixtape.
  2. Write a 300-500 word “close listening” blog (that is, a careful critical analysis). In other words, demonstrate how the song makes meaning and elicits feeling. You might make reference to the song’s lyrics (in particular, their literary elements), the “sound” of the song (for example, instrumentation, tone, rhythm, and so on) and, if the music video is relevant, visual imagery.
  3. Post your blog here by Friday, March 22 @ midnight.
  4. Before our March 29 class session, leave a 2-3 sentence comment on one of your classmates’ blogs.

Posting your blog on time will count as “attendance” for the missed class session.

WELCOME STUDENTS!

STUDENTS!

Welcome to ENG 102: Writing Through Literature—also known as LITERARY LISTENING.

At the very least, this site houses the course’s supplementary materials (in other words, the stuff you don’t have to buy) and an up-to-date syllabus.

Beyond that, we will use this site as a platform for sharing your work, research, and ideas.

Let me finish with a question to you: Do you have any ideas or suggestions for using this course site?