Schedule - Modernist Magazines and Digital Humanities (Summer 2009)

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M 6/1

Week 1: Modernism, Magazines, Digital Humanities

How should we read magazines? Introduction to the Modernist Journals Project (http://modjourn.org) and literary modernism.

T 6/2

Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane, “Preface” and “Movements, Magazines, and Manifestos: The Succession from Naturalism.”

Spend some time “thumbing through” or searching The New Age and Blast at the MJP. Come prepared to talk about how you moved around in the magazines, to share some general impressions, and to indicate one interesting example (note the issue and page #) to share onscreen in class.

 W 6/3

Computer Lab—meet in the West End Building (W.E.B.) lobby, at normal class time.
* Located behind Roosevelt Hall and the tennis courts, alongside the athletic field

We will learn how to edit the course website & timeline by means of a hands-on activity. Before this meeting, spend an hour or two looking around in any of the magazines that catch your interest and note 2 or 3 things that you think are worth sharing (a poem, graphic, advertisement, essay—whatever). Make sure to take down the magazine title, item title, item author, item date and page number. You will spend the lab time entering this information into the course timeline, and then we'll talk about what you've put up. If there's time, you can work on your blog posts that are due tomorrow.

 Th 6/4

Sean Latham, “New Age Scholarship: The Work of Criticism in the Age of Digital Reproduction”; Sean Latham and Robert Scholes, “The Rise of Periodical Studies.”

Due: Project #1 — Blog post (2+ paragraphs) about the thing(s) you posted to the timeline in yesterday's lab workshop.

 M 6/8

Week 2: Topics of Early Modernism, 1900-1914
The Blue Review, Dana, The English Review, The New Age, Poetry, Rhythm, *The 1910 Collection

George Bornstein, “How to read a page: modernism and material textuality.”

Look through the magazines in the list above (only between the years 1900-1914) for examples of what Bornstein calls bibliographic coding. Be prepared to talk about one instance of it in class.

 T 6/9
Due: Blog post (1-2 paragraphs) about an interesting instance of bibliographic coding in your assigned magazine, with some analysis; tag your post with "Bibliographic Coding" (without the quotation marks) and comment on at least one other post.
 W 6/10 Computer Lab (meet in Library Room 384): work in small groups on Project #2.
 Th 6/11

Due: Project #2 — Timeline entries and collaborative blog post (5+ paragraphs) on 1 magazine, several topics. In-class roundup & general discussion.

Field trip! Presentation in the Special Collections Archive, 1:00 - 1:35.

 M 6/15

Week 3: 1914-1915, Blast & Commodity Culture

NO CLASS — but you do have homework!

Due: Blog post (2+ paragraphs, tag as “Timelining” without the quotes) reflecting on what you learned from using the timeline tool to write your collaborative assignment. (I will read and comment on these from afar.)

 T 6/16

NO CLASS — but work on Project #3

 W 6/17 NO CLASS — but work on Project #3
 Th 6/18

Mark Morrisson, “Marketing British Modernism: The Freewoman, the Egoist, and Counterpublic Spheres.”

Read through Blast 1 & 2.

Due: Blog post (1-2 paragraphs) on how commercial typographic or rhetorical styles are employed in a magazine other than Blast.

 M 6/22

Week 4: 1914-1919, The Great War & Modernist Discourses
Blast, The New Age, The Owl, Poetry, Scribner's, Wheels

Paul Peppis, “'Surrounded by a multitude of other Blasts': Vorticism and the Great War.”

 T 6/23 Due: Blog post (1-2 paragraphs) on WWI in your magazine and its relationship to other topics that seem relevant (like empire, nationalism, race, gender). If the war seems to be absent, why is that significant in your magazine? (i.e. in relation to the literary content)
 W 6/24 Computer Lab (meet in Library Room 384): Timeline entries and writing on WWI in your magazine.
 Th 6/25 Due: Project #3 — Timeline entries and blog post (+/- 6 paragraphs) on one theme in all magazines from the list above, as they touch on WWI.
 M 6/29

Week 5: 1920+
Coterie, The New Age, The Owl, Poetry, The Tyro, Wheels

Raymond Williams, “When Was Modernism?”

 T 6/30

Visit with Cliff Wulfman, founding member of the MJP and architect of its search engine.

Michel Foucault, “What is an Author?”; Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author.”

 W 7/1 Computer Lab (meet in Library Room 384):  Timeline entries for 1920-22.
 Th 7/2

Jerome McGann, “How to Read a Book.”

Due: Project #4 — Individual timeline entries and blog post (3 or more paragraphs) on a post-war topic.

  T 7/7 Due: Final Paper (5-7 pp.)