Readings are due – meaning they should be completed – on the dates indicated.

The most accurate and up-to-date version of this calendar can be found on this course site. Use this calendar to check on reading assignments, rather than the print version, since the print version of this syllabus will not be updated throughout the semester.

I reserve the right to change the course calendar as needed; adequate advance notice will always be given of any changes.

BB indicates that reading can be found on our Blackboard site on the “Readings” page.

Unit 1: Introductory Concepts

Monday, August 22

  • Introduction to the course

Wednesday, August 24: What is media?

  • Lisa Gitelman and Geoffrey Pingree, “What’s New About New Media?” New Media, 1740-1915 (2003) (BB)
  • Marshall McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message,” Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964) (BB)

Friday, August 26: Books as media

  • William A. Johnson, “Bookrolls as Media” Comparative Textual Media (2013) (BB)

Monday, August 29: No one reads anymore

  • David Ulin, “The Lost Art of Reading,” LA Times (August 2009)
  • Johann Hari, “How to Survive the Age of Distraction,” The Independent (June 24, 2011)
  • Reading Reports (you can find these reports in the “Reading Reports” folder in the Course Readings folder you downloaded from Blackboard):
    • “Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America” (2004), read Executive Summary (pg ix-xiii)
    • “To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence” (2007), read Executive Summary (pg 7-22)
    • “Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy” (2008), read Preface, Key Findings (pg 1-9)
    • “How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers” (2009), read Executive Summary, Parts 2 and 3 (pg 7, 15-23)

Wednesday, August 31: No one reads anymore

  • Leah Price, “Reading As If For Life,” Michigan Quarterly Review 48:4 (2009) (BB)

Unit 2: Bookish Books

Friday, September 2: Bookishness

  • Jessica Pressman, selections from “The Aesthetic of Bookishness in Twenty-First Century Literature,” Michigan Quarterly Review 48:4 (2009), pg 465-468, 480 (BB)
  • Steven Hall, The Raw Shark Texts (2007), Part One (pg 3-88)

Monday, September 5: NO CLASS – Labor Day

Wednesday, September 7: Bookishness

  • Steven Hall, The Raw Shark Texts (2007), Part Two; Part Three, Ch. 18-25 (pg 93-252)
  • Last day to drop without a W
  • Unit 1 blog post due by class

Friday, September 9: Bookishness

  • Steven Hall, The Raw Shark Texts (2007), rest of Part Three (pg 253-308)

Monday, September 12: Bookishness

  • Steven Hall, The Raw Shark Texts (2007), Part Four (pg 313-428)

Wednesday, September 14: Bookishness

  • Steven Hall, The Raw Shark Texts (2007) wrap-up (bring to class)

Friday, September 16: Bookishness?

  • Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010), Ch. 1-6 (pg 3-108)

Monday, September 19: Bookishness?

  • Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010), Ch. 7-10 (pg 111-207)

Wednesday, September 21: Bookishness?

  • Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010), Ch. 11-13 (pg 208-309)

Friday, September 23: Bookishness?

  • Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010), Ch. 13 (pg 310-340)
  • Unit 2 blog post due by class

Unit 3: Experimental Books

Monday, September 26: What’s “experimental” about experimental writing?

  • Jonathan Franzen, “Mr. Difficult: William Gaddis and the Problem of Hard-to-Read Books,” The New Yorker (September 2002) (BB)
  • Ben Marcus, “Why Experimental Fiction Threatens to Destroy Publishing, Jonathan Franzen, and Life as We Know It: A Correction,” Harper’s Magazine (October 2005) (BB)
  • Exam 1 questions distributed in class

Wednesday, September 28: Novel experiments

  • Salvador Plascencia, People of Paper (2005), Prologue – Chapter Four (pg 11-63)

Friday, September 30: Novel experiments

  • Salvador Plascencia, People of Paper (2005), Chapter Five – Chapter Fourteen (pg 65-139)

Monday, October 3: Novel experiments

  • Salvador Plascencia, People of Paper (2005), Chapter Fifteen – Chapter Twenty (pg 146-191)
  • Discussion of the first 139 pages of People of Paper, con’t
  • Exam 1 due by 10 pm to Blackboard

Wednesday, October 5: Novel experiments

  • Salvador Plascencia, People of Paper (2005), Chapter Twenty-One – Chapter Twenty-Seven (pg 193-245)
  • Salvador Plascencia, People of Paper (2005), Chapter Fifteen – Chapter Twenty (pg 146-191)

Friday, October 7: Novel experiments

  • Salvador Plascencia, People of Paper (2005), Chapter Twenty-One – Chapter Twenty-Seven (pg 193-245)
  • CLASS CANCELED

Monday, October 10: Novel experiments

  • Cathy Park Hong, “Delusions of Whiteness in the Avant-Garde,” Lana Turner (2014) (BB)
  • Claudia Rankine, Citizen (2014), I-V (pg 1-79)
  • Salvador Plascencia, People of Paper (2005), Chapter Twenty-One – Chapter Twenty-Seven (pg 193-245)

Wednesday, October 12: The whiteness of experimental writing/Poetic experiments

  • Claudia Rankine, Citizen (2014), VI-VII (pg 81-end)
  • Cathy Park Hong, “Delusions of Whiteness in the Avant-Garde,” Lana Turner (2014) (BB)
  • Claudia Rankine, Citizen (2014), I-V (pg 1-79)
  • Unit 3 blog post due by class

Friday, October 14: Poetic Experiments

  • Johanna Drucker, selections from Ch. 6 “The Codex and Its Variations,” The Century of Artists’ Books (2004), read the introductory section (pg 121-123) and skim the rest (BB)
  • Visit to UM Library to see artist’s books in special collections
  • Claudia Rankine, Citizen (2014), VI-VII (pg 81-end)

Unit 4: Artist’s Books

Monday, October 17: Art and the aura

  • Walter Benjamin, selections from “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936) (BB)
  • Johanna Drucker, selections from Ch. 5 “The Artist’s Book as a Rare and/or Auratic Object,” The Century of Artists’ Books (2004), read pg 93-96 and skim the rest (BB)
  • Walter Benjamin, selections from “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936) (BB)
  • Johanna Drucker, selections from Ch. 5 “The Artist’s Book as a Rare and/or Auratic Object,” The Century of Artists’ Books (2004), read pg 93-96 and skim the rest (BB)

Wednesday, October 19: Reading art

  • Gretchen Henderson, Galerie de Difformité online (About and Brief History of the Book)
  • Gretchen Henderson, Galerie de Difformité (2011)
    • Read 2 different paths through the book; write down the page numbers you read in the order you read them.
  • Johanna Drucker, selections from Ch. 6 “The Codex and Its Variations,” The Century of Artists’ Books (2004), read the introductory section (pg 121-123) and skim the rest (BB)
  • Visit to UM Library to see artist’s books in special collections
  • Exam 1 revisions due by 10 pm to Blackboard

Friday, October 21: NO CLASS – Fall break

Monday, October 24: Reading as art

  • Gretchen Henderson, Galerie de Difformité online (About and Brief History of the Book)
  • Gretchen Henderson, Galerie de Difformité (2011)
    • Read 2 different paths through the book; write down the page numbers you read in the order you read them.

Wednesday, October 26: Reading as art

  • Shaun Tan, The Arrival (2006)
  • Unit 4 blog post due by class
  • Gretchen Henderson, Galerie de Difformité (2011)
    • Read 2 more paths through the book; write down the page numbers you read in the order you read them.

Friday, October 28: Not reading art

  • Lisa Gitelman and Virginia Jackson, “Introduction” from Raw Data is an Oxymoron (2013) (BB)
  • Shaun Tan, The Arrival (2006)
  • Unit 4 blog post due by class

Unit 5: Data Books / Books as Data

Monday, October 31: Data and/as books

  • Mark Z. Danielewski, Only Revolutions (2006), Hailey and Sam, pg 1-90
  • Alberto Manguel, “A Brief History of the Page,” A Reader on Reading (2011) (BB)
  • Exam 2 questions distributed in class

Wednesday, November 2: Data and/as books

  • Mark Z. Danielewski, Only Revolutions (2006), Hailey and Sam, pg 90-176

Friday, November 4: NO CLASS – Instructor out of town

Monday, November 7: Data and/as books

  • Bonnie Mak, Ch. 1 “Architectures of the Page,” How the Page Matters (2011), pg 9-18 (BB)
  • Mark Z. Danielewski, Only Revolutions (2006), Hailey and Sam, pg 177-360
  • Exam 2 due by 10 pm to Blackboard

Unit 6: Ways of Reading Books Today

Wednesday, November 9: Close reading

  • Jonathan Culler, “The Closeness of Close Reading” (2010) (BB)
  • Jane Gallop, “Close Reading in 2009” (2010) (BB)

Friday, November 11: Close Reading

  • John Guillory, “Close Reading: Prologue and Epilogue” (2010) (BB)

Monday, November 14: Scales of reading

  • Katherine Hayles, Ch. 3: “How We Read: Close, Hyper, Machine,” How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (2012) (BB)

Wednesday, November 16: Distant reading

  • Franco Moretti, selections from Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History (2005), pg 1-33, 91-92 (BB)
  • Voyant workshop at 10 am and/or immediately after class in my office, Ashe 401 (please email me ahead of time if you plan to attend either workshop, and please bring a computer).

 Friday, November 18: Distant reading

Monday, November 21: NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break

Wednesday, November 23: NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break

Friday, November 25: NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break

Monday, November 28: Combined reading?

  • Selections from Paul Jay, The Humanities ‘Crisis’ and the Future of Literary Studies (2014), TBD (BB)
  • Hoyt Long and Richard Jean So, “Literary Pattern Recognition: Modernism between Close Reading and Machine Learning” (2015) (BB –> not originally included in “Course Readings” folder, but now on BB “Readings” page)
  • Final blog post due by class

Wednesday, November 30: Digital humanities?

Friday, December 2

  • Final project lab
  • Course evals in class

Monday, December 5

  • NO CLASS — Office hours in my office, Ashe 401 from 11:15-2:30 instead.

Wednesday, December 14

  • Final project due by 4:30 pm to Blackboard