English 187A - Fall, 2016

Topics in Literature & Media

Topic: Interpreting Genre/Form: Word, Image, Sound

Class Information

Instructor: Martín, Desirée
CRN: 53675
Time: MW 3:10-6:00
Location: 248 Voorhies

Description

This course will focus on the limits, boundaries, and delineation of genre and form through a consideration of word, image, and sound and their intersection in a variety of texts. We will focus on a range of genres from more traditional forms like the novel, film and photography to new media forms such as the visual novel. We will ask ourselves how “hybrid” forms such as the graphic novel and visual novel, and musical sampling and cover versions, depend as much upon the crossing of various genres as their separation or alienation. We will also consider how translation – especially cultural translation – functions in relation to different media. Ultimately, we will consider the way that intersections of word, image and sound in various media and genres might both transmit and challenge the transfer of meaning.

Grading

TBA

Texts

Sleep Dealer (film) , Rivera, Alex
Other films, visual novels, music and photography TBA
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao , Diaz, Junot
Marble Season, Hernandez, Gilbert
Fun Home, Bechdel, Alison
Videodrome (film), Cronenberg, David
Dictee , Cha, Theresa
Blade Runner (film), Scott, Ridley
We Know the Devil (visual novel), Aevee Bee, Mia Schwartz, and Alec Lambert
The Hunger (film), Scott, Tony