ENGL 1102
Mystery’s Agent & me, an unlikely sleuth
Detective Literature
Spring 2016
Instructors: Dr. Joshua Hussey
Email: joshua.hussey@lmc.gatech.edu
Office: Skiles 315
Office Hours: MWF 8-9am or by appointment
Class Meetings
A2 9:05 MWF Skiles 308
J4 10:05 MWF Clough 125
B5 11:05 MWF Skiles 170
Class Description
This course asks students to develop communication strategies through the analysis of fictional texts (novels, short stories) set in the genre of the detective and the hard-boiled. In addition to traditional literary texts, we will analyze film and interact with game environments, where the content directs us toward the detective genre. We will look at the structure of all of these texts to understand the elements by which they are designed. We will look at the construction of gender identity and politics dictated by type.
The purpose of this course is to gain sophisticated abilities in multimodal (WOVEN) communication that build off of ENGL 1101. Assignments will encourage the development of communication skills in academic research and argumentation. While this class covers specific content, the emphasis of the course remains on techniques of composition and rhetorical/argumentative strategies. All of our discussions and assignments will engage with Georgia Tech’s multimodal WOVEN communication (Written, Oral, Visual, Electronic, and Nonverbal), which taken together in synergy, will better enable us to describe the material and digital worlds in which we exist.
Required Materials
Reading:
WOVENText (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015)
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel García Márquez (Vintage Reprint, 2003). ISBN: 978-1400034710
Other readings available in T-Square Resources
Equipment:
Personal Computer with enough performance to complete graphic design, to run a variety of games, and desktop publishing software
Software:
Blog software (WordPress through blogs.iac.gatech.edu)
Games:
Her Story. Available on GOG, Steam, App Store.
Grim Fandango. Available on GOG, Steam, PS4.
Grade Summary
1. Unit 1: 10% [100 points]
2. Unit 2: 15% [150 points]
3. Unit 3: 25% [250 points]
4. Portfolio: 15% [150 points]
5. Blog: 20% [200 points]
6. Participation (Labs; Oral; Reading): 10% [100 points]
7. Quizzes: 4% [40 points]
8. Common Week Assignment: 1% [10 points]
Final Grade Distribution (by points)
A 895-1000
B 795-894
C 695-794
D 595-694
F 0-594
Common Policies for ENGL 1102
Georgia Tech’s Writing and Communication Program has common, program-wide policies. You can access these Common Writing and Communication Program policies here. You are required to acknowledge that you have read, understood, and intend to comply with these policies.
WOVEN Communication
This course is designed to increase your abilities and competencies in a variety of communicative modes. Understanding how to write a proper essay is only one such mode of communication. The WOVEN acronym highlights the written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal forms of communication modalities that, as a student at Georgia Tech, you will explore in order to better understand the material world in which you interact as well as a better understanding of how to describe that material world. In all modalities you use—written, oral, visual, electronic, or nonverbal—consider rhetorical factors such as purpose, context, audience, argument, and effective design. In practice, the WOVEN modes work synergistically, not separately.
Written communication. Writing is important, plain and simple. Think about the style and concentration it takes to author the texts we are reading this semester, and attempt to apply a similar effort to your own work;
Oral communication. Speaking clearly takes a large amount of ability in expressing ideas with specific language. It is a kind of translation, and crucial in representing mental symbols as well as cultivating generative conversations with your colleagues;
Visual communication. Making things look good should be a point of pride for you. You have worked your hardest establishing the representation of your ideas. Again, this is a multi-layered translation, from the images in your mind to those we encounter on the page and screen. Additionally, professionalism matters and it’s always useful to please your audience with compelling imagery;
Electronic communication. Can’t avoid this in our technology worshipping contemporary culture. Think about the possibilities for hypertext and the nodes of information with which you might assemble a complicated project;
Nonverbal communication. All behavior is adjustment to a particular context. Work on your body’s silent participation in communication: conduct yourself with composed thought and a professional demeanor. Make eye contact and other important unspoken gestures during class discussions.
Technology
We will use T-Square for this course. Assignment submission, bookkeeping, announcements, and the link to this syllabus are available on T-Square;
Digital Activities. The projects in this course are digital heavy and require skill working with a variety of media. While the instructors are available for tech support and troubleshooting, students are ultimately responsible for learning how to use the necessary technology. Georgia Tech has a wealth of resources for this purpose. For assistance with technology: Multimedia Studio, Communication Center, Lynda.com (a campus-wide subscription);
In-class use of technology:
—Bring your laptops to every class. You may take notes on your laptop, but no web browsing or emailing is allowed (unless specified by the instructor)
—Silence your mobile phone: no talking, texting, or social media use during class
Late Assignments
Late work is not accepted in this course.
Revisions of Assignments
One major revision is accepted, but must be completed in accordance with the course’s Paper Revision Policy. Make sure to read the policy carefully and note all due dates before completing a revision.
Appointments for Individual and Collaborative Conferences
Please plan to visit our office hours at least once this semester for an individual conference. Drop-ins are welcome, but appointments made through email take priority.
Attendance
This class participates in the WCP’s attendance policies. Attendance is required and taken daily.
Unit Assignments
Unit 1:
Essay 1. This is a traditional essay, which you will submit in paper form. Respond to the readings in this Unit through your blog; next, revise your post (or posts) into a 4-page essay. Use a citation style that makes sense for your academic program. Format with precision.
Unit 2:
Essay 2. This is a longer essay (6-10 pages) that includes research as well as visual (and possibly electronic) modalities. Respond to the texts from this Unit and the last, with a sufficient purpose, claim, and thesis. You will receive a detailed assignment sheet regarding the project. You may use your blog posts as drafts building up to this longer work. Submit as a glorious PDF.
Unit 3:
Media Package and Archival Mystery. In groups of four and five, construct a material and digital archive (bridge these distinct ontologies) that includes clues to solve a mystery. “Mystery” may be broadly interpreted — perhaps it is simply a procedural “sorting” — but you must use 4-5 actual artifacts from the GT Archives. Give your quarry 5-8 puzzles that tempt them to continue their vainglorious pursuit, but modify your levels of difficulty to allow satisfying progress that grips them until the bitter end. You will present your project to the class in the closing days of the semester, as well as submit an 800-word write-up that describes your mystery, its purposes, priorities, manifestations, influences, and experiential outcomes. You should write down your puzzles and also submit those. See FULL ASSIGNMENT SHEET here.
Weblog project:
A semester-long blog project. Consider this to be a drafting place for your ideas and interests. At intervals noted on the Course Calendar, submit posts of 500 words that engage a text we are working on, or have recently considered. Entry purposes are undefined, meaning that you should pursue your own critical inquiry. All posts must have sources with citations: at minimum, including your primary text, you need two. If you use visuals, you should also include citations for those. Make your electronic space a lovely space to browse, and your notions worth ruminating upon.
Course Calendar
Spring 2016
Calendar
Week 1 [January 11 – 15]
M [1/11]
Intro
W [1/13]
Garbology Chapter 5. PDF here.
F [1/15]
Garbology Chapter 5 cont.
Class work for Diagnostic Assignment (drafting, research)
See Assignment sheet (TSquare) for Source options.
Unit 1: Short Fictions, with deadly possibility
Week 2 [January 18 – 22]
M [1/18]
M.L.K., Jr. National Holiday – No Class
W [1/20]
Common Week Diagnostic Assignment due
Edgar Allan Poe, “Murders in the Rue Morgue”
F [1/22]
Poe, “Murders in the Rue Morgue”
Meet online (T-Square Chat)
Week 3 [January 25 – 29]
M [1/25]
WovenText, Chapter 4 “Understanding Genres”
Poe, “The Purloined Letter”
Syllabus forms due
W [1/27]
Jorge Luis Borges, “Death and the Compass”
WovenText, Chapter 4 “Understanding Genres” cont.
Register to vote (GA)
F [1/29]
Blog Post 1 Due: submit URL to T-Square by 11:55pm
Borges, “Man on Pink Corner”
WovenText, Chapter 13 “Narrative Genres”
Register to vote (GA)
Week 4 [February 1 – 5]
M [2/1]
Critical-Theory Reading:
from Ilana Shiloh, The double, the labyrinth and the locked room: metaphors of paradox in crime fiction and film, 2011.
W [2/3]
Patricia Highsmith, “Slowly, Slowly in the Wind,” “Notes from a Respectable Cockroach”
more from Shiloh, on labyrinths, mazes, and the rhizome
F [2/5]
Blog Post 2 Due
Highsmith, “The Terrors of Basket-weaving,” “The Black House”
Week 5 [February 8 – 12]
M [2/8]
Research
W [2/10]
Research
F [2/12]
Essay 1 due (traditional)
Unit 2: A Novel Situation
Week 6 [February 15 – 19]
M [2/15]
Audio Crime Dramas
Archive.org [Nick Carter, Master Detective]
Serial Podcast “Season One”
W [2/17]
Audio Crime Dramas
Comic narratives: Dick Tracy (T-Square Resources)
F [2/19]
Comic narratives
Book cover art, and other paraphernalia or ephemera (research)
Progress Report Grades due (instructor)
Audio and Comic Genre Lab due
Week 7 [February 22 – 26]
M [2/22]
Gabriel García Márquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, 3-47
W [2/24]
García Márquez, 48-71
F [2/26]
García Márquez, 72-95
Week 8 [February 29 – March 4]
M [2/29]
García Márquez, 96-120
Class held in the Library Archives Reading Room
Create accounts in online request system: https://aeon.library.gatech.edu/logon
W [3/2]
Conclude Márquez
F [3/4]
Blog Post 3 Due (Márquez): Midpoint Assessment
Composition discussion
Week 9 [March 7 – 11]
M [3/7]
Research
W [3/9]
Research
F [3/11]
All classes normal meeting
Peer Review
Q & A
Unit 3: Film, Games, and other Electronic Relief
Week 10 [March 14 – 18]
M [3/14]
Wim Wenders, The American Friend, 1977. 125 min. Available in Library Reserves. Watch film in Groups.
Essay 2 Due
W [3/16]
The American Friend cont.
Withdrawal Deadline
F [3/18]
The American Friend cont.
Complete Group viewing prior to break.
Week 11 [March 21 – 25]
Spring Break
Week 12 [March 28 – April 1]
M [3/28]
American Friend discussion
Her Story discussion
American Friend viewing sheet due
W [3/30]
Class held in the Library Archives
Archival project work
Blog Post 4 Due: Adapt one response from AF viewing sheet into a fuller piece of writing
F [4/1]
Her Story discussion
Lab (in-class)
Critical Readings:
N. Katherine Hayles, “Flickering Connectivities in Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl: The Importance of Media-Specific Analysis,” 2000.
Adrian Chmielarz, “What Her Story Tells Us About the Current State of Video Games,” August 2015.
Question: What subjectivities do we map onto Her Story to make it coherent?
Week 13 [April 4 – 8]
M [4/4]
Tim Shafer, Grim Fandango Remastered.
Lab (in-class)
W [4/6]
Tim Shafer, Grim Fandango Remastered.
F [4/8]
In-class group meetings.
Samuel Fuller, Shock Corridor, 1963. Available in Library Reserves. Optional Viewing.
Games Lab due
Blog Post 5 Due: Discuss procedure in Her Story and Grim Fandango videogames.
Week 14 [April 11 – 15]
M [4/11]
Archival Mystery
MIT Mystery Hunt : “Thinking about a Puzzle”, Allen Rabinovich
Puzzle Examples and Design Resources: http://www.archimedes-lab.org/
W [4/13]
Waterfield and Davies, The Money Spider (T-Square Resources)
Twine and building a mystery through hypertext
Twine Software here
Archival Mystery Project Work
Work in Groups on own;
Instructor available for meetings
F [4/15]
Archival Mystery Project Work
Work in Groups on own;
Instructor available for meetings
Week 15 [April 18 – 22]
M [4/18]
Archival Mystery Project Work in class
Discuss Final Portfolios
W [4/20]
Archival Mystery Presentations
Discuss Final Portfolios
F [4/22]
Archival Mystery Presentations
Discuss Final Portfolios
Blog Post 6 Due: 800-word write project write-up
Final Blog Projects due: submit URL to T-Square
Cleaned up (no Hello World! posts), sources (with citations) & images included (unique header, no clipart)
Week 16 [April 25 -29]
M [4/25]
Final Instructional Day
Course Review
W [4/27]
Reading Day – No Class Meeting
F [4/29]
Exams Begin
Portfolios due according to the exam schedule:
A2 9:05 MWF
[Fri 4/29 11:30 – 2:20]
J4 10:05 MWF
[Mon 5/2 11:30 – 2:20]
B5 11:05 MWF
[Wed 5/4 8:00 – 10:50]
