Handout from Nov. 18

Misc..announcements- Upcoming class sessions. . . This handout is intended to accompany the course web site, where all assignments are updated. Please continue to refer to the on-line syllabus for updated information on assignments. Nov. 18—Image Theater. As homework for the next class read”Fires in the Mirror” and prepare to present either part of something you have written for this class OR part of “Fires in the Mirror” with someone else. (3-5 minutes per presentation.) Finish the article, p. 175-188. Readings and assignments for other classes are/will be/will be updated on-line! If we don’t discuss something you read, please write your reactions to it in your journal. You should turn in your journal at least once before Thanksgiving and 2X after Thanksgiving., ideally the day before you have an appointment with me. By next week, you should have done at least 5 of 10 of the suggested art and writing projects (and shown these to me). Last two papers. You should turn in at least a majorly revised or a paper on one of the topics below (1-4 or 6) that is 4-5 pages due on 11/30. If you choose to do #5, it should be longer than 5 pages because some of the space in it should include images (photos and/or drawings).. # 5 can have a different format than a regular paper and you may get an extension to do it. Suggested topics (or get a topic of your own interest approved by me): 1) Develop a story from information you gathered in your interview. You should fictionalize this and you might consider writing it in the first person. 2) You may do a major revision of an earlier-submitted paper (please do this only if you received worse than a B on the paper). 3) Develop a lyric essay or short story from an idea you have written about in your journal or from one of the art projects you have done in the course. 4) Write a paper about Charlotte Salomon’s Life? or Theater? The book is on reserve in the library in EQ (ask for it at the desk). or do a similar book with paintings and text—if you do this you MUST spend time looking at her whole book!) that tells the story of a life. OR Write an article/essay that could be included in the next volume of the book: Minding the Body. (from which our recent readings came. [Atwood, Hogan, Houston, Ortiz Cofer) Please do this with the same care as the authors of the essays we read. You may want to begin with a quote from one of them. (If you do, cite it please.) OR Write a paper about LaBute’s The Shape of Things. Include discussion of “What is Art?” “What is the Role of Art?” in the play? What does the play say about artificiality and Art? OR Write a paper about Hesse’s “The Indian Land” as a story about the search for the self. 5) Visit the Lega exhibition at the UM Museum of Art. Learn about the Bwami Culture from the information included in the exhibition. You should learn something about the use of masks, stools, spoons, small human figurines, animal figurines, and read some of the proverbs that accompany the art objects. Then, think of the symbols and proverbs that would be used in a culture of your self. Make (or draw) the art objects and write an anthropological description of your self culture, that might be included in a museum of your self. If you choose to do this project, instead of one of the others, it must be carefully planned and executed—not just a 2 page brochure, but a real booklet or signs and objects and an accompanying article. This topic would be due on Dec. 2 instead of 11/30. (But be careful not to fall behind on the other paper about the self that is due on the 7th. You should also probably discuss your ideas and plans briefly with me before you get too far along. 6) Study the art or photography of an artist who deals with self-portraiture or posing the self and write a paper about some of the images/art works of this artist. A list of examples of artists whose works you might want to study is on the first day handout, or y ou may study an appropriate major artist not on the list (Talk to me first.). Please include scanned images of the works you describe. Do not do research on the internet for this topic, or if you do, you must be careful to give references of any quoted or borrowed insights. .Paper on the Self, due on 12/7: Write a paper that includes description of different theories of the self that you have read about in the “Other” Coursepack (the non-literary one). FINAL PROJECT—Your final project must include an art project or must be something that you perform in one of the last classes. It must be submitted to me in order to give you feedback and you are expected to talk with me about how you intend to present it to the class. We will discuss it at a conference (one of the ones you sign up for on my door.). I am assuming that it will grow out of something you have written for the class, or included in your journal, or it may be inspired by a reading or an artwork to which you were introduced in the class. It must contain a creative element. Depending on the scope of people’s final projects and the complexity documenting these, I hope to make a class book (I hope with your help) containing the “best of” your work. In addition to including your final project in this class book, you may contain other short pieces (from papers, poems you have written, self portraits you have done, etc.) in the book. PLEASE if you haven’t already done so, answer the three questions about the Workshop in October with Yvonne Healy: Writing Out Loud. You may email me short responses—even one sentence, but I need to submit feedback or I won’t be eligible to ask for arts funding for future RC projects. If you have lost the form, email me and I’ll send you the questions again. jhs/Nov. 18