This is interesting.
Monthly Archives: April 2013
Ideology Slides (HUM303/HUM415/HUM425)
For what it’s worth, here’s a powerpoint presentation I gave some time ago on the issue of ideology. Note that this was as part of a discussion on Victor Pelevin’s Homo Zapiens, so you don’t necessarily need to watch the whole thing.
https://analepsis.org/2011/10/01/ideology-presentation-hum415/
3 Weeks (HUM303/415/425/470)
We’ve got three weeks of the semester left, and my advice is to bear down and get it done. Final papers are due at the beginning of the last class meeting. (They will also be submitted to turnitin.com by 8 pm. Note: papers not submitted to turnitin.com will be given a zero.) On the last day, those who are interested may complete a closed-note, closed-book extra credit assignment in class. This extra credit assignment will be assigned a grade which will then be added as a percentage to your overall grade. So, for example, if a student currently has an overall grade of 77, completes the extra credit assignment, and receives 80/100, s/he will in effect go up to a 78.6 [i.e., 77 + (80 x .02 = 1.6) = 78.6]. Not a huge difference, but for it could lift the grade from a C to a C+.
I strongly advise that you begin your papers now. Those who received poor marks for syntax/diction/structure on the first paper should make an appointment with the LAC. Talk to your classmates. Email me your ideas. I am expecting well-researched, fluently written, intelligent, and imaginative final papers that evince a deep understanding of the key concepts of the course(s). The score for this assignment constitutes 1/4 of your final grade, so take it seriously. Any questions? Please address them to the comments section of this post so that everyone can benefit.
Contemporary Film (HUM415)
Many of these films already appear in the filmography on the course information page. I thought I’d draw them to the attention of those who are choosing to pursue “example 3” for their papers. Most of them explicitly address issues of economy and/or capitalism. Titles with an asterix (*) are also dystopian films.
War/Photography (HUM425/ HUM470)
The Guardian has an interesting slideshow on war photography here:
After Neoliberalism (HUM415)
Here’s the essay I mentioned in class today. It’s part of a larger, year-long project called the Kilburn Manifesto and is written by Stuart Hall, Doreen Massey, and Michael Rusting. The PDF below, After Neoliberalism: Analysing the Present, is the first installment:
Antigone/ Marianne and Juliane (HUM425)
Stalker (HUM303/ HUM415)
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1979, Stalker is adapted from a novel by the Strugatsky brothers titled Roadside Picnic.
Deutschland Im Herbst (HUM425)
We won’t be screening Germany in Autumn in its entirety on Tuesday– just two segments from this “omnibus” film (which was made by 11 directors, many of whom are key figures of the German New Wave). The first of these, directed by Volker Schlöndorff, features an adaptation of Antigone directed by Heinrich Böll– as seen on television by various studio executives and Schlöndorff himself. The second, co-directed by Schlöndorff and Alexander Kluge, depicts the burial of Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader, and Jan-Carl Raspe. It would, of course, be useful to watch the entire thing, but we simply don’t have the time. Unfortunately, the only streaming versions on-line I’ve been able to find come with Russian subtitles, which likely doesn’t help most of the class. Germany in Autumn can, however, be checked out at AT or ordered from netflix (or if there are any video stores left in San Francisco, rented). Here is a useful essay by Melissa Goldsmith, which offers a breakdown of the various segments and who was responsible for them.
Richie Havens (1941-2013)
Havens’s cover of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”:
analepsis 