English 336 focuses on the impact of new technologies on the writing and reading of literature. In this course, students are invited to broaden their understanding of literature and the literary as they explore nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts that prefigure, reflect, and interact with media other than the printed word.
The texts studied in this course deviate in significant ways from the conventions of realist narrative. Some do not follow the logic of chronological order; some do not have plots that develop toward resolution; some abandon coherence altogether. All these texts experiment with language and uncover new modes and methods of expression appropriate to their context and their message while they respond to and dialogue with earlier literary traditions. However much these texts differ from canonical writings‚ — writings that have been traditionally held up as classics or masterpieces‚ — heir place in literary history renders them worthy of careful investigation.
To understand this current cultural moment, it is imperative to understand its modes of expression and its technologies. The Web provides a textual medium that exists on a truly new frontier. It is at once promising and vexing, and always shifting.
These Web pages are a core component of English 336 . You will use them as directed to do so in the printed Study Guide and Student Manual for the course. Please bookmark this page and use it as a starting point for your own comparative literary research on the World Wide Web.
The Online Reading Schedule below shows each unit and the sections within that unit, and indicates where the assignments for credit are placed in the course. Click on the appropriate unit, which will take you to the required and supplementary reading for that unit.
Under the heading "Required Reading," you will find links to primary texts that are essential to your work for this course. Wherever possible, you will want to print or download these documents so that they become part of your permanent course materials. Under the heading "Supplementary Reading," you will find links to secondary materials which may also be helpful, and which may provide stepping blocks for your own Web searches.
