Literary Kinds
Welcome!
Welcome! to Literary Kinds, a spring 2010 course @ Bryn Mawr College, where we are exploring the literary categories we call "genres," thinking about the ways new ones evolve, and asking what aesthetic, cultural and political purposes those transformations may serve. Our first imaginative test case will be that blogs; who knows where we'll turn thereafter?
We're glad you are here, and hope you'll come both to enjoy and value our shared exploration of category-making. Why do we do it, and what does it get us? What's it keep us from getting? Feel free to comment on any post below, or to POST YOUR THOUGHTS HERE....
Final Performance Write Up
For my final performance, I focused on the idea of a house. Since Literary Kinds was all about genre, I called the house "A House Built on Genre." The house was made out of clay, and on the foundation of the house I wrote the names of genres, each one in a different color. Then, on the surrounding walls of the house, I wrote titles of different books or other works that fit into the genre. Through my performance, I meant to give the idea that genres act as foundations that authors build on with their work.
Labeling to Framing
skindeep, rachelr and I decided to do our final presentation on moving from labels to framing. At the start of this class we spent a considerable amount of time discussing labels. Then we related labeling to genres and after long discussions on genre we have landed on discussing framing.
In class, we handed out a piece of paper to each member of the classroom and asked them to put down a word that either they label themselves with or a label that they have been labeled with. Then, everyone held up their label. Using our hands, all of us created frames and looked at others holding up labels.
report on presentation - link
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/7462
heres the link to my report on our class presentation
Framing Life
For our final performance, aybala50, skindeep, and I wanted to talk about two overarching themes of the class- labeling (or genres) and framing. First we gave everyone a strip of paper and had them write a word on it that they had been labeled with or would label themselves with. We then had the class hold up their labels at the same time and to look around at everyone else's labels. We wanted the class to discuss how seeing these labels affected how they now saw each other, but there was little participation. We then asked half the class to hold up their labels while the other half made blinders with their hands so that they had a limited view of the class.
class notes from day 9 (remember when...)
Instructions for submitting papers
Visit with Paul Grobstein
Thinking about what came before blogging
Going hi-tech with a blackboard
Why do we talk?
Go crazy if didn’t
Communication
Loneliness
Get point across
Need help
Share
To try to express oneself to others
Figure out what you yourself think
Be understood
To cause trouble
Be powerful
Validate/support others
Why do others talk?
Technophobic vs. Technophilic
For our project, sweetp and I made a presentation on our evolution in this class as it pertains to technology. We made a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the differences between our approaches to computers and the internet, adding humorous pictures to our slides to make them visually engaging. Sweetp talked about being a technophobe in a class where much of the assigned work was done on the internet and how she has learned to use the internet much more usefully and efficiently since the beginning of the semester. I focused more on how this class helped me to focus on the reasons why I liked the internet and spent so much of my time on it.
