Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2025 - ENGL 415W D100

Seminar in Media, Culture and Performance (4)

Class Number: 3341

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 6 – Apr 9, 2025: Tue, Thu, 2:30–4:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units or two 300-division English courses.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Advanced seminar in the relation of literature and media (manuscript, print, visual, aural, electronic, and/or oral) within their cultural and/or performative contexts. This course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:


O Reader!

This is a course about reading and readers. It’s about BookTok, BookTube, Bookstagram, and what’s been called the “mass personal” of sharing our reading online, but it's also about why reading remains solitary, private. It’s about the history, the philosophy, and even the (neuro)science of reading. It’s about scholarly theories of reading—“close reading,” “symptomatic reading,” “surface reading,” “distant reading”—and it’s about why we read differently when we’re not reading for classes like this. It’s about what being “a reader” signals and how words signal readers. Above all, this class is about how reading is represented in literature, and we’ll spend the bulk of our time reading fiction that asks what reading means, how it happens, and why it matters.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:


My goals in this course are to help you: (a) understand the cultural and social significance of reading; (b) become familiar with the history, theory, and science of reading, as well as with current debates over that history, theory, and science; (c) understand how literature about reading reflects that history, theory, and science; (d) fine-tune your ability to design and execute cogent written and oral arguments; and (e) refine your research skills.

Grading

REQUIREMENTS:

Assignments (tentative)

10% Informed seminar participation and short presentation

5% Informal writing (either a reading journal or a blog)

10% Writing exercise 1 (750-900 words)

15% Writing exercise 2 (1000 words)

15% Writing exercise 3 (1200 words)

5% Annotated bibliography and research question

35% Seminar paper final draft (2500-3000 words)

5% Seminar paper peer review

Writing Intensive Rationale

This class scaffolds formal writing assignments based on the argumentation lessons in Graff and Birkenstein, They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. Writing Exercise 2 will build on Writing Exercise 1, which in turn will build on informal writing. Writing Exercise 3, meanwhile, will evolve into the Seminar Paper. All of these writing assignments will receive extensive written feedback from me, as will the annotated bibliography and research question, which are designed to help you transition from Writing Exercise 3 to the Seminar Paper.

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

Texts (tentative)

  • Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (Mariner, 1982)
  • Mark R. Danielewski, House of Leaves (Pantheon, 2000)
  • Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkensteain, They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Norton, 6th ed., 2024; 4th or 5th edition fine to use instead)
  • Henry James, The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories (Penguin, 2018)
  • Peter Mendelsund, What We See When We Read (Vintage, 2014)
  • Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being (Penguin, 2013)

Please obtain the texts on your own in any format you like, though I am requiring you to have the print edition of House of Leaves, for reasons you’ll understand when you see it. As for editions, I’ve noted above which editions I’ll be using. In addition to works above, we’ll likely be reading short fiction by Jorge Luis Borges and Hao Jingfang.

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Department Undergraduate Notes:

IMPORTANT NOTE Re 300 and 400 level courses: 75% of spaces in 300 level English courses, and 100% of spaces in 400 level English courses, are reserved for declared English Major, Minor, Extended Minor, Joint Major, and Honours students only, until open enrollment begins.

For all On-Campus Courses, please note the following:
- To receive credit for the course, students must complete all requirements.
- Tutorials/Seminars WILL be held the first week of classes.
- When choosing your schedule, remember to check "Show lab/tutorial sections" to see all Lecture/Seminar/Tutorial times required.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.