Upper-Division Seminar : Multimedia Criticism
This course cannot be repeated and is limited to upper-division English majors only.
How do we interpret works that are composed of complex media forms -- from illuminated manuscripts to interactive media? Conversely, how can we use media to create new forms of literary criticism?
To explore this question fully, we will take a long and broad view on multimedia, considering examples from the colonial era printing press through 1960s graphic design, also considering graphic novels, computer programs, video games, and even Powerpoint as a rhetorical (and artistic) medium.
The class includes a collaborative and a creative component.
Some works addressed in the course include:
- Franklin. Poor Richard, 1733 an Almanack.
- Koster. A Theory of Fun for Game Design.
- McCloud. Understanding Comics.
- McLuhan and Fiore. The Medium is the Massage.
- Montfort et al. 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10.
- Tufte. The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint.
Course material on graphic narrative will also coincide with the campus visit and Regent's Lecture of renowned comics theorist Scott McCloud.