Department of English
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
English 328 - Forms of Experimental Literature: Monstrous Progeny
Stuart Moulthrop
Spring, 2011 – Online
THIS IS LAST YEAR’S SYLLABUS! IT IS ONLY INTENDED AS A PREVIEW: THE 2012 SYLLABUS WILL HAVE SOME DIFFERENCES, THOUGH NUMBER AND SCOPE OF ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE VERY SIMILAR.
SYLLABUS 1.01
Meetings, Readings, Deadlines
Quizzes will be active for a specific time range, probably beginning at midweek. Reading, viewing, etc. assigned for each week must be completed before the quiz opens.
Week 1: January 24 - 30
Reading: M. W. Shelley’s Frankenstein, Volume I (pp. 1-68 of the Oxford Classics edition)
Reading quiz (practice only), on-line discussion
Week 2: January 31 - February 6
Reading:Frankenstein, Volume II (pp. 69-123 in Oxford Classics)
Reading quiz, on-line discussion
Week 3: February 7 - 13
Viewing:Frankenstein, Volume III (pp. 124-191 in Oxford Classics)
Reading quiz, on-line discussion
Week 4: February 14 - 20
Viewing:Frankenstein: The Man Who Made a Monster (film)
Viewing quiz, on-line discussion
Week 5: February 21 - 27
Reading:Patchwork Girl (hypertext)
Response quiz, on-line discussion
Week 6: February 28 – March 6
No Reading, Quiz, or Discussion: Work on Unit Project 1
Week 7: March 7 - 13
Unit Project 1 is due March 7
Viewing/Reading:Hitchhiker's Guide film AND ALSO The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel), to chapter 5
Reading/viewing quiz, on-line discussion
Week 8: March 14 - 20
Reading:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel), chapter 6 to end
Reading quiz, on-line discussion
Week 9: March 21 - 27
SPRING BREAK
Week 10: March 28 – April 3
Play:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (video game)
Response quiz, on-line discussion
Week 11: April 4 - 10
No Reading, Quiz, or Discussion: Work on Unit Project 2
Week 12: April 11 - 17
Unit Project 2 is due April 11
Reading:Watchmen, chapters 1-4
Reading quiz, on-line discussion
Week 13: April 18 - 24
Reading:Watchmen, chapters 5-8
Reading quiz, on-line discussion
Week 14: April 25 – May 1
Reading:Watchmen, chapters 9-12
Reading quiz, on-line discussion
Week 15: May 2 - 8
View: Watchmen film (Zack Snyder, 2009)
Response quiz, on-line discussion
Week 16: May 9 – 15
No Reading, Quiz, or Discussion: Work on Unit Project 3
Optional: Play Watchmen: The End is Nigh video game (no quiz)
Week 17: May 16 – 21
Unit Project 3 is due May 16 (unless otherwise announced)
Final Exam (online)
Assigned Texts
I. Purchase these items at UWM Bookstore. Other editions may be substituted, so I will supply references by chapter as well as page; but if you wish to be on the same page (literally), use these editions, particularly for Frankenstein. They are inexpensive. (Price suggestions are approximate, assume on-line purchase, and do not include shipping or taxes.)
M.W. Shelley, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Oxford Classics. ISBN 9780199537150. Under $10.
D. Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Del Rey. ISBN 0345391802. Under $10.
S. Jackson, Patchwork Girl. Eastgate Systems (CD-ROM). ISBN 1884511236. About $25.00.
A. Moore and D. Gibbons, Watchmen. DC Comics. ISBN 1401219268. Under $30.
II. Available via Media Reserve or through the class site; or rent.
Frankenstein: The Man Who Made a Monster. Universal Studios, 1931, Dir. James Whale.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Touchstone Films, 2005, Dir. Garth Jennings.
Watchmen. Warner Brothers, 2009, Dir. Zack Snyder. [Director's Cut preferred.]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (video game). Online at
(Optional) Watchmen: The End is Nigh (video game). Warner Brothers Interactive, 2009. Available for XBox 360 and Playstation 3. XBox version will be available through the Library, but you may use the PS3 version if available. You are not required to purchase the game.
Outline and Weighting of Assignments
(15%) Reading/response quizzes: With a few exceptions, there will be a reading quiz or response assignment each week. Reading quizzes will consist of five questions generally addressing important features of the text. Answer options will generally be True/False and multiple choice. In the case of the hypertext and the two games, you will not be held responsible for particular content, but will be asked to write brief but thoughtful reflections on your experience with the text.
(15%) Discussion: For every week that has a reading or response quiz assigned, you are also required to contribute at least once to an active discussion thread in D2L. I will create multiple threads each week. Posts may be brief and relatively informal, though you should make them as thoughtful as possible. I will give further suggestions and guidelines about discussion posts as we go.
(45%) Unit Projects (3 x 15%): The course has three units, one each on Frankenstein, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Watchmen. At the end of each unit, you will have a week in which to develop a project. (There are no readings or quiz assignments during these work weeks.) The project may be either an analytical/interpretive essay of 1250-1500 words, or an alternative project, terms of which will be described in detail later. You may take the alternative option only twice. At least one standard paper is required. Likewise, you must take the alternative option at least once.
(25%) Final Examination: There will be a time-limited final examination consisting mainly of short answer and essay questions.
Options on Unit Assignments
Reflecting the concept of literary experiment, each Unit Project assignment offers an option for something that is not a traditional interpretive or analytic paper. You may take these alternative options on one or two of your Unit Projects. One Unit Project must be a traditional paper. (So you could write two alternatives and one paper, or two papers and one alternative.) Alternative assignments will engage media and mediation in some practical way, asking you for example to create a hypertext, annotate or script panels from Watchmen, or write an elaborated walk-through for one of the video games. You may propose your own ideas, within limits of timeliness, relevance, and scope.
Unconventional Texts
This class requires you to work with films and digital texts as well as books. The films will be available on reserve at the Library, and will ideally be viewable in whole or part via the course site. In addition, you will be assigned two digital productions, a hypertext and a game, which do not have a single, determined path. In these cases, you will not be held responsible for content (quizzed) as on the novels and films; rather, I will ask you to reflect on multiple encounters with the digital text, and on your experience generally. You will not have to read everything in the hypertext, or beat the game. A third video game is optional, and may be the subject of an alternative project for Unit 3. You are required* to purchase a copy of Patchwork Girl and install it on a Mac or PC. The Hitchhiker's game is available through the Internet. The Watchmen game will be available from Media Reserve at the Library, and is optional. You are not required to purchase either game.
*Patchwork Girl runs in all versions of Mac OS and on any 32-bit Windows system, but not on 64-bit versions of Windows. If you know you have a 64-bit system, you may opt not to purchase the hypertext. I will provide alternative access, though probably with some limitations.
Disclaimer
The document you are now reading (Syllabus 1.01) may not be the final syllabus for this class. I may change reading and writing assignments as the term unfolds, based on my sense of how things are going. Any changes will be announced in e-mail and on the class site. Please pay attention to announcements and messages during the term. To be safe, use the posted version of the syllabus as your guide to assignments and due dates.
You should not end up with more work or expense than initially described. The number and scope of assignments will not change, and neither will the list of assigned texts.
About the Instructor
Stuart Moulthrop joined the UWM faculty as Professor of English in the fall of 2010. He has taught previously at Yale, the University of Texas, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Baltimore, where he co-founded the School of Information Arts and Technologies and helped create an undergraduate program in game and simulation design. An award-winning hypertext writer and multimedia artist, Moulthrop is the author of Victory Garden, which like Patchwork Girl has been assigned to the "golden age" of digital literature. In the early 1990s he created Watching the Detectives, the first online companion to Moore and Gibbons' Watchmen, and has published several articles about that graphic novel. See more at pantherfile.uwm.edu/moulthro/index.htm.
Getting in Touch
The best way to reach me is via e-mail: . My office phone is 414-229-6077. I’m in Curtin 596, with hours Mondays from 2:00 – 4:00 PM. I’m generally available at other times by appointment.
pg. 1