Reading & Composition

This is not a class about Facebook. However, we will think about how contemporary experiences of social networking can help us to describe relationships between individuals, social systems, and the connections between them. We will trace back some of these issues by reading books and watching films that predate contemporary social networks. Particular attention will be paid to the role of technology. In the works that we encounter, technologies of communication – the letter, the apartment building, the telephone, the computer – play a large role in our understanding of the content of the message, the purpose of communicating, the boundary between public and private, our notion of belonging in a community, and even our sense of self.

This is a writing intensive course. We will spend considerable time in class on improving students’ writing skills by working on clarity, argument development and research basics. Students will participate in writing workshops and be asked to complete two papers, one of which will be a research project.

Works to be discussed include:

Plato, The Republic

Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Balzac, Père Goriot

Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy

Hitchcock, Rear Window

Shteyngart, Super Sad True Love Story