Reading & Composition
The Language of Technology: Reading New Media through Literature
At a time when technology threatens to render the printed word obsolete, storytelling still permeates our lives as consumers of media. Far from relinquishing literature to the library, this class explores what we can learn when we bring our “old” literary reading skills to newer texts: video games, social media, interactive fiction. Highlighting the “comparative” in Comparative Literature, we pair canonical works — from Ovid to Shakespeare to Alice in Wonderland — with examples of new media. Along with an emphasis on essay writing skills, this creative reading list encourages students to consider with a new analytical eye issues of art, narrative, politics, and more in forms both traditional and high-tech.
Reading/Viewing List
The Golden Ass
The Metamorphoses
Hamlet
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Wire