It's come to my attention that the reading for some students has been dense, difficult, and demoralizing.. This is understandable. Many of the articles presume a certain baseline knowledge because they are primarily written with experienced scholars and students in mind, not newcomers to the (in)discipline. If you're having trouble keeping up, send me a note and we'll work something out.
With this in mind, I've decided to eliminate Chapter 4 of Howsam's "Old Books & New Histories" from the required reading. You are, however, still responsible for Chapters 2 & 3 (pp 16-45) and Chapter 5 (pp 65-77). I've put my copy on reserve in the Corcoran Library. I've also posted selections from Roger Chartier "Labourers and Voyagers: From the Text to the Reader" and Karen Littau "Theories of Reading: Books, bodies and Bibliomania". Both of these are now available on our class drop site.
Please note: There is no writing assignment to prepare for this Wedensday's seminar. We're going to have an in-class exercise in devising our own maps and diagrams that illuminate the relationships among books/readers/critics writers/designers/makers/etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment