Textures: Better Living and the Bomb Spring 2005 IDS 2202-112 / IDS 2202-110 MWF 10:00-10:50 / 11:00-1:50  LLR 421 Dr. Derek Stanovsky Office: LLA 125  Office Phone: 262-2441 Office Hours: TBA E-mail: stanovskydj@appstate.edu Home page: www.appstate.edu/~stanovskydj

Terry Gilliam's Brazil, 1985.

Course Description:
This course explores what it means to live well -- not just materially (although this is always important), but also socially, politically, and ethically. What sort of society should we work to create? What sort of people should we strive to become? In particular we will explore the role of technology in attempts to shape and create a better world. Together, and along with Chuck Smith's Contexts class focusing on the development of the atomic bomb, we will examine some utopian dreams, some dystopian nightmares, as well as some theories, literature, plays, films, and history about living the good life in the modern world.

Textbooks:
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. NY: W. W. Norton, 1989.
Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. NY: Signet, 1998.
Berman, Marshall. All That Is Solid Melts Into Air. NY: Penguin, 1988.
Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, MN: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1999.
Menchu, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. London: Verso, 1987.

Course Requirements:
The most important requirements for this course are regular class attendance, preparation, and participation. You should complete all of the assigned readings each day and come to class prepared to ask and answer questions. Keeping this in mind, the formal grading requirements are:

Class Participation / Cultural Events 25%
Online Writing 25%
Midterm Paper 25%
Final Paper 25%

Two absences are allowed during the semester. Each additional absence will lower your class participation grade by one letter grade. More than six absences and/or failure to complete any of the graded assignments detailed below are grounds for failing the course.

Your online writing grade will be based on the timely completion of four short papers on topics assigned from the class readings to be posted to our online class discussion board. Late postings will deduct from your online writing grade. You are also expected to read all posts on a regular basis and post thoughful comments and responses to at least three of your classmates papers for each assignment. More information on these assignments will be handed out later in the semester.

There will be two analytic papers. These will be revised and expanded versions of two of the assigned writing topics posted to the online discussion board. Late papers will deduct one third of a letter grade for each day late from your paper grades. More information on these assignments will be handed out later in the semester.

With regard to all assignments for this course, you are expected to know and follow the current ASU code of academic integrity.

Course Schedule:
M 1/10 Introductions.
W 1/12 Read Le Guin, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." [Contextures Common Time.]
F 1/1 Unger, "Illusions of Innocence." Browse UNICEF and Oxfam.

MLK DAY

W 1/19  Unger, "Illusions of Innocence"  continued. [Misfit Lecture during Common Time.]
F 1/21 Freud, Chapters I-II, pp. 10-36.

M 1/24 Post Online Writing on Topic 1.
W 1/26 Film in Greenbriar Theater at 10:00 a.m.: Terry Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil (for those mystified by the movie try the helpful FAQ). [Contextures Common Time.]
F 1/28 Discussion of Brazil.

M 1/31 Freud, Chapters III-V, pp. 37-74.
W 2/2 Freud, Chapters VI-VIII, pp. 75-112. [Contextures Common Time: The Atomic Cafe - 92 min.]
F 2/4 Discussion.

M 2/7 Post Online Writing on Topic 2.
W 2/9 Film in Greenbriar Theater at 10:00 a.m. [Contextures Common Time.]
F 2/11 Marx and Engels, I, pp. 49-65.

M 2/14 Marx and Engels, II and IV, pp. 65-76 and pp. 89-91.
W 2/16 Film in Greenbriar Theater at 10:00 a.m.: Charlie Chaplin's 1936 film, Modern Times. [Misfit Lecture during Common Time.]
F 2/18 Discussion.

M 2/21 Berman, "Introduction and Chapter I, pp. 15-86.
W 2/23 Film in Greenbriar Theater at 10:00 a.m.: Fritz Lang's 1927 film, Metropolis.
F 2/25 Berman, Chapter II, pp.87-129.

M 2/28 Berman, Chapter V, pp. 287-348.
W 3/2 Midterm Paper Due.
F 3/4 TBA

SPRING BREAK

M 3/14  In class reader's theater of Brecht's The Good Woman of Setzuan. Browse Brecht International Society, and read about his life, plays, and influence. 
W 3/16 Film in Greenbriar Theater at 10:00 a.m. [Misfit Lecture during Common Time.]
F 3/18 Brecht reader's theater concluded.

M 3/21 Post Online Writing on Topic 3. 
W 3/23 Watauga College Hunger Banquet Day.
F 3/25 TBA

EASTER BREAK

W 3/30 Menchu, "Introduction" and Chapter I, pp. xi-6. Browse the Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification. 
F 4/1 Menchu, Chapters II-VIII, pp. 7-49.

M 4/4 Menchu, Chapters IX-XVI, pp. 50-121.
W 4/6 Film in Greenbriar Theater at 10:00 a.m.
F 4/8 Menchu, XVII-XXIV, pp. 122-182. 

M 4/11 Menchu, XXV-XXXIV, pp. 183-247.
W 4/13 Film in Greenbriar Theater at 10:00 a.m. [Misfit Lecture during Common Time.]
F 4/15 Discussion.

M 4/18 Post Online Writing on Topic 4. 
W 4/20 TBA [Frames Presentations during Common Time.]
F 4/22 TBA

M 4/25  Conclusions.
W 4/27 TBA

Final paper due during our final exam period: Tuesday 5/3 at 11:30 a.m.