Theory and Cyberspace: Culture,
Technology, Media
Humanities
301, Summer 2005 (July 5 - Aug. 4), Tues. - Thurs. 9:00-12:45, A303 Old
Mill Annex
Thomas Streeter:
656-2167; thomas.streeter@uvm.edu,
31 So. Prospect (Benedict House)
This course will explore intersections between, on
the
one hand, theories of culture, technology, and society and, on the
other,
that set of cultural and sociological phenomena associated with
computer communications
colloquially known as "cyberspace." Scholarly work that discusses the
relations
between media, spatial relations, social and legal regulation,
technology,
bodies, and society will be explored alongside examples of "cyberspace"
culture.
Assignments
The principle
assignment (roughly 50% of
your
grade) will be a research paper (perhaps 20-25 pages).
Also, every week, you will
turn in a two or three page reflective essay on two or more of
the readings for that week. The essay should make some
central point, argument, or observation -- that is, it should be an
essay, not a list. As a general rule, the essay should discuss at
least one aspect of each reading that pointed out something unique
about the topic in question, and one aspect that pointed out something
general, something shared with the topics of other readings or class
discussions.
Participation in
discussions will also count as part of your grade.
Course
Outline
[Add Borges library;
Ulmer;
my piece for Institute; Computer Power and Human Reason excerpt, other
humanist
critiques; bodies earlier]Readings and films: most of
the readings will be
on
electronic reserve; there will be links from the online version of this
syllabus
at:
http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/Courses/cyberspace_syl.htm.
Most of the online readings will require you to provide your UVM "net
id," (i.e., you zoo username and password). I strongly recommend
you print out online readings, which makes them much easier to read and
allows you to bring them to class.
William Gibson's Neuromancer
[originally
1984] is available at local bookstores or online.
During the
semester we'll also look at the
following
films, which will be on reserve in the media library: Metropolis (Fritz
Lang, 1926); Blade
Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982),
and Mark Neale's 1999 documentary "William
Gibson - No Maps for These Territories." We'll work out a schedule for viewings
on the
first
day of class. (All this is subject to changes and additions during the
semester.)
Please
read and/or view the materials listed below before the class on the
date listed.
July 5: Introduction -- Modernization and
Communication
- Streeter, "The Puzzle of Modernization," http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/Courses/Soc43/pages/lecture_modernization.html
- Manuel
Castells, "Prologue: the Net and the Self," from The Rise of Network Society, 2nd
edition (Vol 1 of The Information
Age: Economy, Society, and Culture) Blackwell, 2003, pp. 1- 27.
- William Gibson, Neuromancer
July 7: Life in the Matrix of Modernity
- Raymond Williams, "The Social History of the Uses of
Television
Technology," from Television:
Technology
and Cultural Form, pp. 19-31.
- Walter
Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," from
Illuminations,
NY: Schocken, 1969, pp. 217-251. http://library.uvm.edu/e-res/bailey/soc/wbents295.pdf.
- Manuel
Castells, "The Culture of Real Virtuality: the Integration
of Electronic Communication, the End of the Mass Audience, and the Rise
of Interactive Networks," pp. 355- 406.
- View: Mark
Neale's 1999 documentary "William Gibson - No Maps for These Territories."
July 12: The Original Information
Technologies: Orality, Writing, Books, Printing
- Walter
J. Ong, "Orality, literacy and modern media" (excerpts from Orality
and
literacy : the technologizing of the word, Methuen, 1982) chapter 9
from Communication in history: technology, culture, society, Boston,
MA Allyn & Bacon 2003 http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/humn/wongts301.pdf.
- Elizabeth
Eisenstein, excerpts from The Printing Press as an Agent of Change:
Communications
and cultural transformations in early-modern Europe, London:
Cambridge
University Press, 1979, pp. 43-47, 66-91, 113-125, 129-136; http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/eisensteints295.pdf.
- Robert
Darnton, "Readers Respond to Rousseau: The Fabrication of Romantic
Sensitivity,"
from his The Great Cat Massacre(New
York: Basic Books, 1984) pp. 215-56.
- Jay David Bolter, "The Idea of the
Book," from Cyberreader, http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/readings/elecbookt100.pdf
July 14: The
Problem of Determination
- Streeter, "The Politics of Technological Development: Comparing
the History of the Radio to the History of the Internet," http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/Courses/Soc43/pages/lecture_radio.html.
- Langdon
Winner,
"Do Artifacts Have Politics?" http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/winnts295.pdf
- Daniel Chandler, "Technological Determinism" http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/tecdet/tecdet.html.
- Raymond
Williams, "The technology and the society," from Television: Technology
and Cultural Form, Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press ;
Hanover,
NH : University Press of New England, [1992] (Originally published:
[London]
: Fontana, [1974].) pp. 9-19; http://library.uvm.edu/e-res/bailey/soc/raywilts295.pdf
- View:
Fritz Lang, Metropolis
(1926)
July 19: Beyond the Book?
- Roland
Barthes, "From Work to Text," and "Change the Object itself," from Image,
Music, Text, New York, Hill and
Wang,
1997, pp. 155-169; http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/barthests295.pdf.
- Michel
Foucault,
"What is an Author?" Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected
Essays
and Interviews, Donald F. Bouchard Ed., Ithaca: Cornell University
Press,
1977, p. 138.
July 21: The Postmodern Condition
- James
W. Carey, "The
Mythos
of the Electronic Revolution," and "The
History
of the Future," in Communication as Culture: Essays on Media
and Society,
Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989, pp. 113-141 and pp. 173-200.
- Jean-Francois
Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, Manchester University Press, 1984, pp.
3-17; http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/lyotardts295.pdf.
- Mark
Dery, "The Cult of the Mind," New York Times Magazine, Sept. 28, 1997, pp. 94-96; http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/deryts295.pdf.
- Baudrillard,
"The Ecstasy of Communication," from Hal Foster (ed.) The
Anti-Aesthetic:
Essays on Postmodern Culture, Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1983,
pp.
126-134; http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/baudrillardts295.pdf.
- Manuel Castells, "Conclusion: social change in the network
society," from Power of identity,
Blackwell 2003, pp. 418-428,
http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/humn/sochangets301.pdf
- Friedrich
Kittler, Introduction to Gramophone,
Film,
Typewriter, Translated by Geoff
Winthrop-Young
and Michael Wutz (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), Preface, Introduction, and Chapter 1: Gramophone.
- Slavoj Zizek, "Welcome to
the Desert of the Real," published on Sept. 17, 2001 [note the date!] http://web.mit.edu/cms/reconstructions/interpretations/desertreal.html.
July
26: Space, Time, Society
- E.
P.
Thompson,
"Time, Work-discipline, and Industrial Capitalism," Past and Present,
No. 38, 1967, pp. 56-97.
- Michel
Foucault, Excerpts from Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the
Prison, New
York Vintage Books 1979
- James
W. Carey, "Technology and Ideology: The Case of the Telegraph," from Communication
as Culture: Essays on Media and Society, Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989, pp. 201-230. http://library.uvm.edu/e-res/bailey/soc/techidts295.pdf
- Arjun
Appadurai,
"Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy," Theory,
Culture
& Society, Vol. 7, 1990, pp.
295-310.
- Jody
Berland, "Angels Dancing: Cultural Technologies and the Production of
Space,"
in Grossberg et al. (eds.), Cultural Studies, New York:
Routledge,
1992. http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/berlandts295.pdf.
- Mike
Davis, "Fortress LA," from City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in
Los
Angeles, http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/davists295.pdf.
July 28: Selves, Bodies, and Virtuality
- Julian
Dibbell,
"A Rape in Cyberspace," Village Voice, Dec. 21, 1993, pp. 36-42; http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/dibbellts295.pdf.
- Joseph
Weizenbaum, "Science and the compulsive programmer," Chapter 4
of Computer
power and human reason, San Francisco WH Freeman and Co.
1976; http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/humn/weizenbaumts301.pdf.
- Allucquere
Rosanne
Stone, "Will the Real Body Please Stand Up? Boundary Stories about
Virtual
Cultures" in Michael Benedikt (ed.) Cyberspace: First Steps, pp. 81-118.
- Sherry Turkle, "Constructions and reconstructions of the self in
virtual
reality," Mind, culture, and activity, Summer 1994, pp. 1-15; http://library.uvm.edu/e-res/bailey/soc/sturkts295.pdf.
- Ellen
Ullman,
"Come In, CQ: The Body on the Wire," in Cherny and Weise (eds.),Wired
Women:
Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace, pp. 3-23
- Donna
Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and
Socialist-Feminism
in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The
Reinvention
of Nature, New York: Routledge, pp. 149-181: http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/humn/cymants301.pdf.
- Slavoj
Zizek, "Cyberspace, or, the unbearable closure of being," Pretexts: Studies in Writing and Culture, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1997, pp. 53-79; http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/zizekts295.pdf.
- View:
Blade
Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
Aug 2: Gender and Technology
- Paulina Borsook, "The Diaper Fallacy Strikes Again," ReWired, December 3rd, 1997, http://www.rewired.com/97/1203.html
- Jennifer Light, "When Computers were Women,"
Technology and Culture - Volume 40, Number 3, July 1999, pp. 455-483, http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v040/40.3light.html. (Access from the campus network only.)
- William Boddy: "Archaeologies of Electronic Vision and the Gendered Spectator," Screen 35:2 Summer 1994, http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/readings/boddyts295.pdf
Optional Readings:
- Helen W. Kennedy "Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo? On the Limits of Textual Analysis," http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/
- Wendy Wahl essay: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/postmodern_culture/v003/3.2wahl.html
- Cheris Kramerae: http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/djglp/articles/gen4p149.htm
- Women and Technology, Beyond the Binary: A Roundtable Discussion
with N. Katherine Hayles, Marjorie Perloff, Diane Greco, Linda Carroli
and Shelley Jackson, hosted by Jennifer Ley http://www.heelstone.com/meridian/rtable3.html
- Streeter, "The Romantic Self and the Politics of Internet Commercialization," Cultural Studies 17 (5) 2003, http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/readings/Streeter_Romantic_Self.pdf
- Heim, "The Erotic Ontology of Cyberspace," http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/readings/heimts295.pdf
Aug 4: Presentations
Additional Resources:
James
Carey, "Culture, Technology and Communications: Bibliography and
Suggestions
for Reading and Writing," 1980 (a course syllabus that's also an
exceptional
literature
review); http://www.uvm.edu/bhreserves/soc/careyts295.pdf.
James
Boyle's excellent page of copyright links: http://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/copyright.htm.
Michel Chaouli,
"How
Interactive Can Fiction Be?"Critical
Inquiry Volume 31, Number 3, Spring 2005,
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CI/journal/issues/v31n3/310302/310302.html
Some interesting and potentially useful books:
Code and Other
Laws of Cyberspace
by
Lawrence
Lessig
Shamans, Software, and Spleens: Law
and the
Construction of the Information Society
by
James
Boyle
The Condition of Postmodernity: An
Enquiry into the
Origins of Cultural Change
by
David
Harvey
How We Became Posthuman : Virtual
Bodies in
Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics
by
N.
Katherine Hayles
Sherry Turkle, Life on
the
Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.
The Language of New Media
(Leonardo Books)
by
Lev
Manovich