Comparative Literature 102W, Word and Image
Professor. Susan Jarratt (sjarratt@uci.edu)
Course Code 22650
Tues/Thurs 9:30-10:50, HH 230, Winter 2009
Office: 1420 BioSci III
Office hours: Tuesday noon-2 p.m. and by appointment
Phone: x49629 (messages only)
Class listserv: 22650-W09@classes.uci.edu
Course description:
This course offers an introduction to the study of visual rhetoric:
the critical analysis of image making, circulating, and viewing in
transnational public spheres. We will concentrate on the still image,
primarily in the form of news photography in times of war, although we
will also work with a graphic novel. Topics include the lure of
objectivity, the possibilities for formal image analysis, the ethics
of representation in wartime, race and visibility in U.S. culture, and
word/image resonance in a child’s story of exile. Analysis of visual
texts—news photographs and other images of your choosing—will be a
significant part of the class discussion from week to week.
The course is called “Word and Image” because we will consider
language and image-making as different forms of representation.
Playing two processes of representation off one another enables
reflection on how such processes work. Each entails
--taking a stance, occupying a position, acknowledging a point of view
--selecting, emphasizing, including, excluding
--entering a communicative public through a creative act: expressing,
envisioning, projecting, and inviting response.
Putting writing and picturing into relation with each other highlights
the range of attitudes, desires, and emotions produced by each. Among
other approaches, we will take the word/image relation as a rhetorical
heuristic. “Rhetoric” here refers to situated, symbolic action;
“heuristic” means a framework for inquiry. What do images/does
writing do? To whom? Through what means or techniques? Through what
media or genres? In what times and spaces?
Goals:
Through readings, discussion, and writing in this course, I hope you
will develop
• familiarity and facility with a critical terminology in the field
of visual rhetoric and representation
• an awareness of the epistemological (knowledge-related) issues
associated with photography
• an ability to articulate, attribute to specific critics, and take
up for yourself ethical stances related to representations of violent
acts and their consequences
2
• a curiosity about the circuits of production, reception (including
various media), and historical contexts surrounding visual images,
along with some experience in researching those contexts in relation
to specific images.
I also hope that you will be able to bring your own viewing, imagemaking, and writing experiences into the class—for reflection,
exploration, and material for discussion and writing.
Writings:
[This course fulfills the upper-division writing breadth requirement.
Completing lower-division writing is a prerequisite.]
Here is what I hope you will accomplish with writing in this course:
• write some short pieces using several genres (description,
expressive response, formal analysis, text-based argument,
exploration, and perhaps researched writing)
• build an extended essay of visual analysis on an image of your
choice over the course of the quarter, incorporating these shorter
writings
• use a collaborative, process approach to writing, involving draft,
consultation with your classmates and with me, and revision
• have the choice to produce a single long essay over the quarter (1012 pages) or two shorter pieces (5-6 pages each)
I will pass out more detailed instructions for each major piece when
it is assigned. Short (sometimes unannounced) in-class writings will
be based on the readings and will focus on the goals above. The
lengths of individual pieces will vary, but you will need to produce a
total of approximately 15 pages for the quarter. You will turn in all
your writing (short writing, drafts, and revisions) in a portfolio at
the end of the quarter.
Everyone will come in for an individual conference about your writing
at some point during the quarter.
Course texts:
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis
Faigley, The Little Penguin Handbook
Essays available on electronic reserve (ER)
Grade:
Attendance, participation, short writings
Major writing assignments, portfolio
20%
80%
Tentative Schedule:
Week 1 - 1/6, 8
Introductions; in-class writing
Responding to news photographs: from Barthes, Camera Lucida (handout)
– photo and response
1-page response to photo
3
Week 2 - 1/13, 15
Barthes, “The Photographic Message” (ER)– formal analysis
1-2 page response and formal analysis of a photo
Faigley, Ch. 1-3 – rhetoric, composing, point of view, critical
reading and viewing
Week 3 - 1/20, 22
Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
Longer paper assigned
Group discussion of photos
Faigley, Ch. 4-6 – planning, drafting, composing paragraphs
Week 4 - 1/27, 29
Sontag continued
Zelizer, “The Voice of the Visual in Memory” (ER)
McNally, New York Times policies on photojournalism (ER)
Faigley, Ch. 7 – revising, editing, proofreading
Begin conferences.
Week 5 - 2/3, 5
Enloe, “Nationalism and Masculinity” (ER)
Hariman and Lucaites, “Liberal Representation and Global Order:
Iconic Photograph from Tiananmen Square” (ER)
The
Week 6 - 2/10, 12
Williams, “On Being an Object of Property” (ER)
Oliver, “Seeing Race” (ER)
Draft of longer paper due: peer review
Week 7 - 2/17, 19
Cooks, “Confronting Terrorism: Teaching the History of Lynching
through Photography,” Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art.
Strange Fruit: Lynching, Visuality, Empire: Issue #21: Fall 2006
(handout)
Faigley, Ch. 9-13 – resources for researched writing; using sources
ethically and effectively; paraphrase, summary
Week 8 - 2/24, 26
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis
Reading graphic novels: Scott McCloud (handout)
Optional short paper assigned
Online evaluation period begins
Week 9 - 3/3, 5
Moallem, “Transnationalism, Feminism, and Fundamentalism” (ER)
Satrapi, “Defending My Country” (New York Times, Nov. 28, 2005) (ER)
Film: Persepolis
Week 10 - 3/10 (no class Thurs., 3/12)
Finish film; full-class discussion of short papers-in-process
4
Writing portfolios due in Comp Lit office by 5 p.m. Monday, 3/16
(online evaluation must be completed)
Policies:
Attendance
Attendance is required. Please notify me if you must be absent
for illness or family emergency. Excessive absence (more than two of
our nineteen scheduled sessions) will be grounds for failure. All
work must be completed for you to pass the course. Any writing
(informal, draft, revised essay) not turned in on the date due will
receive a grade penalty. Excessive or repeated lateness will lower
your grade.
Academic Honesty
All work must be your own and created for this course. Please
review UCI’s Principles of Community to inform yourself of definitions
of academic dishonesty and penalties for violating these principles:
http://www.editor.uci.edu/catalogue/appx/appx.2.htm
School of Humanities Add/Drop Policies
Any student may add or drop a Humanities course through the end
of the second week of classes. An exception may only be requested for
extenuating circumstances outside the student's control, by submitting
a Late Add/Drop petition to the instructor and Humanities
Undergraduate Study (HIB 143). Humanities majors may, with an
instructor's signature, add or drop a non-Humanities course through
the end of the sixth week of classes, subject to any deadlines imposed
by the School/Program where the course is offered. Majors in
Humanities may change the grading option in a course through the end
of the sixth week of classes.