Hyperfiction: or, "Choose Your Own Adventure" Meets Literature
English 7, Section 4
Winter 2003
Brenda R. Silver
206 Sanborn House
Class Hours: 10A (Classes: Tu/Th 10-11:50; Lab: x-hr Wed. 3-4:05)
Office Hours: Wednesday 2-3; Friday 2-3
Web URL: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~engl7_4
Web Master: Noah Flower
Required Reading:
Robert Coover, "The Phantom of the Movie Palace," "Lap Dissolves"; "The Babysitter" (print;
Reader)
Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones (print; Wheelock)
Thomas Pynchon, "Entropy" (print; Reader); The Crying of Lot 49 (print; Wheelock)
Gertrude Stein, "Matisse," "Picasso," Tender Buttons (extracts) (print; handout)
Michael Joyce, afternoon: a story (electronic; online or at Jones Media Center)
Stuart Moulthrop, Victory Garden (electronic; Jones Media Center)
Judy Malloy, its name was Penelope (electronic; Jones Media Center)
Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl (electronic; Jones Media Center)
Deena Larsen, Samplers: Nine Vicious Little Hypertexts (electronic; Jones Media Center)
Talan Memmott, Lexia to Perplexia ( http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/newmedia/lexia/)
Judd Morrissey and Lori Talley, My Name Is Captain, Captain (electronic; Jones Media Center)
Essays in the Reader, available at Wheelock (see weekly assignments)
Essays online, linked from the web page (see weekly assignments)
Course Requirements:
Four (4) print (analytical) essays (3 = 1000 words; 1 = 1500 words)
One (1) revision until we are both satisfied; others as needed
One (1) hypertext, which can be either a short fiction or an essay
One (1) in-class oral report
Participation on the Blackboard Discussion
This class will be run as much as possible as a workshop. Students are required to come to
class, to attend the labs, and to participate in the discussions.
Honor Code: All written work must be identifiably yours. All sources must be documented,
including internet sources.
English 7, Section 4
Winter 2003
Syllabus
Week 1 (Jan 7-9)
Tu: Introduction
Th: Coover, "The Phantom of the Movie Palace," "Lap Dissolves," "The Babysitter"
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Week 2 (Jan 14-16)
Tu: Joyce, afternoon: a story
Th: J. Yellowlees Douglas, "Where the Senses Become a Stage and Reading is
Direction" (Reader)
Terry Harpold, "Conclusions" (Reader)
Workshop: Getting started
Sunday, Jan 19: Paper 1 due at 5 pm
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Week 3 (Jan 21-23)
Tu: Borges, "The Garden of Forking Paths"; "An Examination of the Work of Herbert
Quinn"; "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"; "The Library of Babel"; "The Book of Sand"
(handout)
Th: Roland Barthes, "From Work to Text"; "The Death of the Author" (Reader)
Jean Baudrillard, "Simulacra and Simulations" (reader)
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Week 4 (Jan 28-30)
Tu & Th: Pynchon, "Entropy"; The Crying of Lot 49
David Porush, "Technology and Postmodernism: Cybernetic Fiction" (Reader)
Sunday Feb 2: Paper 2 due at 5 pm
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Week 5 (Feb 4-6)
Tu: Moulthrop, Victory Garden
Th: Larsen, Samplers
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Week 6 (Feb 11-13)
Tu: Malloy, its name was Penelope (Jones)
Gertrude Stein, "Matisse," "Picasso," selections from Tender Buttons (handout)
Guest lecture: Barbara Will, Department of English
Th: Workshop
Sunday Feb 16 Paper 3 due at 5 pm
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Week 7 (Feb 18-20)
Tu: Jackson, Patchwork Girl
Th: Shelley Jackson, "Stitch Bitch: the patchwork girl"
(http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/jackson.html)
Mark Amerika, "Stitch Bitch: The Hypertext Author as Cyborg-Femme"
(http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/kolu/3193/1.html)
Barbara Page, "Women Writers and the Restive Text" (Reader)
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Week 8 (Feb 25-27)
Tu: Memmott, Lexia to Perplexia ( http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/newmedia/lexia/)
Th: "New Media Literature: Roundtable Discussion on Aesthetics, Audiences, and Histories"
(handout)
Sunday Mar 2 Paper 4 due at 5 pm
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Week 9 (Mar 4-6)
Tu: Morrissey and Talley, My Name Is Captain, Captain
Th: Student Presentations
** All rewrites and hypertext due in class.