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Tell us 10 things that you learned in here this semester. It can be something you read or something you heard from me or a student in class.

Post group work here 4/22

Post your group work here 4/15

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My worldview is...

Choose one of the critical approaches to interpretation below. Summarize in one sentence how you understand your chosen approach to work. Explain why you feel that approach works best for you and your personal worldview. When you engage with the arts (literature, music, film, etc.) what critical approach are you most likely to take reflexively? [150 words]

1. New Criticism
2. Structuralism
3. Post-structuralism
4. Deconstruction
5. Narrative Theory
6. Biographical Criticism
7. Psychoanalytic Freudian Criticism
8. Psychoanalytic Jungian Criticism
9. Psychoanalytic Lacanian Criticism
10. Reader-Response Criticism
11. Ideological Marxist Criticism
12. Ideological Feminist Criticism
13. LGBTQ Studies
14. Queer Theory
15. African-American Studies
16. New Historicism
17. Cultural Studies
18. Post-colonial Criticism

Homework post for 4/15 -- B

In the episode, "White Christmas," from the British TV show Black Mirror* that we watched in class:

1. In Part Three, Joe Potter relates the story of his failed marriage with Beth and the turn of events that led to him murdering Beth's father and being indirectly responsible for the death of her daughter. Is Joe a "good man who did bad things" (as Matt says) or does his bad choices make him a bad man? [50 words]
2. In Part Four,  both Matt and Joe receives sentences. Are their sentences fair? Is the punishment meted out on Joe's cookie "identity extension" fair? [50 words]
3. If our selves are not fully integrated in time (since we do change all the time), then how can we punish the segment of our selves that is responsible for moral or immoral behavior? Note how the cookie identity extensions seem to suffer most in this story. [50 words]

*Note my use of quotes and italics in this sentence.

Homework post for 4/15 -- A

In the episode, "White Christmas," from the British TV show Black Mirror* that we watched in class:

1. In Part One, Matt Trent leads a triple lifestyle (job, home, cyber-crime). What does his character tell us about a lack of moral integration or integrity? [50 words]
2. In Part Two, the wealthy Greta has a "cookie" implanted/removed from her brain to serve as a sort of perfect servant. What does this surgical technique imply about the nature of consciousness and self-identity? What does the use of an "identity-extension" say about the value of human life? [50 words]
3. The schizophrenic Jennifer, who kills herself and her would-be lover Harry in part one, wants to escape from the voices in her head. In what way is the entire story about escaping from the multiple selves that inhabit our mind? [50 words]

*Note my use of quotes and italics in this sentence.

More human than you, man.

What does it mean to be "human," to be a human being? [150 words]

in outer space

Tell us 9 interesting things/points/fact/ideas/examples that you took from this week's readings on critical theory.