Welcome to the course site for Introduction to Social Literature, taught by Elisa Beshero-Bondar, working with students at Pitt-Greensburg. These pages will include the course description and schedule (below), as well as digital projects.
Spring 2019 Syllabus
Schedule: Class number: 31365. Class meets TH 2:30-3:45pm, 137
McKenna Hall.
- Complete all assigned readings before the class period on which they are listed.
- Be alert for changes to this schedule, to be announced in class and posted here.
| Week 1: | |
|---|
| T 1/8 | First Day: Intro to course. Set up Google accounts and Google Sheets. |
| H 1/10 | Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, Chs. 1 – 4 (to p.
46). By class today, start Digital Project 1 by writing two events or timespans from the reading into your TimeMapper Google Sheet. Class notes: Introducing Science Fiction and Octavia Butler |
| Week 2: | |
|---|
| T 1/15 |
Parable of the Sower, through Ch. 9 (to p. 99); add 3 or 4 new entries to your TimeMapper (so you have a total of 5 or 6 entries at this point). |
| H 1/17 |
Parable of the Sower, through Ch. 13 (the end of 2026, to p. 149); add at least 2 TimeMapper entries from our world as context for the reading, building on our in-class exercise on T 1/15 (see Courseweb Discussion Board).
|
|
Note: F 1/18 | add/drop period ends |
| Week 3: | |
|---|
| T 1/22 |
- Parable of the Sower, through Ch. 17 (to p. 213)
- Continue cleaning up your TimeMapper entries to make sure images are visible and map coordinates and links are working for display. Add five new TimeMapper entries, including one marking the publication of this novel, and be sure you have at least two that reference (real) historical events that could have a connection to events in this novel, with specific places and times/timespans that you can plot. (Be sure to briefly but clearly explain the connection you see.)
|
| H 1/24 |
Parable of the Sower, through Ch. 22 (to p. 278) |
| Week 6: | |
|---|
| T 2/12 | Finish Klee Wyck. Closing Exercise (Google Doc)
|
| H 2/14 | No class meeting: Catch-up day for reading and writing. Watch for return of graded Digital Project 1. |
| Week 7: | |
|---|
| T 2/19 | |
| H 2/21 |
Gem of the Ocean, whole play. Digital Project 3: Please record links to your sheets and visualizations underway here on the class directory. Extra Credit opportunity: Screening of Black Panther at 7pm, PH 100.
|
| Week 8: | |
|---|
| T 2/26 | Gem of the Ocean and networks: Refining work on Digital Project 3; optimizing networks. Prep for Midterm Exam. |
| H 2/28 | - Concluding work with Gem of the Ocean
- Start August Wilson Radio Golf, through first two scenes.
- Digital Project 3, continued: Networking Radio Golf
- In class, inititate Midterm Take-Home Exam
|
| Week 9: | |
|---|
| T 3/5 | - August Wilson, Radio Golf through Act I
- Dr. B’s slidesets on August Wilson:
- Gem
- Radio Golf
- Perspective on Pittsburgh’s Hill District and the Civic Arena
- Digital Project 3: Networking Radio Golf
- Midterm Take-Home Exam due;
|
| H 3/7 | Finish August Wilson, Radio Golf; In-class exercise on Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf. |
| Week 10: | Spring Break: 3/10 – 3/17 |
|---|
| Week 11: | |
|---|
| T 3/19 | August Wilson wrap-up; Complete Kumu networks for Digital Project 3: Be sure you have listed these on our Google Doc directory |
| H 3/21 | Digital Project 3 essay due (by 11:59pm) Reading/Catch-up Day (no class meeting): Start Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara Act I
|
| Week 13: | |
|---|
| T 4/2 | Finish Major Barbara, and “The Gospel of St. Andrew
Undershaft” (Preface, pp. 15-27); complete all annotations on the play for Digital Project 4.
|
| H 4/4 | Introduce Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale first
half of Book I. Context slides on Spiegelman, cartoons, and Maus’s origins in the underground Comix movement. |
| Week 15: | |
|---|
| T 4/16 | Finish Maus Book II |
| H 4/18 | Last Day
|