COLLEGE SEMINAR 001
FALL, 2000
THE NATURE OF INQUIRY:
STORY TELLING AND RETELLING IN THE SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
Week |
Dates |
In Class |
Relevant Reading |
Papers DUE MON |
1 |
Tues, 5 Sept |
Intro and Internet |
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Thurs, 7 Sept |
Telling stories |
A |
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2 |
Tues, 12 Sept |
Meaning of stories |
B |
A' (2-3 pp) |
Thurs, 14 Sept |
Reading/commenting |
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3 |
Tues, 19 Sept |
Retelling stories |
C |
B' (2-3 pp) |
Thurs, 21 Sept |
Reading/commenting |
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4 |
Tues, 26 Sept |
Why retell stories? |
Flatland |
C' (4-5 pp) |
Thurs, 28 Sept |
Reading/commenting |
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5 |
Tues, 3 Oct |
Why retell stories |
Galileo |
D' (2-3 pp) |
Thurs, 5 Oct |
Reading/commenting |
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6 |
Sun, 8 Oct (2-5 pm) |
Fairy Tales MTG. |
E' (2-3 pp) |
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Tues, 10 Oct |
Gender Diffs? |
Time to Think? |
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Thurs, 12 Oct |
Gender Diffs - Methods |
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7 |
Tues, 17 Oct |
FALL BREAK |
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Thurs, 19 Oct |
FALL BREAK |
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8 |
Tues, 24 Oct |
Gender Diffs -Results |
D |
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Thurs, 26 Oct |
Gender Diffs - Discuss |
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9 |
Tues, 31 Oct |
Reading/commenting |
D |
F' (3-4 pp) |
Thurs, 2 Nov |
Reading/commenting |
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10 |
Tues, 7 Nov |
Reading/commenting |
E |
G' (2-3 pp) |
Thurs, 9 Nov |
Reading/commenting |
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11 |
Sun, 12 Nov (2-5 pm) |
Gender Diffs MTG. |
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Tues, 14 Nov |
Social stories |
E |
H' (4-5 pp) |
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Thurs, 16 Nov |
Reading/commenting |
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12 |
Tues, 21 Nov |
Social stories |
F |
I' (2-3 pp) |
Thurs, 23 Nov |
THANKSGIVING |
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13 |
Tues, 28 Nov |
Educational stories |
G |
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Thurs, 30 Nov |
Educational stories |
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14 |
Tues, 5 Dec |
Personal stories |
TBMA |
K' (2-3 pp) |
Thurs, 7 Dec |
Personal stories |
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15 |
Tues, 12 Dec |
Reading/commenting |
TBMA |
L' (2-3 pp) |
Thurs, 14 Dec |
Reading/commenting |
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16 |
Monday, 18 Dec |
Portfolio and reflections |
A: Grimm: Snow White, Ashiepattle; Bettleheim
B: Grimm: Rumpelstilskin, Rapunzel, Briar Rose, Jack of Iron;
C: Sexton: The Gold Key, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Iron Hans, Cinderella, Briar Rose
Time to Think?: http://serendipstudio.org/bb/reaction/
D:
E:
G: Behold They Are Women by Helen Horowitz, Culture as Disability by Ray McDermott and Herve Verenne
TBMA: selected shorter works, to be made available
B': Based on class discussion of the theory and practice of writing, and a second/third reading of Bettleheim, read and criticize your first paper and write a new draft of it which reflects that critique.
C': Why does a person retell (redraft?) a story? Write a two-three page essay exploring this question by doing a comparison of a Grimm fairy tale and a corresponding Sexton poem.
D': Over the course of Flatland, a number of stories (the story of how many dimensions space has, for example) are told and retold. Write an essay in which you focus on one such telling/revision and use it to further consider the question of why stories are retold.
E': Rewrite your essay on why Sexton retold Grimm fairy tales
F': Review our/your talking/writing/thinking about the telling and retelling of stories (Grimm/Sexton/Flatland/Galileo), and write a 4-5 page essay on whatever topic has most interested you/you have thought most about/you would like to think more about in connection with this section of the course. Among the possibilities is a more fully developed consideration of why people retell stories, and/or a consideration of whether the retelling of stories is a good thing.
G': Based on readings and discussions to date, as well as your own experiences, write a 2-3 page essay in which you describe your understanding of female/male differences and use this as a basis for predictions of differences which you would expect to see in our Time to Think? observations.
H':People's own stories change with time. Think through your own story about male/female differences before we started talking about the subject in class, and what changes have occurred in that story as a result of our class discussion, readings, and Time to Think research. Write a 4-5 page essay on this subject, considering what caused you to tell the your story as you did originally, what has caused whatever changes have occurred since, and using both to speculate on what future changes there may be in your own story of female/male differences.
I': Geertz ... "To put the matter this way is to engage in a bit of metaphorical refocusing of one's own, for it shifts the analysis of cultural forms from an endeavour in general parallel to dissecting an organism, diagnosing a symptom, deciphering a code, or ordering a system - the dominant analogies in contemporary anthropology - to one in general parallel with penetrating a literary text".
Write a 2-3 page essay in which you either show explicitly in what ways Geertz's analysis of the Balinese cock fight differs from "dissecting an organism, diagnosing ... etc" or illustrate this difference in the context of some anthropological inquiry you have yourself undertaken or might undertake.