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 Films to be screened free in class include
This class is OPEN to ALL majors and will feature graphic narrative, art, photography in addition to cinema and literature! first assignment |
| Responsibilities, Requirements, Entitlements, and more... Responsibilities You must attend class! This is not one of those slacker-haven classes (yes, I have heard of them) where you can get an A or A- just for showing up in our sexy blue classroom. You must attend class, and, brace yourself, do the readings. Much of the success of our class depends on you being in the room and prepared to think and, even, SHARE your thinking. While I have been known to lecture like any self-respecting professor, what I really enjoy is the revelation of a student blowing me out the water with surprising speculations and startling findings. This is your biggest responsibility of the semester--to be, in short, a dedicated, focused university student! Me? I will go out of my way to not be a "pretentious jerk"--yes, I read my ratemyprofessor entries and NO, I don't write them! Requirements You are required to care. Additional requirements? 1. Use your brain! 2. Read and write as if your life depended on it. 3. Be curious. 4. Share your curiosity. 5. Do the readings (see "responsibilities" above). 6. Attend class (ditto). 7. Be skeptical and cynical--it is entirely possible that much of what I say during the class is wrong or ill-conceived; it is your job to call me on it when that occurs. 8. Reread requirement 2, three times! 9. You must be willing to deal with adult material--while I promise that the erotic content of the class will not go further than your typical HBO program, there may be days that we discuss things that push the envelope; be understanding, tolerant, open-minded, and curious and everything should be OK! Entitlements You are entitled to a lively, energetic, safe, and exciting classroom environment where the professor is committed to NOT wasting your time and money; I can almost guarantee that this will be the case--and, if it is not, I expect you to call me on it. You are entitled to be thrilled intellectually and, also, given the subject matter of this class, to be offended or made uncomfortable at various times during the semester. Grades Your grade for the semester will be based on your performance in the following areas:
Bianca Chapman, biancaaisha AT gmail.com Office Hours Tuesdays, 9:20am to 11am and by appointment for Bill Nericcio in Arts and Letters 273; Bianca Chapman, your amazing GTA, has office hours from 9:30 to 10:45am on Thursdays--her office is in Arts and Letters room 260. |
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| Spring 2009 | SDSU English 493 Professor William Anthony Nericcio |
| one more new video that deals explicitly with sexuality albeit in unpredictable ways: |
| Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:04:01 -0800 (PST) From: William Nericcio <bnericci@mail.sdsu.edu> To: "ENGL493-01-Spring2009": ; Subject: English 493 Assignment #1: ENGL493-01-Spring2009 Greetings, if you just signed up for this class, read this first email; your first assignment appears below! Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 07:37:51 -0800 (PST)
From: William Nericcio To: "ENGL493-01-Spring2009": ; Subject: test | greetings | links | london: ENGL493-01-Spring2009 Greetings! This is just a test email to newly enrolled students in my Spring 2009 Engl 493 class; the syllabus for the course will be online--you can see it here (it is still in flux): http://eyegiene.sdsu.edu/2009/spring/sex/index.html you are already here! don't click this link! an unofficial, optional myspace page for students in this class is here; it is also populated by dozens of my former students from my other classes at sdsu. http://myspace.com/sinemadness additionally, if you are interested, i am leading a merry band of sdsu students (all majors welcome) to London this summer--think about joining us: http://londonCALLINGsdsu.blogspot.com lastly, I am the Chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature department; if you are having trouble finding classes that amaze and professors that rock, look no further than here... http://eyegiene.sdsu.edu for lists of cool open classes; most Lit classes are open to all majors and presume no MAJOR knowledge of literature and the arts! I look forward to working with you beginning January 22, 2008--if you REALLY want to get ahead, go and read Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts; but brace yourself: it is powerful stuff! over and out & happy new year Bill Nericcio memo@sdsu.edu http://eyegiene.sdsu.edu/textmex http://textmex.blogspot.com here we go; this message is the first required "text"/lesson of the class and it is a video. it is NOT for the squeamish and it is decidedly sexual; but the domain of the sexual is the province of our class, the focus of our semester long project, it is important that we hit the ground running. the oxford english dictionary tells us that "sex" means: "1. trans. To identify as male or female; esp. to determine the sex of (an animal, an individual from skeletal remains, etc.) by examination. 2. colloq. (orig. and chiefly U.S.). a. intr. and trans. To have sexual intercourse (with). b. trans. With up. To arouse (a person) sexually; (also) to have sexual intercourse with (a person). 3. trans. colloq. With up. To make more sexually exciting or explicit; to inject sexual content into (a book, film, etc.). Now also more generally: to make something more interesting or exciting; to spice up." Consider how all these definitions of the verb, "sex" are "at play" in the making of the filmed advertisement below; as much as I am asking you to think about what the short ad means, I want you to think about HOW it means, and, as well, to ponder how this type of filmed entertainment figures in American and British mass culture. READY? Go see it here at boingboing.net; next, go to the ad director's site for the filmed out-takes! You are welcome to appy the questions/approaches above to all filmed materials archived on our syllabus/website and on our optional social networking site: Note that two of the filmed materials already featured in this class are ads that target sexually transmitted diseases; recall as well that SDSU has a deserved reputation as STDsu; how does the nature of disease and pathology connect to the realm of the sexual in the 21st century; can it be that this connection, real and metaphorical, influences the telling of stories and the making of films that feature sex as one of their main themes!? More for us to discuss starting next Thursday! over and out, bill nericcio english 493 ringleader ps: if you like the approach to this class and its materials, don't be shy about forwarding this email; my best students come to me via word of mouth.... gracias! |
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