ENGL 330
The Digital Caribbean
Spring 2017
Division I
Cross-listed
AFR 329 / AMST 324 / COMP 324 / GBST 329
This is not the current course catalog
Class Details
In its rhizomatic structure and development, the internet is analogous to Caribbean culture: born out of disparate pieces and peoples; always already predicated on an elsewhere as home or authority; always already working to ignore geography and physical space as barriers to connection. This course probes the various epistemological, political and strategic ways in which cyberspace intersects with the formation and conceptualization of the Caribbean. What constitutes the Caribbean is, of course, not a new question. As we explore the digital media productions that continue to reconfigure the social and geographic contours of the region, we will build on familiar debates surrounding study of the Caribbean. Issues to be addressed include: Geography: What challenge, if any, might cyberspace pose to our geo-centered conceptualization of Caribbean cultures? Community: In what ways do online spaces that claim (or are claimed by) the Caribbean struggle, together or individually, to articulate a cohesive culture? Archival history and voice: Does the ephemerality of online life and the economics of access endanger or enable what we may call the Caribbean subject? Identity and representation: What indeed comprises “the Caribbean subject”? How do questions of authenticity get deployed in crucial moments of tension involving diasporic subjects, particularly in the sped-up world of digital production? These questions, framed by Caribbean Studies, will be our primary focus, but they will be articulated with questions and theories from new digital media studies about knowledge production and circulation, digital boundaries and the democracy of access and usage.
The Class:
Format: seminar
Limit: 15
Expected: 15
Class#: 4026
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Limit: 15
Expected: 15
Class#: 4026
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation:
evaluation will be based on class participation, bi-weekly blog posts and comments, and a 10-page final paper or project
Extra Info:
may not be taken on a pass/fail basis; not available for the fifth course option
Prerequisites:
none
Enrollment Preferences:
Africana Studies concentrators
Distributions:
Division I
Notes:
meets Division 2 requirement if registration is under AFR, GBST or AMST, ; meets Division 1 requirement if registration is under COMP or ENGL
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AFR 329 Division II AMST 324 Division II ENGL 330 Division I COMP 324 Division I GBST 329 Division II
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AFR 329 Division II AMST 324 Division II ENGL 330 Division I COMP 324 Division I GBST 329 Division II
Attributes:
FMST Core Courses
Class Grid
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HEADERS
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CLASSESColumn header 2DREQColumn header 3INSTRUCTORSColumn header 4TIMESColumn header 5CLASS#
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ENGL 330 - 01 (S) SEM The Digital Caribbean
ENGL 330 - 01 (S) SEM The Digital CaribbeanDivision IKelly Baker JosephsT 1:10 pm - 3:50 pm
Greylock D4026
Megamenu Social