Overview
The final project will be done in groups of 2 to 3 and will involve the creation of digital projects on A Tale for the Time Being. The projects must have a textual component, at least two DH components, and a short write up on your methodologies. Your work will live in and/or be linked to from a website created specifically for your projects.
To help you identify your topic, you will first write a short essay. The essay will be developed into a short paper, which will become the basis of your project’s written content. In addition, you will be presenting your projects twice, once to get feedback on your idea and once to show your nearly completed project.
Breakdown
- Project idea presentation (2.5 points) | April 4
- Short essay (5 points) | draft due in class April 4; final draft due April 8
- Paper (15 points) | outline and sources due April 11; rough draft due April 25; final draft due April 29
- Nearly completed project presentation (2.5 points) | due May 2
- Digital Project (25 points) | due May 9
Project Details
Like Nao writing her diary, you will be considering future readers, though in this case, it will be future readers of Tale. Your task is to create a resource that will accompany a reading of the novel by taking either a “Reading Guide” or a “Critical Lens” approach. Both approaches require the incorporation of research and must directly evoke the novel. Additionally, all projects must, in some way, touch on the theme of the Anthropocene.
Reading Guide: The reading guide approach involves creating a guide that will help readers understand and navigate specific events, concepts, threads, etc. found within Tale. You are not explaining the whole text, simply an aspect or a few aspects that, when understood, bring greater light to the novel. Questions to consider are: What do you wish you knew when first reading the novel? What kind of contextual information would you have benefited from understanding? How do people, events, theories, ideologies, etc. connect within the novel? Your research will primarily involve finding, analyzing, and synthesizing contextual information and data. For example, your project might require that you research the change in ocean temperatures over the last decade.
Critical Lens: The critical lens approach is more in line with traditional literary scholarship in that it requires you to make a literary argument that might incorporate theory and must incorporate secondary sources like journal articles and book reviews. You are also encouraged to incorporate primary sources, which could range anywhere from newspaper articles about the tsunami to religious manuscripts to climate data.
DH Components: A DH component means a digital object, e.g., a timeline, a map, a network visualization, etc., that critically examines or presents the argument or claim you are making.
- Possible tools you might want to use are Knight Lab StoryMap, TimelineJS, Palladio (or another network tool), ArcGIS Online, and ArcGIS Story Map.
- Possible modes you might want to use are spatial, temporal, hypertextual, exhibition, visualization, and mapping/GIS.
You must communicate with Melanie about the tools and modes you choose. This discussion will be ongoing, as it is understood that you will be experimenting and changing your minds. It is also up to you to request help with tools. You are not expected to know everything or figure everything out on your own. Conversely, it is not expected that your instructors will automatically know when you are struggling. Therefore, it is up to you to communicate your group’s needs.
Seeds for project topics (remember all projects must incorporate some aspect of the Anthropocene):
- Plastic as an Anthropocene issue in the text and global context
- Buddhist concepts of time and self in the text
- Analyze/demonstrate how time functions in the text through timelines and mapping
- Quantum theory: analysis of its use and function in the text, with research into concepts used
- Relations between Buddhism and quantum theory
- Anthropocene narrative methods and devices in the novel: inhuman agents, ecologies of global inter-relations, inhuman temporal scales and concepts, telling an Anthropocene history
- Digital information, memory, social relations
- Environmental art in the text/the text as environmental artwork
- Lost time and forms of memory in the text: narratives, texts/documents, digital information
Assignments
The following are descriptions of all of the assignments related to the final project.
Project Idea Presentation (5 minutes) | April 4
Discuss your project as you currently envision it by answering these questions: What approach will you take, Reading Guide or Critical Lens? What is the general topic? Why does this topic appeal to you? What aspects of the novel do you think you might focus on most? What kind of outside sources do you think you will need? What kind of digital tools/DH modes do you think you might use?
Short Essay | rough draft due April 4; final draft due April 8
The short essay is a 1-2 paragraph prospectus for your project: this serves as an initial description of the project you imagine or envision completing. In the prospectus, formulate your topic in terms of its purpose (Reading Guide/Critical Lens), outline its relevance to the novel and the Anthropocene, identify areas of research to be conducted, and articulate DH components you are considering for the project.
Paper Outline (and Short Bibliography) | due April 11
In an outline form, spell out the basic content and possible structure of your paper. Use complete simple sentences so that your work can be understood by everyone and not just your group. Additionally, list four sources, using MLA citation style, that will be useful for your research. Your outline is just the beginning of your writing process and, therefore, we expect that there will be many differences between it and your final paper.
Example outline format:
The below is intended to give you a rough idea of how to approach the outline. It is not an indication of how many points you need to make. (I’m using “points” as a generic placeholder for what will be your content elements, e.g., claims you make.) You are welcome to deviate from this format as long as your outline is clear.
- Introduction
- Point 1 that will be discussed during the paper
- Point 2 that will be discussed during the paper
- Point 3 that will be discussed during the paper
- Point 1
- Introduction to point
- Where the point is addressed in Tale
- How the point relates to Anthropocene
- Claim/argument you are making about the point
- Evidence to support claim
- Evidence to support claim
- Evidence to support claim
III. Point 1
- Introduction to point
- Where the point is addressed in Tale
- How the point relates to Anthropocene
- Claim/argument you are making about the point
- Evidence to support claim
- Evidence to support claim
- Evidence to support claim
- Point 1
- Introduction to point
- Where the point is addressed in Tale
- How the point relates to Anthropocene
- Claim/argument you are making about the point
- Evidence to support claim
- Evidence to support claim
- Evidence to support claim
- Conclusion
- Reiteration of claims/argument
- Summation statement
Final Paper | rough draft due April 25; final draft due April 29
Your paper will provide content for the final project and should be written in a style appropriate for your project’s purpose. Requirements: Minimum 4 works cited in MLA style; length: 4-6 pages (undergraduates) / 6-8 pages (graduates).
Nearly completed project presentation (8-10 minutes) | due May 2
Show your project (e.g., how it functions and how it is structured) and answer the following questions: What is your project about? How did it change from your original vision? What tools and modes did you choose? Why did you choose them? What are you most proud of? What do you think still needs work? What kind of feedback from the class would be helpful?