Important: presentation date shifts

Dear students,

Please note that I have just bumped up all of the presentation dates by one class day. On the plus side, this is because you will have a day off--I was just invited to give a presentation at UCLA on the 8th.

I am, however, sorry if this causes any slight stress. Luckily you still have a significant amount of time to work on your presentations, and you have an extra day now to work on other things, so hopefully no one is too bummed out. Any questions or concerns, let me know.

Papers in My Office

I have the following students papers completed and ready to be picked up during office hours tomorrow (many of you did not pick them up on Tuesday because you were voting and I forgot to return them to you today):

Priscilla Hernandez
Tatiana Itow
Malachi Allen
Naudika Diaz
Taylor Watanabe

Addie Crane
Ceci Carmichael

Voting Day Absences

Dear students,

This is a note to let you know I will be forgiving absences tomorrow for voting day. Please make sure to vote and exercise your civic rights as a citizen of a democracy.

We will watch a film in class (Dracula: Dead and Loving It) for those who are not off voting, and I have your papers to return to you (please note that you may not have a peer pick up your paper for you).

Workshop Project Three Guidelines

WORKSHOP PROJECT THREE

This workshop will focus on the conceptual framework for your monster, or the updates to your fairy tale. 

Please answer the following questions in a typed document and bring them to class on workshop day. Your answers need to be very specific. You may choose later to use parts of these answers in your analytical essay.

1) Please share which cultural fears and/or desires your monster will represent. Be as specific as possible. If you are re-writing a fairy tale, please discuss which fairy tale you are re-writing and tell us what updates you are making to the story and why.

2) How will the cultural fears and desires of your monster be represented in the monster’s physical body, living area, attitude, prey, etc? If you are writing a fairy tale, discuss the setting of your story, and how you plan to characterize your characters (names, attitudes, details about their lives), and other relevant details. 

3) How do you plan to present your monster or fairy tale to the class? What creative aides will you use, if any? How do those creative aides match up conceptually with the monster or fairy tale? For example, if you plan to create a monster that inhabits social media, will you use social media as a part of your creative aide? If you simply plan to read your short story, what sections will you focus on?

Presentation Line Up *updated Nov 14

*You may swap with a classmate, but only if you both inform me in writing (email) at least by 11/27. 

11:00 class

11/29
Addie
Natalie
Cameron
Jordan
Amanda

12/1
Mattie
Tivanna
Nate
Dawn
Michael
Kylie

12/6
Maddie
Cece
Billie
Allie
Dylan

1:30 class

11/29
Priscilla
Jill
Mercedes
Matt
Taylor
Naudika

12/1
Evalyn
DJ
Tatiana
Melissa
Anthony

12/6
Cynthia
Braden
Karen
Malachi
Alexa

Project 3 Assignment Option 2

Please re-write a fairy tale for the 21st century. You can choose any fairy tale you like, whether it's one we covered in class or not. If you are unsure as to whether or not the tale classifies as a fairy tale, please ask your professor. While you are encouraged to use your imagination and change the tale however suits you, please keep the "tale type" the same. The tale type is the components of the tale that remain the same throughout every retelling.

This assignment has two components: a short story component, and a critical analysis. The short story should be the fairy tale re-written, in 3-10 pages, double-spaced and typed. You should feel free to alter the title of the story to suit your update, but please indicate somewhere on the paper which fairy tale it is you are updating. 

The analysis should be at least 3-5 pages, typed and double-spaced. In your analysis, you need to talk about the updates you have made to the tale, and why you have made them. How do your updates serve a 21st century audience? What cultural needs, fears, and desires do they explore? In addition, you can talk about what aspects of the tale you have decided to keep the same. Why did you keep those aspects the same? Do you see them as serving some kind of continuing cultural need? 

Please incorporate your notes from this course on fairy tales into your analysis. You are encouraged to use any of the critical essays in your fairy tale anthology. 

You will present these to the class in a ten to fifteen minute presentation during the last full week of classes. The day on which you present is the day on which your assignment is due.

Good luck and have fun!

Project 3 Assignment Option 1

Project 3 Assignment Option 1: Create a Monster

Create a monster for the 21st century, to be presented to the class in a 10-15 minute presentation.  Please present your monster in a creative way--dress up as your monster, do a skit, share a video (all videos should be uploaded to youtube or vimeo so they can be played easily in class), short story, visual aids/posters, etc. 


You may not bring laptops the day of the presentation, but you may upload to the web and present from the in class computer. Please do not present anything that requires a flash drive or downloading as we do not have time to set up in class.





Quickly slapped together print outs or scrawled drawings will receive no credit. You may not present a creative aide that was not made by you.



Pay careful attention to your monsters physical attributes, living environment, prey, attitude, etc. Make sure these directly represent cultural fears and desires.
 

Additionally, please answer the following questions in an essay format, 3-5 pages in length, and present them to the class as well. You may choose to present them in a creative way or a more straightforward way, but they must be answered directly. Being able to critically analyze your monster, as we've critically analyzed the monsters in this course, is imperative to your success on this assignment. Failure to do so, even if you have a cool looking monster, will result in a non-passing score on the assignment.



Here are the questions:



What cultural fears does your monster represent?



What cultural desires does it represent? 


You will want to choose something specific to the culture. For example, just as Dracula represented the Victorian desire for more sexual freedom for women, your monster will need to express a particular desire that relates to our cultural moment as Americans in this country, today, in the era of Facebook, the internet, climate change, political strife, student loan debt, etc (those are just a few specific examples, it can really be anything). Whatever you do, don't just say that the desires (or fears, for that matter) are something generic. You won't want to say that your monster represents a "fear of the unknown" or "fear of change" or "fear of death" --these are too broad and generic. Pick something related to what's going on in the world today. "Fear of being buried under a mountain of student loan debt" is a specific fear, related to what is going on in the world today. (Don't copy the fears I've put here--come up with your own). 



How is the monster's body a physical manifestation of these cultural fears and desires? For example, if it is a vampire that can walk out in sunlight, does it represent our changing attitude toward difference--the fact that we now are more tolerant of those who do not fit "the norm"? 




How does your monster "fit in" to the lineage of the monsters we have learned about this semester? Does your monster have anything in common with those monsters? How does your monster differ from them, as a representation of this particular cultural moment and place? 



Are there any other monsters that you took inspiration from? How did they inspire you?


Apply at least six quotes from the in-class monster thesis notes to your monster. How does your monster represent these quotes? You may choose to directly quote or paraphrase, but do include a Works Cited page.Can't wait to meet your monsters! :-)