July 19, 2005
The Reading List.
I've been working quite intently lately with the goal of having my schedule more or less fixed so that I can begin the
real work of studying for my oral exams in the fall. Somehow, in the midst of all of the whispered negativity that seems to surround these types of exams (i.e. "a 6 month disconnection from reality", "I thought I was prepared until...", "the most stressful event of a PhD program", "pure hell", "What exam?", etc.), I'm looking forward to it. Although the thought of the end of mandatory coursework chosen from often-times less than comprehensive course lists has me pretty excited, I think that the optimism is more of a feeling of progress, of anticipating future successes (and failures) and, of course, of finally
really getting to begin my research.
Having said all of this, I still have not finalized my list and it's very much still in the draft stages, even though I'm already reading titles that I'm sure won't get cut. I'm currently in the process of revising the list with my committee and with outside sources in various fields and, now, I'd like to pass it on to you as well. I'm looking for suggestions on anything from articles to fiction to poetry to film to games. Since I am a part of the
English Dept. at
UMd, it's madatory that I choose a literary period to accompany my theoretical focus. I chose 20th C. American fiction (original, I know) primarily because of the breadth of experience I have with the period, as well as the unique opportunities it allows me to study cross-sited narratives (such as
War of the Worlds).
More specifically, though, the exam will center around the ways in which media act, react, sustain and disengage narrative in 20th C. America. Although many of my primary works will exhibit this through intermedia references, it is the increasing drift towards the cross-siting of narrative across media (and materialities) that I am particularly interested in, be it the presence of postcards as structural devices in E. Annie Proulx's
Postcards, the anticipatory hypertextual footnoting of David Foster Wallace's
Infinite Jest (yep-- I'm a glutton for punishment-- the book is close to 1100pp.) or the more recent spread of the Star Wars prequel narrative across several media channels. Consequently, my readings try to encompass a rather wide array of fields from film to genre studies to communal memory to cognitive narratology.
I recognize already some of the shortcomings of my list in this context-- I have far too little on film and gaming and perhaps too much on subjects like the body and technology (which, although important, might not have too much to do with my interests for this exam). I also recognize that much of what is here in non-codex media is vastly commercial-- a caveat that I feel I have to make not on the basis of quality but, rather, on the basis that it's my research that I hope will turn up lesser-known examples.
Anyways, enough with the qualifying speech. Here's the
link to my reading list. Your thoughts, comments, encouragements and sympathies are, as always, very much appreciated.
Posted by marcusrp at July 19, 2005 4:41 PM
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they wouldn't let you choose 22nd century global fictions? it is so sad that everyone must be an expert on the past...
I know, I know. Either that or 22nd C. cosmic fiction because, you know, by then the Moon-Mars initiative will have paved our way to other universes, other cultures, other literatures. No time like the present to think about the future, right Jeremy? ;-)
Looks like a pretty good list to me ;-)
From an initial glance, it looks like a great list (cleaner than mine was, I think, with some texts I wish I had available or thought of at the time). A few suggestions, which you can feel free to ignore of course. Under gaming, I'd be tempted to drop Poole in favor of something like Zimmerman/Salen's Rules of Play, some selected essays from the First Person collection (Wardrip-Fruin/Harrigan), or even Montfort's Twisty Little Passages (for a treatment of a specific subgenre). Poole's is a quicker read though, so maybe for the exams it's better. If I had to pick one, I'd likely take Rules of Play. Or, if you want a general, if stale, review of some scholarship, there's one called Videogames (part of a Routledge series) by James Newman.
For comics - no Watchmen? (or, better yet, V for Vendetta, with the new movie forthcoming)
Orality and Literacy by Walter Ong might be a good substitution for something on that list.
You do have a lot of body stuff - does this play directly into an aspect of your dissertation? If not, can you cut that down a bit for the purposes of the exam? Not that it's not important later, but when you have two weeks left and 20 books to read, you'll not complain if they are reserved for dissertation research instead of the exam.
Speaking of which - this is around 180 or so texts? What happened to "around 100" - is that not still the rule? Even discounting (which we shouldn't, but whatever) the films and games, that's a heavy list. Some weeding wouldn't be out of order, if your committee/director is ok with that. You'll never be able to cover all those in the 2 hours, and a tighter list would only lead to a stronger presentation and discussion overall. Like I said, I understand the difficulty in slimming down a list, but I very much recommend it if you can.
Do me a favor? Before you hold/recall some of these, drop me an email. I'll even bring the ones I have over for a lender ;-)
Remind me when you get closer to your exam date so we can run you through a practice session.
Thanks, Matt and Jason. I do think I'll be paring down the list a bit, especially with the body/tech stuff. And if Ong isn't on there, he should be. I thought I included him.
I'll also be looking into some of the First Person articles-- I've already read a lot of it (which goes for a decent percentage of stuff on this list-- which is why I feel OK with going a little over, number wise). And I'll definitely be looking to you for a practice session. Thanks.