REQUIREMENTS
Summary of course requirements
Late assignment policy: Late assignments will be accepted, but will be reduced one grade and will not receive any comments (note that portfolios will not receive comments in any case). The final date to submit an assignment is the last day of class, December 4.
Note: If you are not in conference the day papers or portfolios are returned (please review attendance policy below), you will be able to pick them up in the mailbox outside Lisa's office (Lib 321).
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Conference Attendance and Participation: All students are expected to do the weekly readings, participate regularly and rigorously in the conference discussion, and lead conference discussion with two other students, as a group, two times during the semester. If you miss a conference, you will be responsible to turn in summaries of texts that were discussed on the day of your absence (these summaries will not be returned to you until the end of the semester). More than three unexcused absences will result in no credit for the course. Acceptable excuses are illness and serious emergencies.
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Leading Conference Discussion. During the semester, you and two other students will work together to facilitate the discussion at least two times. Before the conference meets (on Sunday night for Tuesday conference, and Wednesday at 5 pm for Thursday conference), please distribute a list of six discussion questions (complied jointly with your discussion co-leaders) to every member of the class on an e-mail distribution list. All conference participants will read the questions and reflect on the issues raised before class.
Each question should be preceded by two or three sentences that contextualize it and explain its significance to the discussion. Ideally, the questions will perform three interrelated functions: they will highlight the main point of the text, suggest its relationship to other texts we have read and images we have seen, and illustrate its influence on the way we look at and understand visual images under consideration. For an extended set of suggestions on how to lead a good discussion, click here.
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Research portfolio of images/essays: Your porfolio will be image- as well as text-based. It is mainly free-form (that is to say, you can be as creative as you like in how you want to put together text and image). Please select one image per class meeting (it can be drawn from images in the readings, image databases, or relevant web pages) to write about in relation to theoretical or historical issues raised in class; each entry must, however, include a formal analysis, ideally integrated into an interpretation or leading to a question. The portfolio is intended to help you with your research project and to deepen the class discussion. I will ask you to turn in the portfolio three times over the course of the semester. Note: the portfolio can be web-based or a hard-copy journal. You may wish to do some combination of the two.
DUE DATES: 1) Thursday, September 20; 2) Thursday, October 25; 3) Thursday, November 29
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One Research Project in Four Acts.
- Formulation of a question about a visual object dating from roughly 1842 (conclusion of the Opium Wars) to 1949 (the end of the Republican era and establishment of the People's Republic of China in mainland China). You can choose to write about anything visual--from ink paintings to comic strips, embassy architecture to movie theaters, embroidered shoes to high heels. Consult course image databases, books on reserve, and books listed in the "further reading" links. Browse. Look for objects or pictures that strike you as absorbingly ambiguous. Spend some serious time mulling over what you see. And then, having selected a visual object that engages you (one object is recommended, though the number can be expanded for comparative purposes), what I would like you to do is to carefully think through and develop a meaningful, provocative question that you wish to pose of it. The work should suggest the question, and not the other way around. In your short essay, detail the process you used in devising the question, the problems you foresee in answering it, and why you think it is meaningful in relationship to Chinese visual modernity. That is to say, do not simply draft a generalized, simple statement of the question; I want to see evidence of your deliberate and reasoned approach to evolving a good question. Why are you asking this question? Do NOT attempt to essay uninformed, generalized (and therefore uncompelling) answers to your own question. One lengthy paragraph or two, due September 27 (double-spaced, 12-point font, include images following format set forth on course resources page, linked below).
- Brainstorming questions and images with small-group members in tutorials, week of October 1 (sign-up sheet will be posted on Lisa's office door, Lib 321).
- Redraft your question into a 2-3 PAGE project precis and turn it in along with an annotated bibliography of 6 sources, minimum (only one can be a textbook). Due November 6.
- Research project due DECEMBER 4. 15-20 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, with images following format set forth on course resources page, linked below. No extensions on project deadline. No exceptions.
Course resources
Click here for an extensive list of electronic resources and PDF files on citations, digital image databases and archives, the Chinese language, museum collections, time chart of periods and dynasties.
Click here for a bibliography of books related to the course (also linked as further reading).
My office hours are on Monday from noon to 4:00 and by appointment.
Office location: Library 321.
Telephone: x7364
Email: claypool@reed.edu