Location: [Reed College] [Department of English] [Laura Arnold][ Nation and Narration]Computer Stuff
The purpose of this assignment is to introduce you to the class discussion page, group email, and the recourses available for the class on the web. There is a wide variety of wonderful American Studies resources available on the web, including nineteenth-century fashion magazines, artwork, photographs, dollar bills, quilts, etc. Many of these materials would be otherwise unavailable to us. Throughout the semester we will using American art, architecture, material culture, and history to enrich our readings of literary texts. Have fun exploring!
A. Computer Resources
Using netscape, please access the class web page at
http://academic.reed.edu/english/Courses/English201nn/index.html.
You will notice a number of web sites that branch off of the main page, including a museum of material culture, an art gallery, a search list, and the syllabus. Please check out the following sites:
1. The syllabus. Please read the introduction to the course, the page on narrative strategies, and the background sheet for Thursday's readings. As you read the narrative strategies assignment, answer the questions and email them to the class.
2. Other sites that please you. I suggest checking out Thomas Cole's paintings through the art gallery. You may also want to check out other students' web pages at http://academic.reed.edu/
english/courses/english341nn/Studpages/index.html. What appeals to you? What would you do differently?
B. Searching
Do a search on one of the topics listed below using one of the resources available on the American Studies Web. The choice of topics designed to help you discover the range of resources that are available to us. If each of you chooses a different topic, we will derive the most benefit from this exercise.
In all cases, what I'd like you to do is
1. Find the what resources are available.2. Email members of the conference to say what you did, whether it was useful and interesting, and the address of the most useful thing you found. The group email list is Eng201-S01.
3. You may want to go to the group discussion page and read about what someone else had found.
4. Email me if you would add any hotlinks to the course page.
Some Suggested Topics:
1. Transcendentalism2. Emerson
3. Channing
4. National Literature
5. American Renaissance
6. Material Culture
7. Nineteenth-Century American Art
8. Any of the other authors we are reading on the syllabus
C. Library Resources
Using one of the topics above, or a theme or issue that interests you, make a list of the resources available in the library. (You can access this as well through the Search Menu.) You might searching by author, title, subject, or key words. You might also want to see what articles have been written on the subject using the MLA catalog.
In all cases, what I'd like you to do is
1. Find the information requested and indicate where in the library it can be found (stacks, reference room, reserve desk).2. Email members of the conference to say what you did, whether it was useful and interesting, and how they can find the results.
Laura.Arnold@Reed.edu