Rhetoric of the Body

Continue Q & A discussions

2008-04-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

No Blog this week - Final Presentations

2008-04-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

Discussion forum for final presentations:

Every student must open up a forum by posting a new blog under the name of his or her movie. If you would like to write one or two sentences about your argument in the body of the blog, that is acceptable.
Audience members and fellow panelists can post questions to this blog post in the "comments" section.
Make sure to check up on your blog so that all questions are addressed
Forums should remain open and active until Sunday, May 4 in order to address issues raised in the last panel.

Prompt 11

2008-04-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

Sex and Violence: Rhetoric of the Body?
Inspired by the common class reaction to Videodrome, as well as the second and third parts of the film, I thought we could focus our blogs this week on violence. In the film, Professor Oblivion remarks that what you see on television emerges as raw experience for the viewer, and I think we've seen this to be the case from several of your colleagues' reactions to the movie. Violence is obviously an important part of Cronenberg's movie and, as we've seen this week, it is violence that allows the Videodrome signal to penetrate the body. The question this week is: why is this? Why does Cronenberg choose violence (and sexualized violence at that) as the means of "infection"? This week, I want you to discuss this issue of violence in the movie and make sure to reflect on how violence focuses or complicates an argument about the body and technology. I will give you a couple of ideas to start, but feel free to investigate your own interest in the topic.

Violence and pleasure (either the spectacle as entertainment or the sexual interest we see expressed in Nicki's character)
Violence and affect (disgust, how violence affects a viewer physically)
Vigilantism
Violence and redemption

Prompt 11

2008-04-07T22:53:00.000-07:00

Blog and comments due Sunday
This week we began looking at film as we continue our investigation of the body and technology and how this relationship affects how we imagine the body of the future (or future bodies). In doing this, we've also started to prepare for the final project and I want you to use this blog entry as a space for invention for your final presentation. This means that you will need to watch your movie by Sunday because you'll need to complete a blog entry that offers one or multiple ways in which your assigned movie makes an argument about the body's relationship to technology. This does not have to be polished, as your final presentation should be, but rather serve as an initial inquiry into the study and source at hand. A good place to start may be the idea of cinematic language that we discussed in class. Your presentation will focus not only on the what (claim) but also the how (evidence) and investigating the various techniques that fall under the term cinematic language will be helpful in initiating your analysis.

In your comments, you should provide the writer with helpful feedback that either furthers the argument or suggests other ways to pursue the topic. You need not restrict your responses to those movies you have seen; an interaction with the author's analysis itself should be helpful as you all work to develop ideas you may want to present.

Prompt 10

2008-03-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

In this blog, I want you to talk about a theme or motif (one that, of course, circulates around the idea of the body or an actual body in the text) that you find interesting in Neuromancer.

Some topics to consider:

Violence
Image of the "Hacker"
Power
Freedom/Agency
Religion/Spirituality
Death
Sex
Madness
Gender
Age/Aging
Drugs/Addiction
Personality
Cloning
Individualism v. Corporate identity

Be creative! Try to link your post to class discussions but feel free to discuss topics that perhaps we haven't gotten to in class.

Prompt 9

2008-03-24T09:52:00.001-07:00

In this blog, I want you to talk about the bodies in the text. What, for you, in the most interesting and/or provocative body presented in Neuromancer? Why do you find this body intriguing? How does it compare with the bodies we've encountered in class thus far? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, what argument does it make about the body and its relationship to technology? Is it a positive and/or productive relationship? Is it one of fear and rejection? How does technology extend or limit the body or the corporeal experience? Does technology liberate characters from the restrictions of the flesh? Does it discover new ways to experience the body? Be specific in your evidence - what technologies? how do they affect the body?

NO BLOG THIS WEEK

2008-03-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

Media Projects due Wednesday
Reflection papers due Friday (email to me by noon)

Prompt 8

2008-03-03T07:11:00.000-08:00

This post is extra credit - you must post AND comment in order to receive credit. There is NO required post for this week.

Things you should be working on:
1. Finish 1.2 (due Wednesday)
2. Finish Ethnography 3 (due Wednesday)
3. Work on media project (due Wednesday after Spring Break)
4. Work on your reflection paper (due Wednesday after Spring Break)

In this post, you will build on your work from Prompt 6 in order to prepare for your reflection paper that will be due alongside your media project. In this paper, you will be asked to engage in the discussion of film as composition, but for right now I just want you to think about your writing for the class in general. In class, we've had traditional papers (don't forget 1.2 is due on Wednesday!), we write blogs and comment on those blogs, we have informal presentations in class and now we have this film project (can anyone think of anything else we do that might be considered 'composition'? what about email? what about interviews?). In each of these modes, you write differently and I want you to take a moment to consider how you write in each of these media and compare them to other moments of inscription either from your life or from the class (an easy comparison might be to body modification, as we have discussed it as a form of composition). A good question you could then ask is why you write differently for each and even why you are learning to write in these different modes (these are, after all, part of your college education). Think back to that discussion in College Composition - what idea of the university and what idea of the writing classroom does your writing fulfill?

This blog and the comments that go with it will be important spaces for invention for this paper as the prompt asks you to take your own writing (in all of its forms) as evidence for your argument.

Prompt 7

2008-02-25T07:29:00.000-08:00

Due: Friday
Comments due Sunday

We have been reading and thinking a lot about 'radical' body modification in class (although some of you question how 'radical' these acts really are). For this blog I want you to consider the political implications of "mainstream" body modification, those body projects that take as their goal the normative body standards (young, thin, fit, etc.). Do these body projects hold the same political potential as Pitts finds for their more radical counterparts? Are they promoted or normal in any way or are they still subject to the same taboos as non-normative body modifications? It will be useful to think about Pitts's argument here. Can you apply any of the arguments seen in In the Flesh to these mainstream body modification projects?

Prompt 6

2008-02-19T10:02:00.000-08:00

Due Friday
Comments due Sunday

This week we began to think about writing in general and writing at the University. For this post, I want you to consider the idea of authorship and the act of writing and in this way you should be looking forward to your reflection paper (to accompany your media project) and backwards at the writing experience you've accumulated both in and outside of class.

First, consider formal writing, or what many of your instructors will call "academic prose" or "college writing" - what do these definitions entail? Where do you practice this sort of writing? Why?

Second, think about informal modes of writing. For instance, as Megan pointed out on Monday, painting your nails might be considered a way of "speaking" through the body - an act of body modification that communicates or expresses something. We also saw how extreme body modification can function as a way to assert authorship or control. What other of our activities might be considered acts of inscription? How do they "write" and what do they say?

Finally, I want you to consider the limits of authorship and writing that we encountered in both the composition pieces and in Victoria Pitts. Where do you encounter these limits (or do you encounter limits)? Are authorship and control not equal terms, as Pitts would argue? What are these limits? How do they function? Is there a way to get around them?

Prompt 5

2008-02-10T16:06:00.000-08:00

Due Monday
This week we begin to think of the body not only as the subject of argument, but also the means of making an argument. How might an individual use his or her body to inscribe an identity or resist a culturally-determined identity? BUT to start that discussion, I think it is important to track how body modification is perceived by those outside of its outside - you know, folks with a more traditional view of the body and its practices.
The first place I want you to visit is National Geographic pictorial on body modification. National Geographic is an interesting place to start because they have made an entire society - The National Geographic Society - based on the voyeuristic practices of gazing at other bodies.
The second place to find this viewpoint is on a national news program, and for that I want you to listen an NPR program, Marketplace's "Inc.'s a bit more at ease with ink".
After investigating these two cultural artifacts, I want you to
1. talk a bit about how these two sources approach the body
2. map yourself on to that argument. Do you agree with one of these viewpoints? Is tattooing and other body modification still an exotic practice? Is it, as Marketplace indicates, becoming less exotic?
Have fun!

Prompt 4

2008-02-04T06:21:00.001-08:00

This week we will begin thinking about changing established definitions for the body. Our case study for this week is Dove's advertising campaign ("Real Beauty") which relies on your understanding that the bodies used in the campaign are outside of "normal" standards of beauty. But the campaign also deploys those bodies in such a way that it asks you to question those standards (is it our idea of beauty itself "distorted"). In this way, the campaign's rhetoric relies on a beauty norm in order to persuade you that it is the norm itself that is aberrant, not those "other" bodies; the accepted definition, the ads say, is not real. Or is it? Don't forget that Dove is trying to sell firming cream and hair conditioner with this campaign!

Looking at one of the print advertisements and one of the videos released by Dove, I want you to give me a brief analysis of how Dove is making its argument in those particular pieces. How does Dove both engage with and distance itself from an accepted beauty norm?

Finally, I want you to give your own opinion on the ethics or success of this campaign: does Dove really want to change the way we understand beauty? is the campaign ultimately radical (does it really change the definition of beauty) or conservative (does its maintenance of a beauty ideal, albeit changed, defeat any real change)?

Short Writing Assignment 2

2008-02-01T09:31:00.001-08:00

cpVanishing race - Navaho
Originally uploaded by jilliansayre

Our second short writing assignment is an extended blog entry (400-500 words) that will analyze one photo from our Edward Curtis collection (on Flickr). Your entry should determine what argument is being made about the body/bodies in the photograph, and then support that with a thorough visual analysis. This means you will need to demonstrate a familiarity with the strategies of visual analysis, including the terms outlined in our readings for this week.
One tool available to you through Flick is a textual annotation. In addition to your written analysis, you will make at least ten notes on the photograph itself. These should work for your argument in focusing your audience; your annotations should help, not distract from the argument you are making about the photograph.

Please note that when you attach your photograph to your blog (as I have done above), your annotations are not visible. You will need to click on the photograph to see the annotations.

Prompt 3

2008-01-25T10:29:00.001-08:00

William Penn is considered unique among our foundational figures because of his supposedly benevolent relationship with Native Americans. This friendship was often implied in the discussion of the "Great Treaty" Penn signed with the Indians of his area, a plan that allowed him to gain land through purchase rather than conquest. This treaty, which some historians consider mythical, has been the subject of several iconic American paintings. For this blog entry, I would like you to exercise those visual analysis skills and offer a brief comparative analysis of two of these paintings. The first is "Penn's Treaty with the Indians," and it was painted by Edward Hicks around 1840. (This is the painting above that is accompanied by text.) The second is Benjamin West's painting "Treaty of Penn with Indians" that was painted between 1771 and 1772. What argument do these paintings make about the bodies they depict? Is it the same argument? Are they making distinct arguments? I've included some helpful links for your analysis.

West's painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts website: http://www.pafa.org/paintingsPreview.jsp?id=970

Hick's painting at National Gallery of Art website: http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=59640+0+none

Wikipedia entry on William Penn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn

Essay on William Penn and the Indians from University of Virginia's American Studies Program: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/PENN/pnind.html

Prompt 2

2008-01-21T06:30:00.000-08:00

Due Friday 1/25
(Comments due Sunday 1/27)

This week we'll be watching people confront difference and investigating how this establishes or troubles definitions on or about the body. For this post, I want you to reflect on what we've read and what we've discussed in class and give me a good picture of the "New World Body." What does it look like? Is it gendered? Is it threatening? As a representational figure - what does it tell us about how the New World was seen by these authors? Is it normative or powerful? If not, whose body is? In other words, what are the definitions in play here?

After you establish a good definition argument (supported by at least one example), I want you to use your analysis of the native body to talk about the following image. This is a map from the 17th century and it has interesting illustrations that visually "map out" the New World. How do these bodies compare to the figure you've drawn from the readings? Similar? Different? How?

(click on images to enlarge)

Extra credit - Atkinson

2008-01-17T19:30:00.001-08:00

Well we had a bit of trouble with Atkinson's intro to The Body. For a bit of extra credit this week, I want you to post one question about this reading to your blog, something that you found confusing or particularly challenging about her chapter. To receive credit, you also need to post an answer to another student's Atkinson question. Don't worry about being right or wrong; just think about our discussion in class and your own understanding of Atkinson's argument and make an honest attempt.
Due: Sunday

Prompt 1

2008-01-17T06:26:00.000-08:00

Due by Sunday 1/20

Rhetoric of the Body asks that you take a critical view of the body in society (and consequently the body of society). For your first post, I would like you to look around you and talk about the bodies in your world.

How do bodies function in your environment?
What kind of bodies do you encounter everyday?
What sort of arguments do these bodies make as far as personal or corporate identity?

After you talk about your immediate environment, you can consider more general questions about the body in society.

You may wish to talk about the student body at the university. Are bodies something we forget about in higher education? If so, why? And where do they remain important in our society?
Another option is to address the body in modern, digital society. With the advent of virtual reality and the avatar, can we still consider our bodies to be fundamental markers of our identities?

What you want to do with this post is map out your "starting place" for the course - where are you now in terms of the ideas we will discuss?

Welcome RHE 309K students!

2007-08-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

Rhetoric of the Body is not so much a blog in and of itself, but rather a gateway to student blogs. Here you will find prompts for your weekly blog posts and a list of your colleagues' blogs for you to review and make comments.

You are required to post at least once per week (there will be a prompt every Monday) and to comment on another student's blog once every week. Posts need to be at least 250 words and comments should be at least 100 words. These should demonstrate an understanding of the prompt (and, if you are commenting, your colleague's answer to the prompt) and a perceptive, critical, and engaged attitude.

Prompts are posted on Monday and posts are due that FRIDAY. Late blogs will not count for credit. Your comments must be posted weekly by SUNDAY.