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Computers are significant in contemporary storytelling, as subjects in cyberpunk, and as a platform for narrative video games. This seminar explores these and other topics, such as computer gaming, semiotics, narratology, hypertext, metaphor, values, implementation technology, experimental novels, and conceptual blending.

See the course outline for details.

There are no prerequesites, but CSE 9, 10 or 11, and the ability to read basic works in the humanities will be very helpful.

Wednesday 1:30-2:30 am, APM 4882

Section ID 493863

Instructor Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 6:00-6:30pm, in 3131 APM.

• Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud (Harper, 1993). ISBN 0-06-097625-X.
• Introduction to Barthes, Mireille Ribiere (Hodder & Stoughton, 2002). ISBN 0-340-84499-X.
• CSE 87C Reader.

• course outline
• required readings
• class notes
• Powering Up / Powering Down schedule Grades will be based on your class participation and your final paper, which should be at least 3 pages. Group projects are allowed, but then the number of pages should be a least 3 times the number of participants. Here are the guidelines for writing papers. Volunteers will be requested for oral presentations at the last class meeting.

  The TA for this class is Fox Harrell, a Doctoral Student in CSE.

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  Recommended Books
  • New Media Reader, Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort (MIT, 2003).
  • Remediation: Understanding New Media, David Bolter and Richard Grusin (MIT, 2000).
  • Life Stories, Charlotte Linde (Oxford, 1993).
  • Hamlet on the Holodeck, Janet H. Murray (Free Press, 1997).
  • Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, Espen J. Aarseth (Johns Hopkins, 1997).
  • Inside Electronic Game Design, Arnie Katz with Laurie Yates (Prima Lifestyles, 1995).
  • The Literary Mind, Mark Turner (Oxford, 1998).
  • The Uses of Literature, Italo Calvino (Harcourt Brace, 1986).
  • Mythologies, Roland Barthes (Noonday, 1973).
  • More than Cool Reason, George Lakoff and Mark Turner (Chicago, 1989).
  • Narrative Intelligence, edited by Michael Mateas and Phoebe Sengers (Benjamins, 2003).
  • Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, Samuel R. Delany (Bantam, 1985).
  • Hotline Healers: An Almost Browne Novel, Gerald Vizenor (Weslyan, 1995).
  • afternoon, a story, Michael Joyce (Eastgate Systems, 1987).
  • Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson (Bantam, 2000).
  • Nova Express, William S. Burroughs (Granada, 1966).
  • The Soft Machine, William S. Burroughs (Grove Press, 1992).
  • Sociolinguistic Patterns, William Labov (Pennsylvania, 1972).
  • The Social Life of Information, John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid (Harvard Business School, 2000).
  • A Gift of Fire, Sara Baase (Prentice Hall, 2003, second edition). This is oriented towards law.
  • Sorting Things Out, Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star (MIT, 1999).
  • Moral Imagination: Implications of Cognitive Science for Ethics, Mark Johnson (Chicago, 1994).
  • High Wired, edited by Cynthia Haynes and Jan Rune Holvevik (Michigan, 1998).
  • The Cultures of Computing, edited by Susan Leigh Star (Blackwell, 1995).
  • Computers, Minds and Conduct, Graham Button, Jeff Coulter, John Lee and Wes Sharrock (Polity 1995).
  • Aramis, or the Love of Technology, Bruno Latour (Harvard, 1996).
  • Consilience, Edward O. Wilson (Vintage, 1998).
  • Computation and Human Experience, Philip Agre (Cambridge, 1997).
  We will not use recommended books much in class, but some of you might want use them to go deeper into the material of this seminar.

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  Other Resources
  • Eastgate Systems, a supplier of hypertexts and hypertext technology.
  • Homepage of Phil Agre at UCLA contains many interesting publications on media, economics, the internet, etc., a good bibliography, and some good links.
  • Homepage of Geoff Bowker, interesting material on sociology of science, including biodiversity informatics, information infrastructure, classification systems, medical records, and more.
  • Homepage of Leigh Star, interesting material on sociology of science, including boundary objects, classification systems, information systems, and more.

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  To my courses homepage

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  Maintained by Joseph Goguen
  © 2004 Joseph Goguen, all rights reserved
  Last modified: Tue Mar 16 09:35:42 PST 2004