Quizam 2

As you read The Sorrows of Young Werther, keep in mind the method you have chosen for your final paper. Depending on your method , you will look either at the book as an artefact (a mechanically produced object) or the representations within the book (what the book writes). This quizam will offer you a chance to practice using the method you have chosen for your final paper and we will have a great class discussion next week. Please test your ideas in class.

Requirements:

1) Choose one of authors below that you will use for your final paper.

2) As you read The Sorrows of Young Werther, keep that author's method/theory in mind. You can analyze a passage or look at the object itself as an example of mechanical media.

3) 500 words (1.5 pages)

4) Due: Wednesday, Nov. 21 (You can submit it any time until the 21st).

Below are some suggestions. They are not required to answer, but will help you frame your reading:

McLuhan (Media Studies): Analyze The Sorrows of Young Werther as a mechanical extension of the body through his "galaxy/constellation/configuration" method. You can examine the book as an object or representations of media within the book. To follow his method, you will need to offer a brief comparison to another artefact.

Hall/Du Gay (Cultural Studies): Outline and describe several "discourses" that are represented in The Sorrows of Young Werther (or several "categories" for the book-as-object). This process can help you to draw some conclusions about the effects of this book on "culture".

Poe (Communication Studies): Describe how the book or representations of mechanical media fit/contradict some of the "media attributes" he uses to describe communication.

Ong (Media Studies/Literary History): Describe how oral, graphic, and mechanical media overlap or conflict in the The Sorrows of Young Werther. Since Ong compares media's effects, you can briefly compare characters in The Sorrows of Young Werther for their media attributes, representations of objects, or compare the effects of the printed book with another medium.

Latour (Sociology): Describe how The Sorrows of Young Werther as a mechanical medium fits his theory of "inscriptions" and immutable mobiles. Does his model of "deflation" (making smaller and smaller inscriptions) relate to cultural "inflation" (greater effects of these inscriptions)?