Theories of the Mind
the aims of the course ~ teaching methods ~ assessment ~ presentation ~ web pages ~ register ~ on being wired
the aims of the course
The aims of the course are simple:
To give you a good basic critical understanding of the theories of the mind associated with Freud, Jung, and Lacan.
To enable you to apply these theories to literary texts.
To give you a deep understanding of one (at least) of these theories and its application to literary texts.
The official aims and key learning outcomes of the course are here.
teaching methods
Each seminar is a discussion group. There will be no student presentations during the seminar hours: presentations will come later. Each week you will be given some reading, or a task of some kind; the discussion in the following week will be based on that task.
The material in Theories of the Mind is fascinating (to me, at any rate); some of it is very challenging (to me too). Generally I find students choose to do this course precisely because (a) the material is so interesting and (b) because they want to study challenging material. But what I have found also over the years of teaching this course is that the weekly hour is not enough to help you keep up with it. Therefore I have devised several different methods that I know from experience will help you with the course, and in other ways as well.
Firstly in the first teaching week I will divide you into small groups of three or so students. I will ask you to meet the other members of your small group for an hour or so before each seminar to discuss the work assigned. This is a very valuable thing for you to do: it gives you a chance to work through any problems that you have with the material in a relatively non-threatening environment, and to find out that other people also have problems with it; and much else. I will not police or insist on these small group meetings: it's up to you to take care of that. One of the aims and benefits of the course is that you should learn how to do this. If you do, you will benefit very very much. If you don't, you will miss out.
assessment
For final year students the whole of the assessment for the course will be one essay (or equivalent set of web pages) 5-6000 words in length. For second year students, the essay (or set of web pages) will count for 75% of the final mark and will be 2500-3000 words in length or equivalent. The other 25% will be for a reading dossier (equivalent to 2500-3000 words in length).
Some students find the fact that (for third year students) the whole assessment of the course depends on a big essay intimidating. The reason for it is that to cover both the theory and the application of it to literary texts requires a substantial piece of work. Dividing the assessment into say two shorter pieces would tend to prevent this, particularly in the case of second year students. If you wish to submit any trial writing for feedback, I am happy to go along with this; but the main way in which students prepare for the final essay is with the presentations, which are partly designed for that purpose.
The deadline for submission of all of this assessment is: before 12.30 pm on the last day of semester 2 (Friday 28 March 2003)
The reading dossier is compulsory for all second year students in specialist courses, starting this year (2001). The departmental rules for the production of this material are here. My comments on the reading dossier and how it applies to this course are here. All second year students ought to read this very carefully, you need to know this information now.
The official course description is here. Departmental rules for submission of assessed work are here.
Teaching will end in week 6 of the second semester. The presentations will take place two weeks later.
presentations
All students in this course make a small-group presentation at the end of the course, in a one-day workshop. This is designed as a preparation for the final essay, and the material you use can be re-used in the essay. Attendance at the workshop will show you the possibilities of what you can write on in the essay (some students change their minds as a result of the workshop) and preparation for your presentation will enable to you meet one of the aims of the course: to engage deeply with at least one theory of the mind and its application to literary texts.
The presentation is not assessed; it is however a course requirement. To get credit for the course, you have to take part in a small group presentation. If you unavoidably can't, you will have to produce some written work instead.
Training will be given in electronic visual aids for the presentations: Powerpoint, basically (one optional seminar, towards the end of semester 2). Films of the last three sets of Theories of the Mind presentations can be watched in the film library. They are pretty impressive.
web pages
I now have a lot of experience teaching and marking student web pages. Some (beautiful) web pages produced by my students are here. I can't in this course teach you how to make web pages from scratch, but I can tell you how to teach yourselves, provide the best web page design program very cheaply (DreamWeaver: not only the easiest to use, but the one the professionals use. Being able to use DreamWeaver is a very nice thing to put on a cv), and show you how to write a web essay (one optional seminar, towards the end of semester 2). If anyone is interested in this, let me know. Details of how to buy DreamWeaver cheaply are here.
register
It's really important that you attend all classes. This course is cumulative, and each class is carefully designed to convey information or explain material that you will need later on. If you miss any of it, you will miss something that you will later need.
So, if you miss a class you should make sure you have done the reading or other assignment, as set out in the course week-by-week web pages, and you should also use the small group to find out what the discussion has been about.
The course has (of course) a register, carefully designed. There is more about the register here.
on being wired
Everyone now knows that a reasonable degree of computer literacy is essential for any job that you might in future want to have; and a great benefit right now, for being a student. Part of the design of this course is to encourage and teach computer literacy. There is a wired component, in other words.
1. email
All course communications will be by email. You email me, I email you. You should have an email account, and check it at very least every week on Mondays and Wednesdays. If you haven't, I can show you how to set one up.
2. the web
All the course material, syllabus, week by week assignments, and much of the reading, will be on the Web, on my website. To get to my website from any web browser, just type 'unask.com' in the address space at the top of any web browser and hit return.
There will be a very minimum of paper. You can of course print any of it out: in Internet Explorer, NB, don't click on the little printer icon, select 'print' under the file menu: that gives you more control over the outcome.
Use the web for research. Useful links are here, and the best search engine is Google. A large set of full-text articles that you can read on-line, on all aspects of English literature, is (will be) here. This is a fantastic resource, and you should use it all the time.
If any of you have any problems with any of this, just let me know. I will help you. I have a lot of experience teaching computers to those who find them nerveracking. Trust me.
That doesn't mean to say that you don't need to read any books or articles. The web hasn't superseded the library, yet; not by a long way. Extensive reading lists are here.
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