Essay I (part two)

For this assignment, students are to revise their essays based on the comments they received from their conference.  For this revision, students are to pay careful attention the kinds of arguments they are putting forth and how they are supporting those arguments with support from the various texts we have read this session.  Students will also want to ensure that they are providing adequate analysis of difficult passages, key terms, and ideas from the essays we have read thus far in the course. 

This assignment must be typed, double-spaced, stapled and in accordance with a standard documentation style such as MLA or Chicago style. 

Your revised essay is due at the beginning of class on July 12th (please note the schedule change). 

Essay I

Essay 1

Over the past few weeks, we have discussed several themes surrounding ideas of modernism, postmodernism, ideology, imagination, space, and utopias.  For this first major assignment, students will compose an essay in which they explore some of the ideas we have been discussing in class, respond to them, and explain why they respond to them as they do.

To begin this essay, students will go back to their blog comments, the blog comments of their peers, and their class notes and explore some of the major issues that have arisen from our discussions, both online and face-to-face.  You will want to explore your own comments and trace the themes, questions, ideas, and issues that interest you the most.  Take notes in a way that seems useful to you, making sure to underline and keep track of important ideas from your own writing, your peers’ writing, and the published writers we have read and discussed in class.  Use past writing as a way to begin this essay and expand upon ideas you have explored in previous blogs.

In developing a focus for your essay, you may want to draw upon my questions on the blog as a starting point for writing, but remember that this essay assignment is ultimately about pursuing your own critical questions and engaging your own interests and ideas.  Regardless of the scope of your essay, you must bring the writers we have been exploring in this course into some sort of “conversation,” meaning that I expect you to draw from several authors in order to bring complexity, nuance, and support to your own ideas. 

To help you develop your essay, students will post a rough draft of their essay to the course blog by Tuesday at 5:00 pm.  Before class on Friday, students will read through all of their peers’ essays and write a 100-250 word response and assessment for revision to each of their peers’ papers.  Do not write this assessment on the blog, but bring your assessment to class for discussion.  Also, bring copies of your peers' essays by either printing them out or having access to them on a laptop or tablet. 

Harvey and Tschumi

Your blog comments will be due on Thursday, June 20th by 10 am.  You may draw from these questions for your posts, or develop your own response to the readings. 

1. On page 43 Harvey provides a list from Ihab Hassan’s schema of some of the dichotomies that define the difference between modernism and postmodernism. What are some of the terms that Harvey explores in depth?  In what ways does he explore these characteristics of postmodernism and how does he approach the term from several angles?  What do you think of his analysis of these terms and the examples he provides?  Choose one of the terms he does not explore in depth and examine the ways in which this term is a part of our zeitgeist (or “spirit of the age”). 
   
2. Harvey and Tschumi provide sharp critiques of “so-called” postmodern architecture.  What are their critiques and how do they compare to other critiques we have read from Tafuri and Jameson? 
   
3. Harvey references the demolition of the Pruitt-Igloe housing development (a housing development similar to Ballymun and based on Le Corbusier’s principles) as a useful demarcation for the “end” of modernism.  Using Harvey’s chapter as a critical lens, in what ways is Bolger’s play reflective of postmodern ideas, philosophies, and attitudes? 
   
4. Compare Tschumi’s ideas of “limits” in architecture to some of the ideas put forth in Harvey’s essay (for instance, what might be the relationship to Tschumi’s ideas and those of Barthes and jouissance or Derrida and deconstructionism?).  Given our current exploration into ideology and imagination, how would you respond to Tschumi’s “Theory of Architectural Disjunction”?

From These Green Heights

Your blog comments will be due on Thursday, June 13th by 10:00 am.  Blog comments should be roughly 250-500 words in length and contain at least one quote from the text.  You may use the questions below for inspiration or develop your own response to the readings if you wish.

 1) On page 39 of From These Green Heights, Christy says, “This isn’t how Ballymun was meant to be,” to which Dessie replies, “But it’s the way it is.”  In what ways is this exchange, and others like it in the play, reflective of Tafuri’s critique of modernism?  How would Jameson respond to the sense of hopelessness that pervades the play?

2) What are the effects of space, particularly the kinds of spaces that Ballymun creates, on these characters?  How does this space produce particular demarcations of class?  How does the idea of the “neighborhood” change for these characters?  In what alternative forms is it reproduced? 

3) In many ways, Ballymun reflects the Irish government’s desire to “modernize” Irish citizens in the wake of British colonial rule.  In spite of this modernization, Bolger’s play is full of ghosts and references to ghosts.  In what ways do these spectres disrupt Le Corbusier’s ideology of order and the total rejection of the “chaos” of urban life? 

Wright, Le Corbusier, Tafuri, and Jameson

Your blog comments will be due on Thursday, June 6th by 10:00 am.  Blog comments should be roughly 250-500 words in length and contain at least one quote from the text.  You may use the questions below for inspiration or develop your own response if you wish.

1)       In “Problems in the Form of a Conclusion,” Tafuri outlines what he perceives as a “crisis” in modern architecture.  What, according to Tafuri, is that crisis?  Do you agree or disagree with Tafuri’s assessment?  In what ways might we apply his critique of modern architecture to the utopias presented in Wright and Le Corbusier’s essays?  Tafuri states at the end of his essay, “The principal task of ideological criticism is to do away with impotent and ineffectual myths, which so often serve as illusions that permit the survival of anachronistic ‘hopes in design’” (367).  Do you agree with Tafuri?  Why or why not?  If not, how might we reimagine the idea of “hope” in design in our own age?  How might Jameson answer this question?  How might you in your own work? Make sure you provide examples from these texts to support your answers.

2)      Jameson writes in “Architecture and the Critique of Ideology” that Tafuri is oblivious to “the dawning of some new postmodernist movement or even ‘age’” (56).   How does Jameson characterize postmodernism?  How would you characterize postmodernism?  How does this “age” inform your architectural work, or do you see your work as a departure from what Jameson articulates in his essay? Make sure you provide examples from these texts to support your answers.

3)      Jameson offers Antonio Gramsci’s ideas of “enclave theory” as an alternative to Tafuri’s pessimism.  What does “enclave theory” entail, according to Jameson? Conduct a little internet research on Gramsci.  What other Gramscian philosophies (such as hegemony, counterhegemony, and the subaltern) might be useful to architecture? Make sure you provide examples from these texts to support your answers.

Welcome!

Welcome to Critical Reading and Writing at Taliesin.  I have a great summer session planned out for us, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you while we explore these texts both on this blog and face-to-face in the classroom.  This blog will serve as the platform for our online discussions.  Every week, I will have questions posted to inspire your blog posts.  Students should expect to post weekly on the blog and should check in frequently to comment on students' ideas and engage in the general discussion.  For more information on blog posting and how it factors into the course see the section on "Blog Posts"in our syllabus.

To get you comfortable with using the blog forum before our class starts, (and to help me get to know you better!) I would like students to post a little bit about themselves and try out a few fun ways to comment on blogger.  I've asked you to make an attempt to post links, pictures, and videos, but don't feel discouraged if you can't figure out how to do so.  To get started, click on the "comments" button and feel free to answer a few questions about yourself.  I have some ideas listed below:

1)  What's your name and where are you from?
2)  Who are some of your major architectural influences and why?
3)  Do you have any experience studying critical theory?  
4)  What literature courses have you taken in the past, and what were your experiences?
4)  What's a website that you frequent?  Why do you like it?  Can you post a link?
5)  What is one place in the world you would like to visit?  Can you post a picture in your comment?
6)  Post a funny video in your comment that always makes you laugh.