English 207:

Introduction to Cultural Studies,
Cyberculture

Instructor:
Kimberlee Gillis-Bridges
Meeting:
Tue/Thu, 1:30-3:20
Room:
GLD 435
Office Hours:
Tue/Thu, 12:00-1:00 and by appointment
Office:
Padelford A305

Links

This page includes links to resources on course texts and authors, information on cyberculture and guidelines for evaluating and citing sources. When you follow the links, the Web sites will open in a new browser window. To return to this page, simply close the new browser window.

course texts and authors

Blade Runner

  • Filmsite: Blade Runner
    Site includes a brief discussion of the theatrical release's reception and the creation of the director's cut, a comparison of the film and Philip K. Dick's source novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and a synopsis punctuated with dialogue quotations (even Deckard's instructions to the Esper machine!).

Curtain

eXistenZ

  • Buzzed on Metaphysics
    Salon.com review of eXistenZ briefly contrasts the film with The Matrix.
  • David Cronenberg
    Senses of Cinema profile on the director includes a brief discussion of his work, a bibliography, filmography and links to web resources.
  • Metaphor Man
    SPLICEDwire interview with director David Cronenberg. Includes link to a review of the film.

Gibson and Neuromancer

Haraway

Hayles

Manovich

  • Lev Manovich
    The author/artist's web site, with links to his courses and course podcasts, articles, press and notes from public lectures. The "Projects" page features Manovich's creative work, including Little Movies and Soft Cinema.

The Matrix

  • The End of Humanism
    Stuart Klawans' review of The Matrix, from The Nation.
  • Film Threat Review of The Matrix
    Ron Wells on the film's influences and biblical references.
  • Matrix 2
    Wired article on special effects invented for The Matrix Reloaded. Special effects supervisor John Gaeta also touches on effects used in the first film.
  • The Matrix: The Official Site
    Information on each film in the trilogy; site includes trailers, interviews with cast and crew, film stills and set photos, a description and video illustration of "bullet time," images and story synopses from The Matrix comics, video from The Animatrix, "The Zion Archives" of images and video files, and articles on the film's special effects and philosophy in The Matrix (among them "Wake Up: Gnosticism and Buddhism in The Matrix," "The Matrix as Metaphysics," and "Plato's Cave and The Matrix").
  • Short Attention Spawn
    Salon review of the film. Author Andrew O'Hehir concludes that "the Wachowskis have little feeling for character or human interaction, but their passion for movies--for making them, watching them, inhabiting their world--is pure and deep."
  • What is the Matrix?: Cinema, Totality, and Topophilia
    From Senses of Cinema, a discussion of intellectual responses to The Matrix.

Orlan

Rehak

Stelarc

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General cyberculture resources

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Source Evaluation and Citation

  • APA Workshop
    This site reviews APA writing style and document formatting guidelines, composing a works cited list, and using in-text citations of books, articles, and electronic sources.
  • Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask
    U.C. Berkeley Library pages offers strategies for analyzing URLs, determining site authorship, evaluating the timeliness and validity of site information, and searching for reviews of a selected site.
  • Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools
    From Cornell University Library, the site synthesizes guidelines for evaluating web site content. Librarian Michael Engle notes that context is a primary factor in how one should judge web sites, as we have different expectations for entertainment, news, gaming, and scholarly sites.
  • Plagiarism Discussed
    A Purdue Online Writing Lab handout on what can constitute plagiarism, with information on when and when not to cite sources.
  • MLA Workshop
    This site reviews MLA guidelines for formatting papers, composing a works cited list, and citing books, articles, and electronic sources within your text.
  • Thinking Critically about Discipline-Based Web Resources
    Authored by UCLA librarian Esther Grassian, this page offers criteria for evaluating discipline-based world wide web sites. Writers can use Grassian's list to help them decide whether a particular web source is appropiate for an academic research paper.

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