Mark L. Sample

Spring 2010 Course Descriptions

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:23:00 +0000

The course descriptions and reading lists for my Spring 2010 classes are online now at Sample Reality. It's videogame studies and a graduate class on pedagogy this time around. Excellent classes, both of them are. Fun and challenging.

Reading List for ENGL 459: Disaster Fiction (Fall 2009)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:55:00 +0000

Here’s the official reading list for ENGL 459 on Disaster Fiction, along with a quick breakdown of the class’s organization:

Part I: The Disaster Novel

Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Part II: The Postmodern Disaster Novel

White Noise by Don DeLillo

Part III: Apocalyptic Journeys

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Part IV: The Disaster of History

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

You can find a more visual display of the reading list as well.

Reading List for ENGL 493: Graphic Novels (Fall 2009)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:59:00 +0000

Here is the reading list for my Fall 2009 course on graphic novels. There are so many compelling graphic novels worthy of inclusion that I had to make some tough choices: Neil Gaiman didn’t make it on, nor did Kyle Baker, Jessica Abel, Charles Burns, Rutu Modan, and a host of other possibilities. But what I’ve got is some great stuff, spanning genres, styles, and mood.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Maus : A Survivor’s Tale : My Father Bleeds History/Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Uzumaki, Volume 1 by Junji Ito
In My Darkest Hour by Wilfred Santiago
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

And here’s a more appropriately visual presentation of the same required texts, complete with pricing information.

Fall 2009 Course Descriptions

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:10:00 +0000

ENGL 459 (Disaster Fiction)

This class explores what the influential critic and novelist Susan Sontag called "the imagination of disaster." Sontag was speaking of Hollywood cinema of the fifties and sixties, arguing that end-of-the-world films of this era simultaneously aestheticize destruction and address a perversely utopian impulse for moral simplification. But what about disasters in contemporary fiction? While natural and unnatural disasters have provided Hollywood with predictable script material for decades, less familiar are the meditations on disasters that serious novelists have taken up in literary fiction. In this class we will consider how novelists imagine disaster. From uncontrollable natural disasters to planned nuclear annihilation, from swift destruction unleashed by human avarice to the slow death of a dying world, we will examine the ways fiction reaffirms, questions, or rewrites the modalities of disaster. Along the way we will consider the social, historical, and political contexts of disaster fiction, exploring what it means to "think the unthinkable" in different times and places. Among the writers we will study are Margaret Atwood, Don DeLillo, Ursula Le Guin, Cormac McCarthy, W.E.B. DuBois, and many others.

ENGL 493 (The Graphic Novel)

This course considers the storytelling potential of graphic novels, an often neglected form of artistic and narrative expression with a long and rich history. Boldly combining images and text, graphic novels of recent years have explored divisive issues often considered the domain of "serious" literature: immigration, racism, war and terrorism, sexual abuse, and much more. Informed by literary theory and visual culture studies, we will analyze both mainstream and indie graphic novels. In particular, we will be especially attentive to the unique visual grammar of the medium, exploring graphic novels that challenge the conventions of genre, narrative, and high and low culture. While our focus will be on American graphic novelists, we will touch upon artistic traditions from across the globe. Graphic novelists studied may include Kyle Baker, Alison Bechdel, Alan Moore, Wilfred Santiago, Marjane Satrapi, Art Spiegelman, and Gene Luen Yang.

Reading Lists for Spring 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:20:00 +0000

I've had my course descriptions for Spring 2009 posted for a while, but here finally are the reading lists.

Reading List for HNRS 353: Technology in the Contemporary World

Gaming: Essays On Algorithmic Culture by Alexander Galloway

Reading List for ENGL 660: American Postmodernism

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
The Lathe Of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Mao II by Don DeLillo
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia
Tropic of Orange by Karen Tei Yamashita
In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman
Shooting War by Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman

Spring 2009 Course Descriptions

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:13:00 +0000

HNRS 353:004 (Videogames in Critical Contexts)

In this Honors Seminar we will study the history and cultural impact of videogames from a number of critical perspectives. As products of a complicated network of social, economic, and technological forces, videogames are dense cultural texts, deeply layered with multiple meanings. Whether we consider early arcade games like Pac-Man or the latest blockbusters for next-gen consoles, we find that videogames reveal much about our cultural values, hopes and anxieties, and assumptions about the world. We will examine a range of genres (interaction fiction, first person shooters, simulations, role playing games, and so on) as we strive to understand both the narrative and formal aspects of videogames. At the same time we will map connections between videogames and their broader social contexts -- how games are designed, who plays them and where, and in what ways videogames can be more than entertainment.

ENGL 660:002 (American Postmodernism)

Experimental form, a breakdown between high and low culture, a distrust and subversion of authority, and hyperbolic self-referentiality are just a few of the hallmarks of postmodernism, a notoriously slippery concept that is the focus of this graduate seminar. But what else is postmodernism? Is it a literary movement? A moment in history? An economic condition? A state of mind? We may not arrive at a definitive answer to these questions, but the novels and theoretical texts we will encounter in this seminar suggest that postmodernism is marked by a fundamental shift in our relationship to technology, mass media, and pop culture. We will study a few “classics” of postmodernism, but we will concentrate our attention on the more recent texts of “late postmodernism,” novels, graphic novels, and films that seem to have at once exhausted the limits of postmodernism and gestured toward even greater innovative storytelling forms.

Syllabi and Course Blogs for Fall 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:47:00 +0000

The syllabi and course blogs for my Fall 2008 classes are now live:

Reading Lists for Fall 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:47:00 +0000

My course descriptions for Fall 2008 have been up for a while, but here are the specific reading lists for both classes:

Reading List for ENGL 343 - Textual Media

Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary by N. Katherine Hayles
Afternoon: A Story by Michael Joyce
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

Reading List for ENGL 414:003 - American Postmodernism

House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
White Noise: Text and Criticism by Don DeLillo, ed. Mark Osteen
Dream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
Shooting War by Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman
Postmodernism and the Contemporary Novel: A Reader, ed. Bran Nicol

Fall 2008 Course Descriptions

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:45:00 +0000

ENGL 343 - Textual Media

ENGL 343 is devoted to the critical study of texts produced and consumed in a digital environment. Hypertexts, blogs, digital stories, interactive fiction, and videogames are just a few examples of the kinds of textual media we will encounter in this class. These new media works are often innovative, evocative, and sometimes, simply puzzling. They often challenge commonly held assumptions about reading, writing, and narrative, and they raise intriguing questions about the cultural production of meaning. As we explore the relationship between new media and so-called old media -- literature, film, television, art, and advertising -- we will also consider the creative and political implications of digital media.

ENGL 414: American Postmodernism

Experimental form, a breakdown between high and low culture, and hyperbolic self- referentiality are just a few of the hallmarks of postmodernism, a notoriously slippery concept that is the focus of this Honors Seminar. But what else is postmodernism? Is it a literary movement? A moment in history? An economic condition? A state of mind? We may not arrive at a definitive answer to these questions, but the novels and theoretical texts we will encounter in this seminar suggest that postmodernism is marked by a fundamental shift in our relationship to technology, mass media, and pop culture. We will closely study novels, graphic novels, and films that revel in, critique, or even resist these elements of postmodernism, including works by Don DeLillo, Jessica Hagedorn, Toni Morrison, and Mark Z. Danielewski.

Spring 2008 Course Descriptions

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:00:00 +0000

HNRS 353: Videogames in Critical Contexts

In this course we will study the history and cultural impact of videogames from a critical perspective. As products of a complicated network of social, economic, and technological forces, videogames are dense cultural texts, deeply layered with multiple meanings. Whether we consider early arcade games like Pac-Man or the latest blockbusters for next-gen consoles, we find that videogames reveal much about our cultural values, hopes and anxieties, and assumptions about the world. We will examine a range of genres (interaction fiction, first person shooters, simulations, RPGs, and so on) as we strive to understand both the narrative and formal aspects of videogames. At the same time we will map connections between videogames and their broader social contexts—how games are designed, who plays them and where, and in what ways videogames can be more than entertainment.

ENGL 610: Teaching The Reading Of Literature

How do we as teachers read literature? How do our students read literature? What is the difference between the two? And how can we teach our students the process of interpretation—of transforming a naïve reading of a literary work into a critical reading? This course addresses these questions by considering theoretical approaches to the teaching of literature as well as practical techniques and tools that teachers and students alike can use. Among these strategies we will emphasize the role of writing as a means to deepen students’ understanding of what they read. ENGL 610 is designed for current teachers, those considering careers in teaching, and anyone drawn to the experience of reading and analyzing literature. Most of our course readings are relevant to high school and college English classrooms, but many ideas we consider may be adapted for the teaching of younger readers.

On Leave, Continued

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:13:00 +0000

Sorry, but don't look for me around my office until January 2008. I won't be around GMU except for virtually in Fall 2007: I am continuing my leave. Writing, working, reading.

But teaching is never far from my mind. In between the reading and writing for my research, I am also in the midst of planning for my Spring 2008 classes, and I am excited about them. More on the courses later, but for now here's a clue about two of my courses for the Honors Program: plugh.

On Leave

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:36:00 +0000

I'm on leave this spring, working on several research projects. The best way to contact me is through email (msample1 at gmu dot edu). Don't try to call me. I'm not there.

Professional Profile

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 03:13:00 +0000

Professor Mark Sample teaches and researches both contemporary American literature and New Media/Digital Culture, and he is always exploring how literary texts interact with, critique, and rework visual and media texts. He has published on The Omega Man, a cult science fiction film from the seventies, and contributed to and co-edited a special edition of Works and Days, a journal devoted to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Professor Sample's current research projects include a book manuscript on the early fiction of Don DeLillo and Toni Morrison, exploring their engagement with consumer culture, particularly how they use what Walter Benjamin calls "dialectical images" to reveal the latent violence of everyday things. Another project concerns the interplay between video games, the War on Terror, and the production of knowledge. Professor Sample received an M.A. in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University (1998) and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (2004).

Course Archive

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Sample) — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 21:34:00 +0000

Spring 2009

Fall 2008

ENGL 343: Electronic Literature
ENGL 414: Honors Seminar

Spring 2008

Fall 2006

ENGL 202: Apocalyptic Thought in American Fiction
ENGL 429: 21st Century American Fiction
ENGL 705: Society of the Spectacle

Spring 2006

ENGL 202: Suburbia and Apocalypse
ENGL 325: Dimensions of Writing and Literature

Fall 2005

Spring 2005