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Learning
Community Structure
"The Naked Truth: Adaptation, Appropriation, and Design"
links a section of English 2333 (taught by Monica Smith, Department
of English, Philosophy, and Modern Languages) and a section
of Theatre 1301 (taught by Anne Medlock, Department of Art,
Theatre, and Dance) together in a learning community.
This
community centers on a single theme: adaptation, appropriation,
and design in relation to theatrical works and literary works.
While each course retains the mandated WTAMU core curriculum
common textbook and syllabus, the two courses share projects,
assignments, and most importantly, several fundamental objectives
and competency areas.
In
both Theatre 1301 and English 2333, students should:
- Improve
critical thinking and writing skills;
- Develop
skills in interpretation and textual analysis;
-
Express critical interpretation, analysis, and evaluation
in oral and written form;
-
Understand genres and articulate the differences between
them;
-
Develop an understanding of the ways artistic movements
develop and change over time;
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Improve understanding of literary/artistic culture and its
relationship to social and historical context;
-
Discuss and write critically about film and stage adaptations
of dramatic and literary works.
Concept
and Theme
In
order to swim one takes off all one's clothes-in order to
aspire to the truth one must undress in a far more inward
sense, divest oneself of all one's inward clothes, of thoughts,
conceptions, and selfishness before one is sufficiently naked.
~ Soren Kierkegaard
A
set of questions shape this learning community, questions
that require students to engage with foundational principles
of hermeneutics, epistemology, and aesthetics:
- What
is truth? How do we know it when we see it? Can we get to
a basic truth-the naked truth, if you will-about works of
art?
- How
do we communicate what we believe to be true to other people,
and how do others share their beliefs with us?
- Are
there some fundamental truths about the human condition?
And if there are, can art-literature, theatre, film, paintings,
music-show them to us?
- How
do artists who adapt, appropriate, or create from a text
illuminate, complicate, or contradict what we hold to be
true?
Course
assignments, both shared and linked, are designed to lead
students through the processes of grappling with these questions.
Shared
Assignments
These
assignments are required in both classes.
Commonplace
Book: Assignment requires weekly entries into a class
"Commonplace Book." Students post their commonplace
book entries on WTClass, so they are able to share their thoughts
and reactions and learn from one another. Students are asked
to select a particular quotation from the week's readings
and explain the significance of the passage. At the end of
the semester, each student will prepare an "epilogue"
for his/her collection of writings (one epilogue for each
class). The epilogue is an essay explaining the collection
of writings, what these writings demonstrate about the works
read and about the student as a reader and writer.
This
assignment creates an atmosphere where critical writing is
part of the course's everyday activities, not an activity
that happens once or twice a semester. By the end of term,
based on entries of 200-400 words plus the 500-800 word epilogue,
in English 2333 alone students will have written 2900-5600
words interpreting and analyzing the literature studied, approximately
10-18 pages of double-spaced text.
Click
here for the project description distributed to students.
Passport:
Each class day, students present a "passport" in
order to get into class: a 4 x 6 index card with notes on
the day's reading assignment. These cards are returned to
students on test days and can be used during the examination.
This assignment encourages careful reading and note-taking
prior to class discussion. Idea adapted from Constance
Staley, Ph.D., University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
Linked
Assignments
These
assignments ask students to use skills and competencies gained
in one class and apply them to the other class.
"The
Naked Truth" CD (English 2333): The linked assignments
were introduced on the first day of class with "The Naked
Truth" CD, a collection of musical adaptations of and
responses to works covered in both English 2333 and Theatre
1301. A copy of the CD is available at the table.
Kandinsky
Exercise (Theatre 1301): After viewing and discussing
Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky's work on the relationship
between color, abstract painting, and music in Theatre 1301,
students were then asked to represent visually a selection
of songs from musicals studied in class. This project demonstrates
the link between one medium, music, and creation in a second
medium, the visual. Student work and the accompanying music
is available at the laptop on the left.
Concept
Board (Theatre 1301): Students choose a play from a list
of possible choices, read it on their own, and then create
a "concept image board" illustrating their interpretation
of the play. This project demonstrates a crucial stage in
the creative process: moving from the script to a first visual
representation of central themes, images, and symbols. See
sample concept board for Julius Caesar on the table.
Adaptation,
Appropriation, and Design (English 2333): Students are
asked to take a play, novel, or poem they've read in English
2333 and produce a creative project in which they adapt, appropriate,
or design around a central character, plot, theme, or symbol
in the work. This project builds on two things: 1) the skills
students have learned in Theatre 1301 about creative process
and the relationship between the textual and other artistic
mediums; 2) discussions over the course of the semester in
English 2333 about adapting or designing around literary texts.
The laptop on the right is projecting a multimedia project
description, one available to students on WTClass. A hardcopy
project description is also available.
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