Course Goals

For my own reference as much as anyone else's, I'm going to list the course goals:

·      discuss the central characteristics of several comedic forms as well as the range of Digital Humanities research methodologies analyzed in this course
·      demonstrate knowledge regarding the interplay of comedies and the historical, political, literary, and cultural contexts in which they were written and performed
·      apply this foundational knowledge to approach texts critically, to design research projects creatively, and to present their ideas professionally
·      demonstrate an ability to make connections between the information, approaches, ideas, and perspectives in this and other courses while discerning connections between the course materials and the students’ own lives.

I feel I have made great gains in the overall course goals this semester. The one I have made the greatest gains on, however, is the second one. I love to learn the interplay and connections of the different contexts and seeing how they balance one another. As an English major, the literary connections are easy for me to identify, and I love seeing history weaved into anything I read, so naturally I'm more biased to this particular course goal. I enjoyed reading all the plays and discussing them in class, especially to hear everyone's different opinions, in particular the non-humanities majors. As a humanities major, I feel I was well prepared to reach abstract ideas in this class. Being able to apply this course goal makes it easier to understand the others, as they all feed into each other. The only course goal I think I have problems with is the first one, as keeping the terms straight is sometimes difficult for me.


I don't think there is anything I would add to the course. The interactions between students really made me see things in a different light, and even other honors courses I have taken in the past haven't spent as much time in group conversation than this course has. As a lone wolf myself, I feel this made me branch out and talk to people I normally wouldn't have in other classes, or at least not in depth like I had to do in this class. Though sometimes I was uncomfortable being made to discuss my opinions out loud (not on paper, like I usually do), I think this has benefited me in the long run. I certainly feel a bond with my classmates because of all this.

I think I was a successful student in the areas of the course goals, and the class was certainly worth it because of the friends I have made.

Reflection Post

The course objective I think I made the most progress towards is probably “approaching texts critically, designing creative research projects, and professional presentation.” While I think I made great strides in others as well, I feel this is one I am most qualified to discuss. At the beginning of the semester I never would’ve expected to learn that comedy is actually used to point out people’s flaws or that it has the potential to be intricate enough to have the Four Causes. I have always prided myself on being able to make my way through pretty meaty texts but this is the first time I was asked to answer complex critical thinking questions related to literature. I think this course will even prove helpful to my engineering curriculum too. While comedy itself isn’t extremely relevant, the critical thinking and group collaboration is very important. I also made progress in my ability to come up with a solid project. As for professional presentation, I think I was already fairly competent in that area.

The thing I enjoyed the most in this class was the collaborative nature of the classroom setting. I have been in many classes where we sat like bumps on a log and the teacher just talked at us for an hour. I don’t learn as well in those settings. I especially liked the “panel of experts” thing we adopted towards the end.  That was an excellent way to encourage us to really engage. I would always try to remember everything that was said in my panel because I didn’t want to let my group down when we came back together. Overall, I guess I would classify myself as a fairly successful student in this class. I wasn’t the most studious when it comes to keeping up with homework but I think I did well as far as class discussions go. 

Reflections of a Left-brain Right-brain Hybrid

As I consider myself to be a global thinker, I also consider myself to analyze a text best when I understand not only the raw words, but also the context in which it was written. Therefore, of our course goals, the one that seems to be most relevant to the way I think stands out significantly. “Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge regarding the interplay of comedies and the historical, political, literary, and cultural contexts in which they were written and performed.” Because this was the one which I would say I knew the most about going into the course, it was also the one to which I came “closest” to achieving, so to speak. While the course certainly helped my development in these capacities, that particular objective doesn’t fit the rest of the prompts. To answer the question “Which goal do you believe you made the most progress towards?,” therefore, I will base my discussion on a capability, which the course helped me to develop, that wasn’t quite as strong coming in as it will be when I depart.

                As some of my fellow students may have discerned during in-class discussions, my forte isn’t always in my creative capacities, and with drawing elaborate, long-reaching connections between two distinctly abstract elements of a text in a way that somebody a little more artsy might be able to. For example, when Donny dies at the end of The Big Lebowski, 2013-Brandon might not have been able to formulate a justification. My typical line of thinking would be, “Why did Donny die? Because the writer wanted to mess with us. Because they wanted him dead. Who cares?” However, post-colloquium-Brandon wrote something along the lines of “The writers could have been trying to make the lack of justice in the film more obvious by killing off a character that was inconsequential, and therefore blameless to misdeeds, the likes of which were committed by some of the other characters in the movie. Other examples of the lack of justice in The Big Lebowski included: the destruction of the Corvette/the lambasting that the kid received by Walter, the uselessness of the police figures in the film, and the fact that Mr. Lebowski (not “the Dude”) was never punished for his embezzlement, other than by falling flat on his face, arguably an unsuitable punishment.”

                I think this course has showed me the importance of breaking these things down. The relevant course goal reads: “Students will be able to demonstrate an ability to make connections between the information, approaches, ideas, and perspectives in this and other courses while discerning connections between the course materials and the students’ own lives.” Trying to grasp at the connections made in a text, while perhaps not always the direct source of epiphanies and miracles in my life, do indeed serve to strengthen my critical thinking/analysis skills; the consequences of being able to think critically and logically are well understood. Learning about this type of cause-and-effect school of thought has the power to make a man a better thinker. For example, a lawyer would definitely need these skills when making clear to a jury the motive of a potential criminal for his acts. In Engineering, my field, critical thinking would be useful in designing safety features on the next model Mercedes-Benz. What kind of errors are people likely to make? How can we make these less likely to happen while still maintaining the car’s usability? Clearly identifying cause-and-effect connections, as we have done with all of our texts this semester, makes for better lawyers and engineers.

                Given the amount of critical thinking applications we’ve undergone in this course, I would say the course certainly met this goal. I enjoyed discussing the different connections between different events in the course. As a detractor, the three-hour format really burned me out around hour two. If I had to postulate, I would say the artsy types might have been able to endure at maximum for a little longer, as they’ve got more practice, but I think it would be foolish to say that even they wouldn’t have struggled with the format. For me, it was a long time to dig into the texts, but there were things I got out of those discussions that helped, so I don’t think I could argue that another way would be better. The blog posts were fairly assigned, and forcing us to think about the text twice in the week was a good idea, and made our in-class discussions both less laborious and more focused, which are obviously both good things. I think the readings were fair as well, in length as well as complexity.

                Overall, I have improved as a thinker, and would say my ability to draw connections has improved by great measure. With this in mind, I would say I have been a very successful student, because I learned not only to analyze material and identify methodology, but also to apply these things to my life in other avenues.

(Sorry for the length! I had a lot of thoughts and it wouldn't have done it justice to be coarse and leave out important details. Plus, there were quite a few questions in the prompt.)

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TL;DR: I learned how to better make connections (and make better connections) and while the discussions could be exhausting for my left-brained half, it was worth the labor, as I feel I've become a better thinker.

Photo credit: http://www.harunyahya.com/en/Books/4619/the-miracle-of-electricity-in/chapter/4989

Laughing Matters

I feel that I have learned a great deal in this course.  It opened my eyes to all the different kinds of comedies that existed and still exist, most of which I didn’t even know existed, like Carnivalesque laughter and New Comedy.  It helped me realize certain tropes in comedies (such as the green world) that I was previously unaware of and some of the reasons as to why we laugh and even how it ties in to our own biology and instincts.  Thanks to this, I believe my skills in critical thinking, analysis and interpretation of literature have improved greatly. 

As an engineering major, I have learned to think in new ways, to think about the literature I read and to realize the depth which the classic novels I have shunned for most of my life really reach.  I feel that I better understand the choice of comedies, and while they seemed boring or lethargic at first, I now realize how engaging they really were and that I only disliked them due to my own misunderstanding. 

In the end I grew quite fond of this class.  Not only was it a break from the endless control systems, chemical process and plant layouts I had to learn to read and speak about, but it was also a way to explore the creative depths of my mind I had so long neglected to nourish.  It felt good to read comedies that I had never heard of, and to finally enjoy a classic piece of literature. 

A nice touch in this class was the study of The Big Lebowski.  It was a good demonstration of how the concepts we learned in class could very easily be applied to the real world and to modern comedy, not only old.  Now every time I go to watch a comedy, I feel that my brain has been primed to automatically detect the presence of topics that we have talked about.  

Course goal

The course goal that I think that I have made the most progress towards achieving is demonstrating an ability to make connections between the information, approaches, ideas, and perspectives in this and other courses while discerning connections between the course materials and my own life. This is something that happens from time to time while watching movies or television shows on Netflix and even in conversation with friends. My little group of comrades will be laughing about a dumb video on Break or Youtube, and one of my compatriots will wipe away tears and say something to the effect of: "Why is this so damn funny?"  Here comes Zach to make this a learning opportunity for all, whether they want it or not.  I will dive into Bergson's writings about "mechanical inelasticity" and laughter as a form of correction as an explanation as to why we laugh at a guy slamming his face into a glass door that was so clean it did not even look like it was there.  All laughter has died in the room. I guess it does take some of the fun out of it. 

I would have liked to see more theories of humor or of comedy.  I know that there are more ideas than the ones that we discussed. Though, I suppose the purpose of the class was not to make us experts in humor theory, but instead give us a small glimpse into the topic.  This subtle tease is what is supposed to drive us to dig in and search for the proverbial tree of knowledge (of humor theory).

A commonly repeated phrase was "looking a familiar things with new eyes." A question I have is: how many familiar things did we look at with these new eyes?  I had never heard of any of the works we read in class. I think that having time to regularly discuss modern examples of these older texts and theories would have better facilitated the making of connections.

I would like to take this final sentence to say: I enjoyed this class; I'm glad it was not a bust.

That is all.

Reflection Post

       Applying foundational knowledge to approach texts critically was a goal I think I made the most progress towards. And by using the foundational knowledge, I was able to design a research project creatively and will present my ideas professionally with my partner. I will have progressed greatly in presenting my ideas because I hate giving presentations. And I think this will help. For me, reading the texts was not easy to do. I had difficulties comprehending the context. But as we got into groups and discussed the readings as a class together, it really helped me understand the texts a lot better. That aspect of the class was what I enjoyed the most along with reading other classmate’s blog posts. The blog posts helped me see other classmate’s interpretation on the text. And no blog was the same, so there were lots of varieties.

            I think I benefited the most from forming group discussions. One of the texts I had trouble understanding was The Contrast. Group and in class discussions helped me understand it better. It was a small group so we had the chance to hear everyone’s option at the table and it made me not afraid to speak my mind versus speaking in front of the entire class. So small group discussions should be kept. A thing that I would change about the class would be the blog posts and comments. We all know that everyone has other classes other than this course and so much is going on with our lives, I think the blog posts should be made every other week.

            Throughout this course, I struggled with topic ideas for blog posts and understanding the texts. But overall I think I was a successful student. I know I made progress in this class and I found ways to better grasp the context of the readings.

Reflection on my experince . . .

I feel this class has been a positive experience for me, although a little challenging at times. I have expanded my knowledge on comedy, and the uses and results of comedy in relation to society and culture. My critical thinking skills are better toward the types of texts we have studied this semester. I have never studied theater or plays, therefore I have a better perspective on how to approach our texts in the future. I am an accounting major, but I am not right-brained or left. I am always directly in the middle, so I think I enjoyed this class much more than some of the others. I would like to share one of my all-time favorite quotes:

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."

~Robert Frost

I sign my emails with this quote, not because I am telling people to do this, but rather to remind myself to keep an open mind when listening to other people’s views and opinions. 

I feel this class has pushed everyone’s boundaries in some way, and for me, that is definitely beneficial to my education. I have to agree with some about the mid-term. I did not think it was helpful- it lowered our grades, and I think we didn’t deserve that because we have all made positive contributions to the class, no matter our opinions. I did, however, like the blog posts, simply because I enjoy reading other people’s perspectives and comparing those views to my own. 

Goals:


By the end of this course, successful students will be able to:

• discuss the central characteristics of several 
comedic forms as well as the range of Digital Humanities research methodologies analyzed in this course
• demonstrate knowledge regarding the interplay of comedies and the historical, political, literary, and cultural contexts in which they were written and performed
• apply this foundational knowledge to approach texts critically, to design research projects creatively, and to present their ideas professionally
• demonstrate an ability to make connections between the information, approaches, ideas, and perspectives in this and other courses while discerning connections between the course materials and the students’ own lives. 

I do feel I have improved on many of these goals. I always relate everything to my own life in order to have a better understanding of my subjects. The only goal I might tend to disagree with is the part where it says present your ideas professionally. Creating a poster feels very ‘high school’, but I try not to judge, and always keep an open mind. I guess we will know more a week from Wednesday.

Goal

I believe the course goal I made the most progress towards was applying the knowledge from our class periods to approach texts critically, to design research projects creatively, and to present their ideas professionally. There was only one example from the semester that is needed to back up this assumption: The Beaver Coat.
 Right after I read The Beaver Coat, I said that it was one of the most pointless things I had ever read. However, when we discussed the text in class, some interesting discussions were brought as to why the play ended the way it did, the reactions of the audiences in Berlin when it was first performed, and the feelings my fellow classmates had about the play. The knowledge I gained that night led me to the idea to create a new ending to The Beaver Coat in order to see if the play’s unusual ending makes it special to a particular type of person, those who are right brained or those who are going into fields absent of science such as English and history, and hated by another type of person, left brained or those who are entering science related fields.
 Next time this course is taught, I would get rid of the blog comments and make them extra credit opportunities. The blog posts helped me spot aspects of the plays that were interesting to think about. I would also suggest watching two movies because it was fun applying what we had learned over the course of the semester to The Big Lebowski.
 Finally, I think that I was a successful student in this class. I think the bulk of it was due to the in-class discussions. I do not feel like the blog comments benefited me in any way. I also feel like the midterm was pointless and the only thing it did was bring students course grades down. How about making students watch a comedy on their own time and have them apply their course knowledge to it by writing a one page paper?

Course Reflection

            I think the course goal I was most successful in reaching was learning how to “apply foundational knowledge to approach texts critically, to design research projects creatively, and to present [my] ideas professionally.”

            I’m an engineer.  I’ve never been good at reading and analyzing texts, or pretty much anything in the humanities in general.  I’m not terrible at it, but it’s just not my forte.  However, this class pushed me outside of my boundaries.  It made me dig deeper into the texts than I once thought possible.  The blog posts (although not my favorite thing to write) were extremely beneficial.  Not only did they help me try to understand the text better to write them, but being able to read other people’s blogs helped me see different sides to the story.  The different perspectives allowed me to look from different angles, open my mind to the different ideas, and analyze which one I thought was most appropriate.  Furthermore, class discussions were helpful.  Even after analyzing the story to write my blog posts, there would still be aspects of the story I missed or a side that I had not considered yet.  The class discussions were helpful in tuning me into scenarios that I had once found unimportant.  There were many things while watching The Big Lebowski that I thought were trivial at first, until discussing them further and realizing they actually had a purpose to connect throughout the story.  Finally, the application project that we are currently working on has definitely broadened my horizons.  It made me think differently to see how I could help others understand the story better through a different outlet than simply reading.  Also, the fact that we have to present our posters in the Library to the public and not just our class is helping me to prepare better so I can present my ideas to different people, and not people who already know what I am talking about.  Although I am nervous about presenting, I think it will be a good experience and help me to achieve the class goals.