1.1 Salutations!
by admin
Hi,
My name is Anne and I am a 4th year English Literature major. I chose to take this course for a variety of reasons, though a particularly important factor for me is its online platform. Because I have health issues attending a normal, IRL seminar or lecture simply isn’t possible. I’ve been attending online courses at UBC for a few years now and in that time I have seen the availability and variety of courses online expand. To me, this growth indicates that educators are becoming more aware of the learning potential inherent in the virtual medium, not just as a useful method for accommodating students like myself, passionate about academics but prevented from attending typical classrooms, but also as a great tool for educating in general. To cite a brief example, some of my classmates have already mentioned the way in which online courses open up a previously underutilized space where many students who might otherwise have refrained from class participation feel more at ease interacting with their peers.
As I understand it, this course introduces to students the subject of literature in Canada. On a more specific level, my access to this overarching subject will be influenced and guided by considering themes such as “identity” and “home” in conjunction with an examination of the process of storytelling: how do the stories we tell ourselves and one another contribute to the definitions of situatedness and selfhood that shape our realities as individuals and as a nation?
This focus on story-telling, particularly as it relates to the construction of identity, is something I’m very interested in, and I am looking forward to seeing how this avenue of inquiry progresses over the course of the semester. I think it is a subject that will lead to many fruitful discussions. I am also excited by the emphasis placed on hyperlinking in Dr. Patterson’s introductory posts.
As an lover of literature I am fascinated by text in all its manifestations and, as an individual engaging regularly with the virtual medium, I am particularly fascinated by hypertext. Hypertext, as it functions in the virtual domain, seems so fundamental that it becomes easy to take for granted, but it is actually a really thought-provoking phenomenon in its strange psychospacial effects and ergodic nature.
In fact, I wrote a term paper for an English Honours seminar in which I incorporate hyperlinks and hypertextuality into a discussion of Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves. In the paper I underscore the resemblance between hypertextuality and labyrinths, a comparison I’m certain we will all be able to relate to by the end of this semester!
Works Cited:
“Introduction.” Hannah’s Blog, https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl470westerman/. Web. 2016.
Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 1:1 Blogging Guidelines.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies, https://blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/unit-1/lesson-11/. Web. 2016.
Saward, Jeff. “The Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth.” Labyrinthos, http://www.labyrinthos.net/chartresfaq.html. Web. 2009.
Tastad, Anne. “The Hypertext House.” Blogger, https://the-new-library.blogspot.ca/. Web. 2011.
Salutations!