Course Information
MALS 70000 Introduction to Graduate Liberal Studies
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30 pm, Professor Carrie Hintz, 3 credits
Room 6494
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 4 PM-5: 30 and Friday 9 AM-10 AM
Phone: 212-817-8317
“Oversharing:” Course Description
Social media and internet culture have opened up new venues to share personal experiences and life events. But when and how does personal revelation become “too much information?” We will consider the issue of “oversharing” from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on media and film studies, life writing, art historical criticism, Digital Humanities, political philosophy, ethics, and privacy law. How is “oversharing” rooted in the rhetorics and practices of the confessional? What is the role of technology in facilitating–and sometimes, alas, in shaming–the oversharer? Are there generational differences in “oversharing,” and different standards of revelation? What is the role of discretion, modesty, and privacy in contemporary society, and how does privacy law function to keep personal information out of the public sphere? How much of the adverse reaction to “oversharing” is prudery or class snobbery, and how much is a genuine concern for the erosion of cherished standards of discretion, reticence, and circumspection? What are some of the rewards and pleasures of “oversharing,” and what motivates people to “overshare?” What are some religious and spiritual perspectives on “oversharing”? We will begin with Julie Powell’s Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession (2009), a book that chronicles both Powell’s extramarital affair and her mastery of the craft of butchery–in graphic detail. The work of William Godwin (1756-1836) will come next, in particular his emphasis on candor and honesty as a precondition for political justice, and his own searingly frank memoir of his recently-deceased wife Mary Wollstonecraft. We will move on to look at Virginia Woolf and her Memoir Club, whose members prided themselves on frank, unstinting revelation (and plenty of it). The blogosphere will provide us with a great deal of material for our study, as will social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and Reality Television. All students will participate in a course blog, complete a class presentation, and produce a 20-page research paper. Working with Professor Jason Tougaw’s seminar “Inventing the Self,” we will produce an online anthology of scholarship from our class.
