Reading Journal

Due on May 20th/June 17^th/July18^th (Mondays)/5pm

by 5pm, via Email to maran@nagoya-u.jp

BASICS

1)Students are expected to submit three 300 word reading journals (in WORD document; can go over the word limit) reflecting upon their reading progress in the previous month (1^st Journal to review the literature by Week 5; 2^nd Journal to review literature between Week 6-8; 3^rd Journal for Week 9-12);  

2)The submitted WORD file should contain “CAV” + the student’s name in its file name;

3)Preferred style is Oxford University Press (HUMSOC). Please self-study the style (handout distributed in the Introduction; Citation Tools will help you to do the job effectively!).

Don’t be overly concerned with grammar (although spell-check will be helpful!), but do put a lot of thinking into your reading journals since they will be key to fruitful discussions in class and even your final paper.

FORMAT

Include the following information at the top of each assignment:

Your Name Course Title Submission Date             Title of article  [please do NOT use the bibliographical item as your title…] Mainbody Works Cited (on a separate page)

What We Want?

This Reading Journal is a simplified version of Literature Review (if you do not know what is literature review, refer below); we use it to keep updated about your learning progress, and get to know your understanding of specific aspect  of visual culture, contexturalised and historicized.

Which Literature to Work With?  For each assignment, you should engage with at least TWO reading(s) listed in our syllabus for the designated period of time, and focus on a specific topic (e.g., punctum & stadium/spectacle/ideology per Althusser/selfie/gaze/Orientalism/simulacra/Otaku etc.). We do NOT want a summary of ALL the readings in the previous month (please do NOT do that). A comparison between concepts/arguments, in examining their possible relations, is possible, but NOT a must. I’d rather you start from something small and more specific, and orient your discussions AROUND the readings themselves, NOT simply your own feelings and evaluations (I feel blahblah), and random impressions of certain visual phenomenon/images/cultural texts=we want to read how you support your discussions with “evidence”.  

How? You are expected to review, evaluate and even critique certain theoretical concepts (such as keywords proposed by scholars) and/or arguments (much detailed explanations) presented in the cited sources; you should be able to present your own interpretation and viewpoints (instead of simply copying and pasting quotes). Further relevant analysis of case studies (visual materials/films/artworks) etc. will be welcomed but NOT a must (given the length of the assignment). For your Final Paper, you are encouraged to develop some of the underdeveloped ideas presented in the Reading Journals, by engaging closely with the case studies.

[https://guides.library.yale.edu/c.php?g=295913&p=1975851]

A literature review … has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of important information about the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. Depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant of them.