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10:001 or 10:003 Unit ~ Analysis and Mapping of Space and Place
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Formal Assignments | ||||||
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This unit is set up for use with the textbook In Context. I use one reserve reading. The readings in this unit are minimal because I hope that students will spend their time in and out of class engaging physical structures and visual images. Please see Alternative Readings for other options. Rybczynski, W. (2002). Comfort and Well-Being. In Context: Participating in Cultural Conversations. A. M. Feldman, N. Downs and E. McManus. New York, Longman: 246-256. This reading from In Context offers students an engaging segue into thinking about space versus place. Rybczynski specifically analyzes comfort as a feeling of intimacy that must be thought about through engaging with social behavior. He argues that the evolution of decorating styles must not be theorized as merely aesthetic but rather as an indication about changing ideas of comfort. In other words, Rybczynski wants to examine the more affective ties of comfort that might point to general social ideas. This author is arguing against modernist architecture comprehended as only stylistic. Instead, he claims that an understanding of comfort will allow for ‘homes’ not simply ‘dwellings.’ The social, affective dimension of comfort is what Rybczynski would like to highlight. Students seem very able to digest this reading. The idea of ‘comfort’ as a designation of more social formations is quite easily understood by students in their first rhetoric course. However, there is very little to critically engage with in this piece. When I use this reading, I show students modernist decorating, city plans, and buildings. They seem to understand how this might be more than a style but have trouble thinking about the implications of affect through structure. In other words, they have trouble thinking beyond the claims of the author. In order to deal with this, I have students map out the thesis and then contrast that with their own experiences of suburbs. This seems to enable them to move beyond the claims of the author. Pollan, M. (2002). The Triumph of Burbopolis. In Context: Participating in Cultural Conversations. A. M. Feldman, N. Downs and E. McManus. New York, Longman: 272-279. In this very brief reading, Pollan returns to his childhood home and notes the changes in the area. He is rather wistful in places, thinking about his childhood and the ‘old neighborhood.’ Throughout the article, Pollan is interested in the notion of place and how his ‘place’ has changed over the last 30 years. Specifically, he notices that the people are no longer drawn to the city for entertainment, but rather the movement of individuals is rather unclear. He calls this dissonant movement, “Burbopolis.” This article is assigned with the Rybczynkski piece. This provides a nice contrast the ‘interior’ focus of Rybczynski by engaging with the flows of people through and between cities. Students seem quite ready to engage the thesis that suburbs are not simply places where 1950’s sitcoms take place. Yet, this reading pushes at exactly how contemporary suburbs affect the flow of people and goods. Further, the piece helps students to think about the nostalgia of place and/or the locality of place. By reading this piece students might be able to differentiate quite clearly between localities and the impact of those localities versus the nostalgic or imagined production of spaces. Again, this article is easy for students to digest and helps to advance the unit through thinking about nostalgia, space & place, and suburbia. Case Study: On Painting a House Purple. (2002) In Context: Participating in Cultural Conversations. A. M. Feldman, N. Downs and E. McManus. New York, Longman, 300-326. This case study about a house in San Antonio, Texas is brilliant at illustrating how ideas about comfort, style, and home can all collide in one particular controversy. This case study surrounds acclaimed author Sandra Cisneros’ move to paint her house an unapproved color within an historic district. This case study includes several texts from various perspectives on the issue. The documents students read include: a brochure on guidelines for historic districts in San Antonio, several columns from The San Antonio Express-News describing the issues, an article from The Houston Chronicle describing the ‘ethnocentric’ ideas at stake, letters to the editor for The San Antonio Express-News, an elaborate explanation by Cisneros of her position from the Express-News, and a transcript from ABC Good Morning America. These various readings highlight the cultural, political, territorial, and spatial issues at stake in this controversy. Students reading this case study are able to understand how very abstract ideas about space and place can come down to very concrete, ‘real-world’ problems. This reading pushes students to ask questions about whose history is being preserved, as well as what does preservation mean. Finally, the focus on this case study as a controversy helps to introduce more rhetorical ideas about persuasion and argumentation in ways that it is easy for students to grasp. In other words, the multiple positions available and the arguments that these positions use is understandable for students and allows them to think about their own posturing. This case study is the “gelling point” for students as the class proceeds into the unit. It is this section that I will continually refer to as they move into writing their own space/place controversy papers. Crawford, M. (2002). Mi Casa es Su Casa. In Context: Participating in Cultural Conversations. A. M. Feldman, N. Downs and E. McManus. New York, Longman: 280-287. This article stems from an exhibit that focused on the American dream as demonstrated by family homes. Teams of architects, critics, academics, etc. were to examine how various localities might have reevaluated the single-family suburban home. This article, published originally in a scholarly journal, focused on the work of Margaret Crawford and her collaborators, Adobe LA. This group examined how Latino communities have incorporated their own culture through the modification of housing in East Los Angeles. Through looking at the border, the fence, the yarda, alterations, plants, the house, and the politics of this space, the group finds that Latino communities pose questions about identity markers and the social construction of space. This is the article that solidifies the difference between space and place for students. Not only do students begin to see specific cultural manifestations of space, but students are sequestered in the critical questions of the piece. The difficulty in reading for this article goes up slightly given the word choices and footnotes; however this difficulty begins to prepare students for reading Foucault. I find it useful with this piece to talk about the vocabulary and what these word choices do for the authors. This piece is excellent for its ability to incite students to think about how they might personalize their own spaces, or spaces they have seen with specific cultural influences. This reading is critical for the above questions as well as the differentiation it provides between space and place. Foucault, M. (1995). Panopticism. Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. D. Bartholomae and A. Petrosky. Boston, Bedford/St. Martin's: 225-253. This chapter is probably quite familiar for many rhetoric instructors, thus I will forego my elementary descriptions of the text in order to elucidate what I think this reading offers students. This chapter from Foucault offers students a glimpse at how power and truth play into the discursive posturing of physical environs. Foucault is a rather difficult author to grasp for students; however I was pleasantly surprised at their ability to comprehend some theoretical concepts. In order to help students, I had them diagram the panoptic function within the classroom or the other buildings they looked at. They seem to grasp the concept of power/knowledge much more easily through this exercise. This chapter is the piece that the class will continually refer back to throughout the rest of the unit. That is, while the article is only assigned for one reading day, I will continually draw on this work through the actual physical readings in the unit. Foucault is wonderful for elucidating the power function of space through discursive uptakes. This work also pushes students to question more quotidian spaces (i.e. the dormitories, the classroom, etc). Next, this chapter is excellent for helping students to think about why controversies arise about and in particular spaces and places. Additionally, this chapter is excellent for critically interrogating websites, the designing a mall activity, and the building fieldtrip. While it takes students some time to ‘catch on,’ the fieldtrips seem to spark the comprehension of this chapter from Foucault. Barlow, J. P. (2002). Is There a There in Cyberspace? In Context: Participating in Cultural Conversations. A. M. Feldman, N. Downs and E. McManus. New York, Longman: 383-390. Barlow details his experience with an online group of Grateful Dead fans entitled WELL. He argues that the online space provides a diaspora with a space for community. He describes this community as a type of ecosystem that thrives on diversity. He also argues that home is to be found in cyberspace, if we think of home as a place where affect resides. His attention to the fans of the Grateful Dead, is rather engaging way to think about the ‘walls’ of cyberspace. This article is wonderful to have students move beyond analyzing actual physical space and place. This piece pushes students to think about websites, listservs, chatrooms, etc. as particular kinds of social spaces. Barlow’s article is critical for moving forward with the interrogation of museum websites, and other online sites. This text forwards the analysis of space and/or place beyond mere physical limits. |