One way to better understand what material culture studies does is to think about a material culture approach in contradistinction to close reading. With extreme close reading, we ignore context and study the words as if they existed in a vacuum. With material culture studies, we consider how cultural context influences textual expression. Close reading and material culture studies are not mutually exclusive--in fact, they work very well together. (Perhaps we could further discuss how they work well together in the comments below.)
In this week's prologue, I look at Utopia through a material culture lens and call your attention to its ecology. Speaking of ecology, this video is recycled. I filmed it for a previous version of this course last spring:
What do you think about plants, animals, and material culture in Utopia? Go to the comments section below and weigh in.
Reading Assignment: Thomas More, Utopia
-On your 1st pass, read the Norton Intro to More and all of Utopia (518-89)
-On your 2nd pass start on p. 543, where Raphael begins talking about Utopia (so you’ll skip most of Book 1)
Wildcard Assignment:
-I like the conversations we're having as a class. Let's focus on keeping the ideas flowing:
- Post 1 additional comment on someone else's Rumination this week (so you'll comment on a total of 3 Ruminations this week), *or*
- Post 1 comment on this Prologue (in the comments section below)
