In class I was personally struck by the suggestion of Anne Dalke to follow parodies of genres. Not only does it sound interesting, but, in studying parodies I feel that one can better understand the "parodied."

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Our group idea for a syllabus was that we should consider the genre of parody/satire. One can find parodies of multiple genres in multiple genres. There are parodies of mystery novels, parodies of science fiction, etcetera. There are movies which parody other movies, movies which parody books, and books which parody movies.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of "parody" is as follows:

I am posting in support of some of the specific examples and ideas that were brought up in class.  I REALLY want to read things I haven't read before, so I don't have suggestions of my own, but some of the suggestions I heard sounded cool to me.  My favorite idea was the "international villains" concept, but I also liked the detective ideas.  I would be interested in reading the following:

original Sherlock Holmes + modern adaptations and detective stories of various mediums

Persepolis

Neil Gaiman graphic novels

teal, ShaynaS, and I discussed the syllabus for the rest of the semester yesterday, and the topic we agreed would be most interesting to explore for the next six weeks is villainy.  Our plan is to stick with one genre-tragedy- and look at how villainy is portrayed through three different mediums.  The mediums we had in mind were a graphic novel (Persepolis was an idea), a play (we could do two plays depending on the length of each one), and a novel.   This would enable us to explore the genre of tragedy, learn about the three different mediums, and also look at the portrayal of villainy and how it varies.

Class opened with a discussion about how we felt our papers and the public comments Anne left for us.  When asked, Anne admitted that it was a different commenting style for her because she wasn't changing the grammar and style of every single sentence.  Instead, she spent more time on the ideas presented in the papers.  Though the class was largely silent, those who did speak up seemed to prefer the online comments to handwritten comments.  However, there was some dissent from students seeking more assistance with improving their writing, not just their ability to make an argument.

Our group suggested that we study mysteries through different literary kinds, including a traditional novel, either a graphic novel or work of fan fiction, and then a movie.

For some specific suggestions, we thought we could read one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, followed by another Sherlock Holmes story this time written by someone else, and then finally a Sherlock Holmes movie.  There are several options within each of those literary categories, which would hopefully prevent any of us from having to read something we've read in previous classes.

Additionally, it would give us an opportunity to discuss what jrf put forth in her proposal for the rest of the semester.

 Like TPB1988, I too think it is a smart idea to include a classic novel, a graphic novel, and a movie. I really believe that having these three distinct modes will allow us to compare and contrast what aspects actually categorize and distinguish differences between the types when dealing with the same theme or idea. Personally, I am interested in following the development of a mystery. I think the usage of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is a wonderful example for us to study because it allows us to trace the concept's evolution from classic novel to graphic novel to movie form. Since in our discussion of blogs we focused on what categorizes things, what differences shape distinctions between categories, it is an easy shift from first half to second half of the semester.

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