come dynamic textbooks; see Textbooks That Professors Can Rewrite Digitally

Earlier in the semester, we read some theory on how the Walt Whitman Archive destroys the concept of a single narrative of Whitman's life, or a definitive version of any of his works. I'm interested in exploring works where this impossibility is evident even within a single version of a text. For example, the Sherlock Holmes novels and stories never seem to settle on a single interpretation of Holmes's character (or a single location for Watson's war wound); likewise, the original Dracula novel has very little internal consistency regarding details of vampire lore (or of the plot).

For the second half of the semester, I think it would be really interesting to look at fan fiction as an "emerging" genre.  I use the quotation marks because Professor Taylor once had us read a work for class that was a continuation of Chaucer's notoriously-unfinished Canterbury Tales, and doesn't that count as a work of fan fiction?  There are also additional Sherlock Holmes mysteries, suspiciously not written by Sir Conan Doyle and Pride

 I would really like to read actual books for the second half of the semester, and I am thinking that we could play off of the idea of identity. The Internet and blogs can both over display identity or keep one completely hidden; some people use it as a way to find themselves. And this identity can be found in many different was and for many different reasons. Some of my book suggestions are The Scarlet Letter, The Sound and the Fury, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Book of Salt, Invisible Man, The Lacuna, The Merchant of Venice, Bone (by Fae Myenne Ng), The Elegant Hedgehog… obviously we couldn't read all of these, but they're just a few ideas to choose from.

 OK, I've put some real thought into this and though it sounds nice to read more modern texts, I don't think I'm finished with the old quite yet. I know it might sound bizarre, but I've, for the most part, really enjoyed the books I read in high school. I like the suggestions of reading the Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick (not because Anne likes it, but because it is such an important book and I've never read it), maybe Charles Dickens, or Georgette Heyer! I want to read actual books, nothing online and I want to read great novels from the past. Can someone be on my side?

This is Draft 2: (For Draft 1 and notes, as well as everything written below and more, go to my blog entry "new genre proposal: editable")

I would like to propose a look at the historical 'growth' of genres. Looking at some different, widely accepted 'genres' and their changes over time. With six weeks, a look at three different 'genres,' giving two weeks to each would be proposed, although of course this is not strict. We would be asking the questions of what changed? What grew, what remained the same? Are these two even the same genre? and whatever other inquiries come to mind. Would we read academic criticism?

 David Shields, who argues that, "the history of art is the history of appropriation," has just released a new book entitled Reality Hunger: A Manifesto. The book is made up of aphorisms, fragments of texts, and mini-essays. Its formlessness conveys the author's purpose to defy the traditional genre of novel. As a book review in the Guardian points out, "More problematically, Reality Hunger also celebrates plagiarism as a literary tool." Over half of the book is deliberately composed of other people's thoughts. This would be an apt book for us to explore given recent questions raised in our class discussions concerning originality, authenticity, and "remix" as a cultural phenomenon.

See the book review in The Guardian for more background:

For the next half of the semester I think it would be a great idea to focus on graphic novels because they provide an excellent mix of modern storytelling with depth. I think I can safely speak for the class when I say that everyone has done the classics novels at least at one point in their lives.