Course syllabus

How have film, television and new media represented memory and forgetting, and how do these media technologies themselves provide a type of virtual "memory"? How might contemporary digital technologies be changing the way we think about recollection, both personal and collective?

Memory and Media explores the relationship between memory and the ways in which it is represented, experienced and embodied through media technologies. Topics covered include: depictions of memory in film/TV/video games, digital memory/forgetting, "prosthetic" memory, media nostalgia, trauma theory and sites of memory.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of contemporary critical discourses about memory and representation
• Demonstrate an understanding of the historical development of ideas about memory and representation
• Analyse the way that memory is represented across different contemporary media formats, including film, television and new media
• Engage creatively with possibilities for representing memory through media

Lecture: Monday 4-6pm, Engineering 439

Convenor: Dr Allan Cameron | allan.cameron@auckland.ac.nz | Office hours: Tuesday 1-3pm | HSB, Room 535

Graduate Teaching Assistants:
Emily Holland | ehol728@aucklanduni.ac.nz | Office hours: Tuesday 11am-12pm | HSB, Room 525
Amy Taylor | atay811@aucklanduni.ac.nz | Office hours: Monday 3pm-4pm | HSB, Room 528

Tuākana Mentor: Kaitiaki Rodger | krdo200@aucklanduni.ac.nz 

Class Reps:
Tayah-Daisy Coleman (MEDIA 219) | tore742@aucklanduni.ac.nz 
Nam Woon Kim (MEDIA 326) | nkim675@aucklanduni.ac.nz
MEDIA 219/326 students Facebook group

Memory and Media on Tumblr

ASSESSMENT

1. Assignment One: essay, 30% | 1500 words (MEDIA 219), 1800 words (MEDIA 326) | Due Fri 23 August 5pm
2. Assignment Two: creative exercise and critical reflection, 30% | Due Mon 30 September 9am
3. Assignment Three: essay, 30% | 1500 words (MEDIA 219), 1800 words (MEDIA 326) | Due Fri 25 October 5pm
4. Tutorial Exercises: 10% | You must complete the online Tutorial Exercise before each tutorial (Week 2-12) and attend the corresponding tutorial. Each completed exercise contributes one mark towards the maximum total of ten. 

Your overall course mark is the sum of your assignments and participation marks. There is no plussage on this paper. A total of 50% (C-) is the minimum pass mark.

LECTURE OUTLINE/ REQUIRED READING

The following schedule may be subject to minor alterations. Any changes will be announced in lectures and posted on Canvas.

1. Memory, Mediation and Metaphor.   Mon 22 Jul
   Garde-Hansen, Joanne. “Memory Studies and Media Studies.” Media and Memory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011. 13-30.
   To view: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004).

2. Cinematic Memory I.   Mon 29 Jul
   Radstone, Susannah. “Cinema and Memory.” Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates. Ed.Susannah Radstone and Bill Schwarz. Bronx NY: Fordham University Press, 2010. 325-42.
   Klein, Norman M. “The Most Photographed and Least Remembered City in the World.” The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory. 2^nded. London: Verso, 2008. 247-62.
   To view: Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947).

3. Cinematic Memory II.   Mon 05 Aug
   Turim, Maureen. “Definition and Theory of the Flashback.” Flashbacks in Film: Memory and History. London: Routledge, 1989. 1-20.
   Freud, Sigmund. “A Note Upon the ‘Mystic Writing-Pad’.” The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XIX. Trans. James Strachey. London: Hogarth Press, 1961. 227-32.
   To view: Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000). Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961).
4. Nostalgia.  Mon 12 Aug
   Boym, Svetlana. From “Nostalgia and Its Discontents.” The Collective Memory Reader.Ed. Jeffrey K. Olick, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi and Daniel Levy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. 452-7.
   Cook, Pam. “Rethinking Nostalgia: In the Mood for Love and Far From Heaven.” Screening the Past: Memory and Nostalgia in Cinema. London: Routledge, 2005. 1-19.
   To view: Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002). In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000).

5. Prosthetic Memory.   Mon 19 Aug
   Landsberg, Alison. “Prosthetic Memory.” Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. 25-48.
   To view: Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982).
6. Digital Memory I.   Mon 26 Aug
   van Dijck, José. “From Shoebox to Performative Agent: The Computer as Personal Memory Machine.” New Media & Society 7.3 (2005): 311-32.
   Garde-Hansen, Joanne. "My Memories? Personal Digital Archive Fever and Facebook." Save As... Digital Memories. Ed. Joanne Garde-Hansen, Andrew Hoskins and Anna Reading. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 135-50.
   MID-SEMESTER BREAK: 2 September–14 September
   
7. Digital Memory II.   Mon 16 Sep
   Sexton, Jamie. "Weird Britain in Exile: Ghost Box, Hauntology, and Alternative Heritage." Popular Music and Society 35.4 (2012): 561-84.
   Lupton, Catherine. “Memories of the Future.” Chris Marker: Memories of the Future. London: Reaktion, 2004. 205-12.
   To view: Immemory (Chris Marker, 1997).

8. Memory, Nation, History.   Mon 23 Sep
   Guynn, William Howard. “Patricio Guzmán's Nostalgia for the Light (2010).” Unspeakable Histories : Film and the Experience of Catastrophe. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. 140-62.
   Burgoyne, Robert. “Prosthetic Memory/ National Memory: Forrest Gump.” Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at U.S. History. Rev. ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010. 104-19.
   To view: Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzmán, 2010). Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994).
9. Televisual Memory.   Mon 30 Sep
   Holdsworth, Amy. “Televisual Memory.” Screen 51.2 (2010): 129-42.
   Pierson, David. “AMC’s Mad Men and the Politics of Nostalgia.” Media and Nostalgia: Yearning for the Past, Present and Future. Ed. Katharina Niemeyer. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 139-51.
   To view: Mad Men Season 1, Episode 13 (AMC, 2007).

10. Trauma Theory.   Mon 07 Oct
    Caruth, Cathy. Introduction. Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Ed. Cathy Caruth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. 3-12.
    To view: Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955). Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008). Recommended: Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005).
11. Spaces of Memory.   Mon 14 Oct
    Huyssen, Andreas. "Memory Sites in an Expanded Field: The Memory Park in Buenos Aires." Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003. 94-109.
    Recommended viewing: Synecdoche, NY (Charlie Kaufman, 2008).

12. Conclusion.   Mon 21 Oct
    To view: My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007). In-class screening.

TUTORIALS

You are expected to actively participate in one tutorial per week. Each tutorial provides the opportunity for students to discuss the previous work’s lecture and reading material, and to prepare for the assignments and the exam. You are encouraged to ask questions, to venture opinions, and to formulate and debate ideas. As university students you are expected to demonstrate intellectual curiosity about the media and engage seriously with the issues examined in the lectures and assigned reading. Please note that tutorials are a place for everyone to express their ideas in a collegial and respectful environment.

Each week a Tutorial Exercise will be posted on Canvas to guide you in your preparation before class. You must complete the online exercise before each tutorial (Week 2-12) and attend the corresponding tutorial. Each completed exercise contributes one mark towards the maximum total of ten. Please note: this mark is only available if you attend the tutorial AND complete the exercise in advance. 

GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) provide intellectual, administrative and personal support to students and act as their advocates in the final examiners’ meeting for the course. In tutorials, GTAs facilitate discussion about the lectures, readings, and assignments, and they answer questions about course-related matters. They direct students to relevant resources, assess student work and hold office hours for student consultation. Please note that GTAs are appointed on a part-time basis and are not usually available outside their office hours, except by appointment.

GTAs will not read complete drafts of papers, but if asked, they offer advice on ideas, research plans and, in some instances, on small sections of prose. For more extensive help with writing please consult one of the resources listed in Additional Learning Support.

If you have any queries or concerns about the course, you should contact your GTA in the first instance.If an issue remains unresolved, then contact the convenor. Lecturers and GTAs will not be available to go over material covered in classes that you have missed. 

LIBRARIES AND LEARNING SERVICES (LLS)
The University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services (LLS) includes the General Library and the Kate Edger Information Commons. All items held by the Library; encyclopaedias, books, online journals, DVDs etc. are recorded in the Library catalogue. Multiple copies of the required films and media texts for this course are available to view at the library. However, do not assume that there will always be a copy waiting for you to use, particularly close to assignment deadlines.

Learning Support
The Libraries and Learning Services (LLS) Learning and Teaching Development Team  provides online resources and advice for students to develop academic skills (finding information, writing, referencing). Support offered also includes the following:

• English Language Enrichment (ELE) provides students with English language development opportunities.
• Inclusive Learning offers learning assessments, recommendations for special exam conditions and academic development opportunities to students with specific learning and/or other invisible disabilities. To access Inclusive Learning’ services please register with Student Disability Services first.
• Te Fale Pouāwhina offers face-to-face learning opportunities for Māori and Pacific students including workshops, study groups, wānanga/fono and advisory sessions.
• See also: Getting started toolkit; Searching for information; Writing and presenting; Referencing; Workshops

Assignment Help Drop-in Sessions (General Library, Level G, Monday – Friday, 12 – 2pm)
From week three students can ask for advice on finding information, writing and referencing. Students can drop-in any time between 12pm and 2pm, on their own or with a friend.

DELNA (Diagnostic English Language Needs Assessment)
http://www.delna.auckland.ac.nz/
The University DELNA programme is designed to assist students by providing a profile of their abilities that can then be used as a basis for their further development of academic skills.

PRESENTATION OF COURSEWORK

You will lose marks for your assignments if you fail to meet the following instructions:

• Type your work
• Use a plain, 12 pt font
• Double-spaceyour writing
• Allow a 1-inch left and right marginfor the marker’s comments
• Keep electronic and hard copies of your assignments as backup

ACADEMIC REFERENCING.Citing source material is an essential academic and research skill. All coursework assignments require full citation of references, including full titles, page numbers, and publication details. You must reference the sources from which you have taken ideas, arguments and/or specific quotations. For this course you must use the MLA referencing style. Please consult one or both of the following websites for information on referencing:

Referencite:        http://cite.auckland.ac.nz/
OWL MLA Guide:   http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY OF COURSEWORK

Please visit the following web page to learn about the University's guidelines and policies on academic honesty and plagiarism: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/teaching-learning/academic-integrity.html

Plagiarism is committed when you fail to indicate clearly your use of other people’s ideas, facts, research, information etc. You must acknowledge sources. Anything that is the work of another student, a lecturer, a published author, on the Internet, in the newspaper etc., must be fully referenced. 

The University of Auckland regards plagiarism as a serious form of cheating. Such academic misconduct may result in a mark of zeroand the assignment being withheld. The most serious cases may result in suspension or expulsion from the University and/or a fine. All students in this course are required to submit their coursework assignments through turnitin.com, software designed to reveal the direct and paraphrased use of published material.

All cases of plagiarism will be brought before the Department’s Disciplinary Committee. Cases of plagiarism will remain in the Department’s records and may be passed on to other departments at the University of Auckland.

SUBMISSION OF COURSEWORK 

Electronic submission of assignments via Canvas is the only way student work will be officially received, dated and recorded.

Please make note of the deadline (a time and a date are both specified). Assignments received after the specified time will be treated as late.

Please check to ensure that you have successfully submitted your assignment, and retain copiesof any work submitted. You must not submit assignments to a GTA or lecturer.

DEADLINES, EXTENSIONS AND LATE PENALTIES 

Deadlines for coursework are non-negotiable. In extreme circumstances, such as illness, you may seek an extension but you will require a doctor’s certificate. Extensions must be personally negotiated with your Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) at least two days before the assignment is due.  All late assignments will be penalised ONE MARK PER DAY.  

VERY LATE ASSIGNMENTS

An assignment handed in after the marked assignments have been returned to students, but before the end of the teaching semester will not be marked. However, it may be used for consideration of final marks. It is better to hand in a late assignment by the end of the teaching semester than no assignment at all.