CSCL Midterm Review PDF

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Instructor: Matthew Hadley...

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CSCL 3334 Monsters, Robots, Cyborgs midterm exam review guide Fall 2020 Midterm will be available Wednesday after class and due by Friday Oct. 23rd by 11:59pm. There will be two separate exam links—one timed, one not.

Part 1: Midterm Exam Questions – (TIMED 40 min. 30 points total) ***Note that this is its own link, “Midterm exam timed questions” in the Midterm module in Canvas. A. Multiple choice / Fill in the blank (20 questions, 20 points total) -Review all the pop-quiz questions (posted below) -Be familiar with Cohen’s theses on Monster culture -Be able to identify the “interpretive complexes” from Daston and Park -Be familiar with the authors and titles of our readings. -Review the plots and discussions of both “The Sandman” and Frankenstein. -Be prepared to answer questions about Ex Machina B. Quotation citation (10 points total) For this section, you will choose 2 out of 5 passages. Identify the author, text, and context of this excerpt. How does this statement support or relate to the text’s overall argument and theory of the monster?

Part 2: Midterm Exam short essay questions (untimed, 20 points total) ***Under the second link “Midterm short essay questions” C. Short essay questions Short answer essay questions (300 words min). You will choose 2 out of 4 possible short answer essay questions dealing with course materials. Questions may concern any of our readings, lecture materials, or the film Ex Machina. MRCZ multiple choice, fill-in the blank questions that might be asked: 1. The term Masahiro Mori used to describe the increasing sense of the uncanny when artificial humans become more and more real is the “Uncanny ________.” Uncanny Valley

2. In “Darwin Among the Machines,” Butler advocates for a deeper and further integration of machines in human life. False - said they would become too advanced 3. Karl Capek, in his play R.U.R., coined the term robot from the Slavic word robota which means _________? Drudgery - forced or serf labor 4. Descartes was associated with a mechanistic world view, which understood the world in terms of the machine. The reaction to this particular world view was known as romanticism. 5. Freud’s theory of the uncanny claims that the uncanny experience indicates a “return of the ___________?” repressed 6.

How many narrative frames did I ask you to think about in Frankenstein? Three

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The outermost narrative frame in Frankenstein corresponds to what character? Walton

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Which of the following best describes the character Olimpia from Hoffman’s “The Sandman?” a. Emotionally complex b. Wealthy socialite c. Skilled conversationalist d. Lifeless automaton e. Captivating beauty

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Nathaniel’s childhood fears are reignited by whom? Copellius

10. Who was the philosopher often associated with the beginnings of Modernity? Descartes 11. The mystical rituals and occult practices of the Peasantry, to use a key term from Palmer, could be seen as a kind of ___________ of the ruling class norms and morality. transgression 12. Modernity as a historical period marks the rise of which of the following historical practices or processes? Capitalism, the industrial revolution, colonization, scientific revolution, private ownership 13. Monsters as nature’s error was a part of an interpretive complex that included what emotion? Disgust

14. Overwhelmingly, those accused of being witches came from the upper classes. True or False? 15. What was the name of the group of witches who fought against the forces of evil, and understood themselves to be good? The benandanti 16. Which of the ”interpretive complexes” of Daston and Park elicits a feeling of horror? Monster as prodigy 17. The origins of the word monster can be found in the Latin Monstrum, which means…? Broken down to: Monstare: show or demonstrate Monere: to warn (of omens/things to come) 18. Which of the following was NOT associated with the gothic as a literary and aesthetic mode? a. b. c. d. e.

Fascination with past Focus on the eccentric, supernatural, sublime Praises reason and rationality over the irrational and unknown. Serves a moralizing and normalizing function. Marked by the breakdown of boundaries and categories.

19. As I mentioned in my lecture on the gothic, gothic fiction can be understood as a “technology of ______Subjectivity______.” 20. It has been argued that the gothic elicits both fear and __Desire_____ at the same time. 21. Who was Mary Shelley’s father? William Godwin 22. Who was Mary Shelley’s Mother? Mary Wollstonecraft 23. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as part of an unofficial contest among friends to write the best ghost story in 1816. What other monster emerged from this contest? Vampire 24. The novel Frankenstein leads us to believe that Frankenstein’s monster is unambiguously evil by nature. True or False? 25. Federici makes the following claim in her essay “The Great Witch-Hunt in Europe.” a. Witches were most likely the product of tainted bread. b. The witch-hunts were simply the product of hysteria. c. The witch-hunts were led almost entirely by the church. d. The witch-hunts were instrumental in the establishment of capitalism as a political economic system. 26. Victor creates Frankenstein out of body parts from the dead. True or False? False

MONSTERS READING: COHEN - Monster Culture (Seven Theses) 1. Monster as a Cultural Body

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- Monsters are born at a metaphorical crossroads - They embody a certain cultural movement (a time, place, idea) - The body could be fear, anxiety, desire, fantasy - “The monstrous body is pure culture… that which reveals” The Monster Always Escapes - We are able to see the material damage of the monster - Wounds, pain, injuries - They will always reappear - Possibly in other stories, in other forms - They revive and grow stronger - Their body is corporal (“of the body”) and incorporeal - Because of this, we must study them as a mix of relations - Social, cultural, economic, literary, historical - The monster must escape so it can come back shifted as a new cultural logic/body The Monster is Harbinger of Category Crisis - A warning, announcement - They must escape because they are hard to categorize - Usually hybrids or strange bodies that don’t fit into a category - Therefore, they’re dangerous to us (we like structure) - They notoriously appear at times of crisis - They have a power to “evade and undermine” any attempts of fitting them somewhere logically - Their physical bodies demand a system of morphing the several binary ones that already exist (ex: human vs animal, bad vs good, etc) - Monsters are too large to be entrapped by any system Monster Dwells at the Gates of Indifference - An incorporation of “the outside, the beyond” - “Rhetorically distant, but originate within” - Rendering a group as monstrous justifies displacing them - Because they are labeled different, this action looks heroic to us - EX: Hitler/Nazis and Jewish - EX: Manifest Destiny and Native Americans - ***Reminds us that things could be different than they are now! Monster Polices Borders of the Possible - Monster stands as a warning against exploring its land - Curiosity is punished, not rewarded - Therefore, monster prevents mobility - Sometimes they’re used for political propaganda or a warning - EX: Jurassic Park - EX: Boogeyman

- Makes some behaviors seem problematic 6. The Fear of Monster is really Desire - Monster is linked to forbidden, illegal practices - The same things that terrify us can provide fantasies of escaping - They connect us with the forbidden, which seems more appealing - The same repulsion and attraction account for its popularity - They can’t be contained like we can - We can hate monsters while envying them - Attraction becomes fear when the monster crosses through or destroys the boundaries of culture - When marginalized, monsters serve as an “Alter Ego” - A projected “other” self - We love monster stories because we know they’re temporary! The hero will win and human life will resume - ***We must know historical context in order to know monster 7. The Monster is at the Threshold of Becoming - We push monsters away, but they always return - When they do, they’ve gained knowledge we haven’t - They pose questions about how humans perceive the world - They make us reevaluate our assumptions - They ask us why we create them - EX: Creature and Frankenstein READING: DATSON & PARK - Monsters: A Case Study - In the Middle Ages, monsters served as the margins of the new world - Beyond the scope of human civilization - During Renaissance, monsters come to the center of focus - Where do we find the monster? Outside of us or within? - Historical shift in perspective - Blurs boundaries Complexes of Interpretations and Associated Emotions: 1. Monster as Prodigy (sense of omen, outside of the normal) - Terror and horror is main feeling - Prodigy = foretelling (Harbinger of Crisis) - Used to explain political and military actions - Install fear and rules - Like Church and God - EX: AIDS is punishment for gays from God - Monster is rooted in history, warning of future crisis 2. Monster as Sport - Shows playfulness of nature, feelings of pleasure and amusement

- EX: Where the wild things are - Can also be used as profitable spectacles of market - EX: Carnivals, freak shows, circus - Always depends on the context in which its viewed - Could show nature as an artist 3. Monster as Nature’s Error - Must have connotation that nature has laws - There’s a correct order of things - Monsters are violations of natural, societal, cultural laws - Products of imperfection, ugliness, deviations from the natural - If an organism doesn’t reach the final stage of development, something must’ve gone wrong along the way - How can one follow the laws of nature? - Who determines what’s beautiful? READING: PALMER - Cultures of Darkness - “Blood, Bread, Blasphemy” - “Witches” “Blood, Bread, Blasphemy” ● Monstrous and supernatural are tied to specific socioeconomic conditions/groups ○ Always have to historicize monster to understand its purpose ● Late middle ages and early modern period ○ MODERNITY (16th - 20th century): ■ scientific revolution: the more we learn, the closer we are to achieving knowledge of ~everything~ ■ industrial revolution: rise of capitalism; swelling urban centers; increased industrialization ■ Colonization: ties into capitalism too ■ Shifts in political attitudes: changing organizations can be tied to change in attitudes of monsters ■ Descartes: “is there anything i can know in certainty?” ● His philosophy is relationship between mind and body. ● Body seen as “machine” that isn’t necessarily essential to who we are; it doesn’t make our choices, it carries us ● Mind seen as who we are, tied to the soul; it inhabits the body ○ PREMODERN (50’s - 60’s) ○ EARLY MODERN: ● Palmer recaptures peasant life, digs it out of the background ○ Two competing views of peasantry: ■ Dominant perspective

● Threatening to upper classes; uncivilized, unproductive, destructive, animalistic, corrupt, mysterious ■ Peasant’s perspective ● Looking beyond stereotypes and prejudices - moving beyond bias ● How did they make sense of their world? ○ “Blood, Bread, Blasphemy” ■ Bread & Blood: Life of the peasant ■ Blasphemy: condition of ones existence that should be thought of in a different way ● Worldviews that were seen as blasphemous should ALSO be seen as acts of resistance toward the norms of the dominant classes (resistance against oppression) ● Disrupts the appearance of sanctity ● Transgressions: breaking rules/laws ○ Peasant’s transgressions were forms of resistance ■ Blood: class of people, group of survivors. ● Lifeblood constantly under threat ● Importance of family ● Sustenance and life ● Violence and war experienced by the peasants ● Disease, famine ■ Bread: as support of the blood ● Scarcity; starvation; desperation ● Connection between bread and hallucination??? K. ○ Rye was cut with other stuff when it wasn’t substantial enough, like: fungus and ARGOT ■ ARGOT - LYSERGIC ACID, ONE OF THE CHEMS IN LSD - LEADS TO CONNECTION BETWEEN WEREWOLVES AND WITCHES BEING HIGH OFF ARGOT AND THAT’S WHY THEY’RE WHACK N SHIT

“Witches” ● Palmer puts witches into a more transcultural, transnational scope ● Witchcraft was a means of transgression against dominant culture ○ Challenge gender norms; ● Witch often too sexualized, too erotic ○ Too powerful, challenges male dominating society ○ Misogynistic

FEDERICI “The Great Witch Hunt in Europe” ● Historical movement in this chap: Capitalism & Colonization ○ Capitalism: what made it possible? ■ Expropriation (taking away) of the commons: ■ Massive amount of ppl from land to the cities in order to work (industrial rev) to mass produce ■ Why was the land enclosed? ● To use its mass capacity - needed to mass produce, if they didn’t use the land it was considered wasted ● Primitive accumulation: attained through expropriation (wealth came from expropriation of ppl from land to city) ● Can use land to grow crops, mass produce, OR you can use land to get ppl to pay you to live on it ● Commons: land where everyone lived, didn’t have to pay for it, could grow food and make homes, etc. ○ Didn’t belong to ANYONE, but was used by EVERYONE ○ Under control, but with malleable boundaries. ● Witch hunts took place during capitalist uprise ○ Witch hunts to aid in the economic, political shift ■ Orchestrated by administrators ■ Very intentionally coordinated ● Why were all these women burned and killed? ○ Central mechanism to create the economic shift ○ Capitalism was made possible by the brutalization of women and domination of their bodies by those in power (men, le patriarchy), throughout 200 years ○ The men in society felt that their power was being threatened by women’s physical abilities/power, as well as their collective power at large, so they killed them to spare their sense of domination and maintain their hierarchical position ● Expropriation of female bodies for reproductive purposes ○ More bodies = more working hands to support capitalist society ○ Witch hunts were class warfare. ○ Witch hunts paved the way for western idea of the housewife, gender roles that we can recognize from the 1900s

READING: SHELLEY- Frankenstein READING: HOFFMAN- The Sandman READING FREUD- The Uncanny ● ●

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The uncanny - realm of the frightening evokes fear and dread Either investigate the semantic content that has accrued to the German word unheimlich - uncanny or eerie, or we can assemble whatever it is about persons and things, sense impressions, experiences and situations, that evokes in us a sense of the uncanny and then go on to infer its hidden nature from what all these have in common Uncanny effect produced by epileptic fits and the manifestations of insanity Motif of the seemingly animate doll Olimpia is by no means the only one responsible for the uncanny effect The motif of the Sandman who tears out children’s eyes Hoffman’s tale the sense of the uncanny attaches directly to the figure of the Sand-Man and therefore the idea of being robbed of one’s eyes - and that intellectual uncertainty has nothing to do with this effect Uncanny element in the Sand Man to the anxiety caused by the infantile castration complex The factor of repetition of the same thing will perhaps not be acknowledged by everyone as a source of the sense of the uncanny Feeling of helplessness we experience in certain dream-states Unintended repetition Dominance of compulsion to repeat which proceeds from instinctual impulses The impression of uncanny would have been stronger if a much shorter interval had elapsed between his uttering the words and the untoward event that followed or if he had been able to report numerous similar experiences The evil eye (uncanny) Omnipotence of thoughts - we can no longer be in any doubt about where we now stand If this really is the secret nature of the uncanny, Acme of the uncanny is represented by anything to do with death, dead bodies, revenants, spirits and ghosts Two factors account for the lack of movement: the strength of our original emotional reactions and the uncertainty of our scientific knowledge Living person can be uncanny - must have some sort of hidden power The uncanny effect of epilepsy or madness has the same origin Severed limbs, a severed head, a hand detached from the arm, feet that dance by themselves- all of these have something highly uncanny about them ○ Independent activity The uncanny is something familiar that has been repressed then reappears and that everything uncanny satisfies this condition - does not solve the puzzle of the uncanny False semblance of death and the raising of the dead have been represented to us as very uncanny themes

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Uncanny effect of the double also belongs to this species - learn how our own image affects us when it confronts us, unbidden and unexpected

READING BUTLER - Darwin Against the Machine -

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Mechanical life, mechanical kingdom, and mechanical world Knowledge is too small to enable us to undertake the gigantic task of classifying machines into the genera and sub-genera, species, varieties and sub varieties Some of the lowest vertebrata attained a far greater size than has descended to their more highly organized living representative Views of machinery which we are thus feebly indicating will suggest the solution of one of the greatest and most mysterious question of the day - What sort of creature man’s next successor in the supremacy of the earth is likely to be Man’s interest lies in the direction of machines The machines are gaining ground upon us - More subservient to them

MOVIE: EX Machina●

Things to think about ○ The initial mentor-student relationship between Nathan and Caleb, the shifting set of ‘masks’ Nathan wears, eventually revealing himself to be a Nemesis. ○ The Protagonist-Attractor relationship between Caleb and Ava, and this, too, has a twist with Ava revealing herself to be a Trickster. ○ The psychological deconstruction of Caleb to the point where he thinks he himself may be an A.I....