ENGL 108A F22 Pinheiro

ENGL 108A

F22 Pinheiro

Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge that the University of Waterloo is situated on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg, and Neutral peoples. We are located on the Haldimand Tract, land promised and given to Six Nations, which includes six miles on either side of the Grand River. This statement is not intended to be a substitute for engaging with and learning more about Indigenous history and traditions, and I encourage you to continue to advance your knowledge on these subjects whenever the opportunity arises.

Instructor and Course Information

Instructor: Dakota Pinheiro (please just refer to me as “Dakota” in-class and online) Instructor Email: ddpinhei@uwaterloo.ca

Class Times: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 – 2:20 p.m. EST

Class Location: EV1 350 (for lectures), Discord and LEARN (for assignments)

Office Hours: Mondays from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EST on Discord or by appointment

Instructor Contact Guidelines

You can reach me by contacting me on the course Discord’s #general-questions text chat or at the email noted above. I will ensure that you receive a response within 24 weekday hours. This means that, if you send an email on a Friday evening, you should expect your response to come sometime during the day on the following Monday. If I can, I will try to get back to you sooner, but please consider this the exception rather than the rule to follow.

Course Description

Eugene Lim (author of Dear Cyborgs) claims that “superheroes are the central mythology of our collective global era” (Cutaia). This claim has largely been corroborated by the massive cultural currency that superhero fiction and its genre conventions continue to exert in our popular culture imagination. From insurance advertisements to Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbusters, the superhero genre has become pervasive not just in America, but across the entire world. This course will critically investigate the superhero genre, beginning with proto-superheroic texts and moving all the way to filmic superhero entries of the 21^st century. Throughout this course, you will reflect upon and discuss questions such as:

• What is it about superhero texts that have captured our imaginations?
• How do superheroes embody or resist dominant social and cultural values?
• How do superhero genre conventions impact the way we live and think?
• What are some of the key differences in early versus contemporary superhero fiction?
• How have superheroes changed literature, and where do we go from here

This course will also offer students the opportunity to build academic communicative and argumentative skills in spoken, written, and digital media forms. You will learn to compose strong thesis statements, to organize and structure your writing to facilitate a logical defense of these statements, and to use research and evidence to support your claims.

Intended Learning Outcomes

In this class you will:

• Identify and describe the role of a superhero in a narrative.
• Engage with conventions of the superhero genre and its cultural and historical contexts.
• Practice close reading to develop an argumentative position on superhero texts.
• Read and consider theoretical writings in relation to the superhero genre.
• Participate in discussions which interrogate and interpret the meanings of texts.
• Develop your skills in persuasive academic speaking, collaboration, writing, and revision.
• Practice good citizenship skills with your peers in-person and online.

Required Readings

All course texts will be posted on LEARN or on Discord. Please read assigned readings before coming to class You are recommended to use ComiXology or publisher websites to purchase and access required comics readings. You will also be required to read or watch:

• Kripke, Eric. The Boys. Amazon Prime Video, 2019.
• Moore, Alan & David Gibbons. Watchmen. DC Comics, 2019. (Bookstore, other editions fine)
• McCloud. Scott. Understanding Comics. William Morrow, 1994. (Bookstore, other editions fine)
• Nolan, Christopher. The Dark Knight. Warner Bros., 2008. (Rent on YouTube for $4.99)
• “The Strongest Man.” One Punch Man. Season 1, episode 1. Madhouse, 2015. (Netflix, Crunchyroll)

Course Superpowers

• By the end of the second week of class, you will be asked to indicate (either on the course Discord or through email) your first and second choice of the powers listed below. Of these two, you will be granted one. There will be (at least a degree of) effort to create somewhat of a distribution among the various powers throughout the class, though I will try and give you your first choice if possible. Your power will be reflected on your Discord flair and will be visible to your peers.

  In addition to using your powers for yourself, you may also trade your power usages to a of usages of their own power to gain the agreed upon number of usages of the other’s. I will requite evidence of written consent from both parties to approve the transaction and make a record of it for grading purposes.

  Should you choose to use your power, please ensure it follows the criteria and rules listed below. If it does, then I will grant your request without question. In other words, so long as the usage follows the rules indicated in the table of powers, you can use your powers whenever you wish:

Table of Powers

Time Warp (2 Usages)	Rewind (2 Usages)	Invisibility (4 Usages)	Precognition (2 Usages)
Description: For any two assignments this term (peer review activities excluded), receive up to 5 extra days to complete the assignment - starting from the original deadline as indicated on the syllabus.	Description: For any two assignments this term, you may revise a small section of an assignment (as discussed with instructor beforehand) for up to 3% of a grade increase on the given assignment.	Description: Receive full marks for any four missed weekly completion activities (peer review activities excluded).	Description: For any two assignments this term, you may submit an assignment (or partial assignment) to the instructor and receive several short comments and recommendations about how to improve your work.
Rules: Must notify instructor that you are using your power via email at least 24 hours in advance of original assignment deadline.	Rules: Grade will be calculated based on integration of instructor feedback and the quality of the revisions in relation to the piece as a whole. Final portfolio excluded.	Rules: Can be applied retroactively so long as request is made before the last day of class. This power can only be traded two at a time.	Rules: Must submit to instructor at least one week in advance of assignment deadline. Feedback will be posted within 48 weekday hours.

Course Assessments Overview

Weekly Discussion Activities – 20% (2% x 10) Genre Reflection Assignment – 10%

Peer Review – 10% (5% x 2)

Major Assignment 1: Single Text Critical Analysis – 20% Major Assignment 2: Comparative Critical Analysis – 20% Final Portfolio and Reflection – 20%

Course Assessment Descriptions

Weekly Discussion Activities (2% each weekly for 10 weeks)

Starting Week Two, you will write responses of about 100-150 words in your team’s text channel on Discord. These will discuss a prompt that will be posted at the start of the week. You are encouraged to consider this as a thoughtful discussion and may respond to your peers’ contributions. You will receive 1 mark for completion, and 1 mark for a response of reasonable quality that contributes to the conversation (i.e., does not simply repeat peer’s ideas without adding to them) and meaningfully engages with the relevant course readings. These will be posted on Sunday/Monday, and please have your responses in before end of day Friday.

Genre Reflection Assignment (10%, due September 23rd)

2 Pages, double-spaced 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins

You will prepare and submit (as a .docx or .pdf file) a short critical reflection which discusses a superhero or supervillain character and the ideas they represent or symbolize, in your view, in one of their depictions. Please be specific which comic, film, or digital media you are referring to, though a Works Cited is not required). Your reflection must include at one or two quotations from your chosen source text to use as evidence to support your interpretation. You may consider topics which address concerns regarding race, gender, in/justice, inequality, class, trauma, or dis/ability, among others. You may choose any superhero text you wish for this assignment, including texts not on the syllabus.

Peer Review Workshops (5% each, twice during the course)

In the week leading up the due date of each of the two major assignments for this course, you will be required to post a work-in-progress draft of your assignment to your team’s text channel. Your work does not need to be finished, though there should be enough for your team members to reasonably assess your assignment and offer feedback on your work. Your feedback should be even-handed, meaning that there should be a balance of positive as well as constructive feedback. You will receive 3% for posting your draft and responding to at least three group member’s draft, and up to an additional 2% for the quality of your contributions.

Please prioritize drafts that have the fewest responses at the time of your writing.

Major Assignment 1 (20%, due October 31st)

4-5 Pages, double-spaced 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, or

A 5-10 minute RPG Maker MV game + 2–3 page reflection explaining design choices

You will select one superhero text on the required reading list and prepare a submission that critically analyzes the text and advances an argumentative position on and analysis of its content and themes as a cultural product. Regardless of which option you choose, your analysis should conduct a close reading of direct quotations from the source text in accordance with the 9^th Edition of the MLA Formatting and Style Guide. It should also draw upon two scholarly sources, either from the course or from other academic sources. You should consider such topics as how the text represents or resists conventions of the superhero genre, its representation of gender, race, class, sexuality, or dis/ability, or the how the text speaks to the anxieties or the preoccupations of its moment, though a rubric and additional prompts will be offered during in-class discussion of the assignment.

Major Assignment 2 (20%, due November 28th)

5-6 Pages, double-spaced 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, or

A 10-12 minute RPG Maker MV game + 3 page reflection explaining design choices

You will select two superhero texts—at least one of which must be from the required reading list— and prepare a submission that compares them with one another. You may compare the same superhero in different texts or two texts featuring different heroes; you may compare two texts from the same medium or compare two texts from different mediums. Your analysis should conduct a close reading of direct quotations from the source texts in accordance with the 9^th Edition of the MLA Formatting and Style Guide. It should also draw upon two scholarly sources, either from the course or from other academic sources. You should consider such topics as the affordances and restrictions of different mediums in terms of what can be done with characterization and narrative, how these texts reinforce or challenge the status quo, or how they provide representation for marginalized voices. A rubric and additional prompts will be offered during in-class discussion of the assignment.

Final Portfolio and Reflection (20%, due December 13th)

Revised submissions of 2 out of 3 of the long form assignments from the course, and A 3-page reflection, double-spaced 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins

You will select two of the three long form assessments—the genre reflection and two major assignments—and substantially revise them based on the feedback and comments offered by the instructor in your original assessment. You should prioritize submissions which received lower rather than high grades for revision. You will also draft and submit a 3-page reflection paper which meditates on a topic of your choosing that you feel you have learned about over the course of this class. You should consider referencing class and team discussions, assignments, and course readings to describe how superhero texts impact our lives.

Week	Dates	Topic	Tuesday	Thursday
1	Sept. 8	Course Introduction	No class	Welcome to The Superhero!
2	Sept. 13, Sept. 15	(Super) Heroic Beginnings	Beowulf, I-XII	The Man of Bronze, Chapters I-III (LEARN) “Whiteness and the Colonial Origins of  America’s First Superhero: Lee Falk’s The Phantom, pp. 98-102. (LEARN)
3	Sept. 20, Sept. 22	The Golden Age - Superheroes and the American Nation	“The Myth of Superman” (LEARN) Action Comics #1	“The Superman Conceit” (LEARN) Wonder Woman #9 Writing and Citations Workshop Genre Reflection due Friday, September 23rd
4	Sept. 27, Sept. 29	The Silver Age – High Versus Low Brow Culture	Understanding Comics, Chapter One The Amazing Spider- Man (1963) #55	Guest Lecture: Iconic Comics and Representations of Diversity Comic readings TBA on LEARN/Discord “Color Them Black” (LEARN)
5	Oct. 4, Oct. 6	The Revisionary Superhero	Watchmen, chapters I- VI Understanding Comics, Chapter Two	Watchmen, chapters VII-XII “The Revisionary Superhero Narrative” (LEARN)
6	Oct. 11, Oct. 13	READING WEEK	No class
7	Oct. 18, Oct. 20	Superheroes and Digital Games	Instructor-authored RPG Maker Game Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man (video)	High Moon Studios’ Deadpool (video) Research Methods and Writing Workshop II
8	Oct. 25, Oct. 27	The Cinematic Superhero	The Dark Knight	The Dark Knight “Believe it or Not: This is Power” (LEARN) Major Assignment #1 due Monday October 31st
9	Nov. 1, Nov. 3		Marvel Movie, as voted on from a list by class plurality	“Jack Kirby and the Marvel Aesthetic” (LEARN)
10	Nov. 8, Nov. 10	Superhero Satire: Genre Cynicism	The Boys, Season 1 episode 1 “The Cinematic Superhero is Dead: Long Live the Cinematic Superhero.” Pp. 198-206, (LEARN).	The Boys, Season 1 episode 2 “How ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Boys’ Deconstruct American Fascism” (LEARN)
11	Nov. 15, Nov. 17		Dear Cyborgs (excerpt, LEARN)	One-Punch Man, season 1, episode 1 “Forget ‘Superhero Fatigue.’ What About Interconnected Universe Fatigue?” (LEARN)
12	Nov. 22, Nov. 24	Contemporary Superheroes: Ideology, Representation, and Social Justice	Superman: Red Son Rising “The Comics and the Super State” (LEARN)	Ms. Marvel (2014), Issues 1 & 2 Major Assignment #2 due Monday November 28th
13	Nov. 29, Dec. 1		Reading in the Gutter podcast. “Superheroes and Social Justice with Dr. Francisco Torres.” To 39:50. (LEARN)	Course review and wrap-up Final Portfolio due Tuesday December 13th.

Academic integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.]

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of their university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for their actions. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.] A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71, Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes they have a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.

Note for students with disabilities: AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.

Turnitin.com: Text matching software (Turnitin®) may be used to screen assignments in this course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are documented. Students' submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students must be given an alternative (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography), if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security. Students will be given due notice, in the first week of the term and/or at the time assignment details are provided, about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Turnitin in this course.

It is the responsibility of the student to notify the instructor if they, in the first week of term or at the time assignment details are provided, wish to submit alternate assignment.