Essay in class
September 28, 2007

Instructions: You have 50 minutes to write. You may choose to write either (1) on two topics chosen from 1-4, or (2) on one topic chosen from 1-3. In other words, write one essay or two; if you write only one, do not write on #4.
The best essays will have strong, clearly stated theses, and will draw upon specifics from the text to support the discussions.
It is OK to discuss the same work in two essays, but if you do this, do not simply repeat the same points about the work.


1. Lev Manovich gives one definition of “new media” as “the mix between existing cultural conventions and the conventions of software.” Apply this definition to two texts. [The definition of ‘software’ here includes not just computer programs, but any kind of material designed for use with audiovisual equipment, such as films, tapes, or CDs. It can even be extended to include printed matter.]

2. The text triangle offers us three critical perspectives on any text: expressive, rhetorical, and mimetic. In dealing with a text, however, a reader or analyst may emphasize one of these perspectives over the others. Based on your encounter with our course texts, choose one text that seems to work best with each of these individual perspectives, and discuss why. (In other words, you will discuss one text from an expressive perspective, a different text from a rhetorical perspective, and a third text from a mimetic perspective.)

3. Dziga Vertov was strongly committed to non-fiction or documentary film as being true to “life as it is.” Yet he discovered that the new medium of film still had to deal with the old distinction between mimesis and diagesis. Discuss.

4. To what extent does the discredited communist ideology of The Man with the Movie Camera negatively affect our viewing or evaluation of the film today? [This is an opinion question, but in expressing your opinion you should include specifics about the ideology and the film.]