ENGL 379M:

Electronic Project

Fall 2002

The electronic project is designed to allow you to put into practice the various theoretical issues we have discussed over the course of the semester. You may choose to create the project either in the MOO or on the Web, as HTML:

The MOO Option

Revise and expand the project you began earlier in the semester. (You can still find the original assignment tacked on the bulletin board in my virtual office.) Add additional rooms, objects, and verbs. You’re no longer bound by the obligation to have to have “something old, something new . . .” The environment you create must represent an interpretation of one or more of the many different binaries in the novel: nature vs. culture, friendship vs. fraternity, maternity vs. paternity, destiny vs. free will, science vs. pseudo-science, education vs. instinct, bodies vs. texts, writing vs. creating.

The HTML Option

Imagine an alternative ending to Frankenstein in which the monster and his mate escape to South America (see page 141). Many years later, you stumble across their homepage on the Web. Your assignment is to imagine and build it (in your WAM account). Both the design and the content of the page must represent an interpretation of one of the many different binaries in the novel: nature vs. culture, friendship vs. fraternity, maternity vs. paternity, destiny vs. free will, science vs. pseudo-science, education vs. instinct, bodies vs. texts, writing vs. creating.

Please note: In neither case am I asking you to write an electronic essay about Frankenstein. Instead, I’m asking you to use the MOO spaces or Web pages you build—and the imaginative extension of the text they embody—to perform an intellectually credible interpretation of the novel. This is, therefore, a “creative” as well as a critical project: but your challenge will be to use creativity responsibly, in the service of a critical relation to the text.

Evaluation

Your project will be graded according to the following criteria, listed here in no particular order (all are of primary importance):

• Conception: How creative, original, and ambitious is the concept behind your project?
• Critical Thinking: Is the project intellectually credible? Is it true to the spirit of Mary Shelley’s text? Does the project communicate a convincing critical logic?
• Scope and Depth: How detailed and expansive is the electronic environment you’ve created? Does the user quickly exhaust the project, or does it reward prolonged exploration? How much does it reveal of your own individual thinking about the novel?
• Quality of Writing: Does your prose repay close reading? And is it grammatically correct?
• Technical Proficiency: do the various components of the project—objects, verbs, links, images, etc.—all work properly?

Cover Sheet

Your project should include a cover sheet—either a “Note” in the MOO or an HTML page—that includes all of the following:

• Your name and a valid email address to which you would like comments (and a grade) sent.
• A 500-word statement introducing the project and explaining its concept, logic, and objectives.
• Either a doorway to the opening room or a link to the opening page of your project.

Submission

You will submit the project to me via email. Your email message should include either the room number in the MOO where your cover sheet is to be found, or the URL of its page. Please double-check to make sure your room number or URL is correct before sending it: if I can’t find your work I can’t grade it.

Due: 1:00 PM, Friday, December 13th