Divide into four groups, and spend 15 minutes discussing the designated question. Be sure to have some quotes from the text to share, designate someone to take good notes, and designate another person to kick-start the conversation with the big group:

1. What are some ways, from the top, that Haraway pushes us to rethink our ideas about dogs? What mistakes do we make when we think about what dogs are and how they relate to humans? How does thinking about dogs as companion species help us to rethink what it means to be human?
2. What is a “species”? What are some ways that Haraway develops the resonances of this concept via what she calls the four “tones” that compose this concept
3. What are some of the ways that Haraway links facts to fictions, the empirical world to the language that points at it, biological companions and cyborgs?
4. At the end of the piece, Haraway returns to the “meta” question of her own methodology or style. How would you describe her style? How does the form of her essay relate to its content?

Just a little summary of some of the main points from yesterday’s discussion. Feel free to hit me with any questions or comments, and I’ll do my best!

Marx and Engels: three key concepts, reviewed

Marx and Engels: three key concepts, reviewed What is “ideology”?

Nietzsche+language-examples

Two quotes relevant to Nietzsche’s argument:

I’ll go over this in class today but wanted to share for anyone who misses or wants to review the review:

I’ve just created a screencast that demonstrates how to post (and find other resources) on the Commons:

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It may take a few minutes to upload (it’s Tuesday at 2pm right now) but will help those who are not yet familiar with WordPress and the Commons.

As promised, we’ll spend a few minutes on Friday talking through Jonathan Culler’s very useful introduction to literary theory. Here are the slides:

What is Theory?

What is Theory? Some motifs from Jonathan Culler’s work Cite: Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. 2nd ed., Oxford UP, 2011,