End of Unit Two:
Looking to the Past; History, Origins, and Influences


As we have continued developing and working on both our personal blogs and our class blog, we've taken some time to look towards the past at the history which has influenced this unique writing environment.

At first, we had a brief overview of the diary genre in general, looking at popular examples of the genres (such as Samuel Pepys and Anne Frank) as well as lesser-known, hard copy examples in our visit to the Special Collections Library. Examining this genre helped us to contemplate the similarities and differences between the paper journal and the weblog, and we conducted class discussion on various articles on such topics, in addition to briefly experimenting with paper journals of our own.

We also took a look at some online communities which seemed to reinvent the paper journal in new and interesting ways (EMBODIED, PostSecret, etc.) and we discussed how making our very "private" moments "public" is often one of the traits implicit to weblogging. In addition, we also explored how early American trends of journal writing -- particularly those of the transcendental movement (Emerson) -- may have influenced weblogs, particularly in their focus on building cultural identity and reporting the significance of the mundane.

We then began to examine the more recent history of the weblog and the online diary. As we explored the weblog's origins, we noticed the early division present in the mid-to-late 1990s between the "weblog" and the "online diary". We watched as developing technology broke down this dichotomy, and noticed that most scholars feel as if there is currently no difference between the two formats.

Much in the same way that the historical diaries often dealt with major world events, we noticed that weblogs, too, tended to record unique perspectives of contemporary disasters, such as September 11th and Hurricane Katrina. We also discussed the basic multimedia format of the Internet as "delivery" of a text, and we also explored some past performance art which dealt with expression and "delivery" in interesting multimedia formats (Laurie Anderson).

While we took this historical stroll through the world of weblogs, we also began work towards our final research project, which will be the focus of much of our work in the next unit.


End of Unit Blog Assignment:

Please choose one of the following prompts for your End of Unit Two Blog Assignment:
  1. Conduct an interview with a blogger! Choose an individual who was maintaining an online journal or weblog in the late 1990s or earlier. (Some possibilities: Justin Hall, any of the writers from The Online Diary History Project, or ME!) Create a list of interview questions based on the same criteria we used in class to compose the questions for Joe the Peacock. Conduct an interview via email or a chat program with the blogger you've chosen, and then write a report of the information you've gathered, including any conclusions you can make about the history of the weblog, differences/similarities between the online diary and the weblog, difference/similarities between the handwritten diary and the weblog, complications with writing in a public space, etc.
  2. Many of the historical handwritten diaries and the weblogs that we have examined together in class have dealt with extremely tragic events (Samuel Pepys and the Fire of London, Anne Frank and the Holocaust, various diaries from Special Collections on various wars, the September 11th and Hurricane Katrina blogs, etc.) Find one specific example of a diary or of a weblog (can be a diary from Special Collections) which has dealt with such an event, and explore how that author portrays that particular event. Some possible questions to answer: What does the reader learn about the event from the author's perspective? How might the author's portrayal not be entirely objective? What is the author's purpose in writing about this event? etc.
  3. As everyone knows, I'm a big fan of exploring how American Transcendentalism has managed to influence American online journals and weblogs. Take a look at your own writing in your own weblog, and -- by comparing it to the specific elements as outlined in Serfaty's article, in addition to any other research you may want to add -- show how your journal *is* an expression of this transcendental thought, through its celebratory record of the mundane or its development of personal and/or cultural identity, providing specific examples of such moves from your own text.
These End of Unit Assignments need to be at least 600 words and will be graded as "formal" assignments -- grammar, spelling, capitalization, etc. will be graded! (You are free to use "I" and "me" if appropriate, but please try to avoid using "you.") Remember to cite your sources in MLA format. Since these are, in essence, small essays, you will want to have an introduction with a thesis statement as well as a conclusion, in addition to specific examples which support your overall argument or claim. Please post the End of Unit Blog Assignment to the Class Blog no later than Thursday, March 27th!


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