Assignment Paper

The second and final paper for the class will be a documentary project. You will do a brief interview with somebody from an older generation (possibly a relative, like a parent or grandparent; most likely remotely) about Love in ages past. The starting point of the interview will be one quote from Roland Barthes chosen by you. The interview should be followed by a brief reflection, where you integrate at least one other source from the course, preferably more, in relation to central issues from the interview. You can submit either a text (2-4 pages) or a video or podcast (3-6 minutes)

The Second Paper: Guidelines, Documentary Project

Background: As you may have noticed in the original version of the syllabus of the course, the second paper was going to be a “Analytic Précis.” However, as part of the redesign of the course when we had to switch to remote teaching, I realized that within this new framework a documentary project would both be more engaging for you and better aligned with the learning outcomes for the course. Hence the project described here.

The basic facts: The second and final paper for this class will be a documentary project. You will do a brief interview with somebody from an older generation (possibly a relative, like a parent or grandparent; most likely remotely) about Love in ages past. The starting point of the interview will be one quote from Roland Barthes chosen by you. The interview should be followed by a brief reflection, where you integrate at least one other source from the course, preferably more than one, in relation to central issues from the interview. You can submit either a text (2-4 pages, everything included) or a video or podcast (3-6 minutes, everything included). We will provide some resources for how to edit videos, but we trust that you can find other sources easily. If you are uncomfortable making a video or podcast, you will in no way be penalized if you submit a text document. Finally, if you are part of the honors section (the Friday 9:05am group), the length requirement is 4-5 pages or 6-9 minutes.

The structure of the paper / podcast / video you will turn in:
• Title and introduction:
o The title should have the following structure: “Love 19XX {with the year at the heart of what your interviewee speaks about}: {catchy subtitle}”. For example: “Love 1957: When Grandpa Was Ravished by Love”.
o The introduction is where you will introduce your interviewee and also (possibly very briefly) your rationale for choosing the quote from Roland Barthes that will mark the beginning of your interview.
• The interview itself:
o Your opening question will be to invite your invitee to respond to your quote from Roland Barthes.
o It is up to you to decide how much you will edit and whether your finished paper / podcast / video will keep the actual conversation feel from your exchange with your interviewee.
o The main challenge for you as documentarist is (a) to guide the conversation in a direction that allows your interviewee to tell their / a story about love in ages past, while (b) trying to capture the atmosphere of the moment you spend with them. A lovely conversation about love in ages past.
o If the interview is in a foreign language, you obviously need to provide a translation (this is easy enough if you write a text; subtitles would be fine if you do a video; however, we advise against making a podcast if you are doing an interview in a foreign language). If there are translation problems related to the language of love, you are very welcome to include this in the article itself, as part of your reflection, or even the interview itself
• Brief reflection: In a successful project, our request that you integrate at least one other source from the course, and preferably more than one, will not feel like a burden but it will have been on your mind throughout the interview. A successful project will be interesting, fun, endearing. Or possible also melancholy, if the conversation is about heartbreak.

Grading rubric for this project:
Title and Introduction (20 points)
The interview itself (50 points)
Brief reflection (20 points)
Technical quality (10 points)

NB! We don’t ask for technical perfection from your output, but the result should be smooth and of such a quality that technical issues don’t become an obstacle to an easy understanding of your piece. If you are not confident that your technical skills are good enough to make a podcast or video at a sufficient level, a written paper might be a good idea. However, you could also see this as a learning experience, since you will be asked to make a video for the final project (of yourself and our Pecha Kucha presentation).

The paper is due on Saturday April 18 (end of the day) on Canvas > Assignments. We have extended the deadline to a Saturday to make it more likely that Canvas will be able to accept you uploading even a large file (podcast or video). If the upload still doesn’t work, please provide a link to your file (on Dropbox, Google Drive or similar) in the comment section in Canvas > Assignments.