Week of January 17: Introduction to Themes and Materials

Tuesday: how to prepare for class. A handout of Oliver Sack's "The Landscape of His Dreams". Read sections 6, 7 and 8 of Bush's "As We May Think" article where he describes the Memex: http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm

Week of January 24: Two Extraordinary Memories At Work

"The Stomach of The Mind" -- Augustine: Confessions, Book 10 (photocopy)
Alexander Luria: The Mind of A Mnemonist (on reserve [Luria spelled as Luriia]; in bookstore)

There is a useful web site devoted to Augustine, maintained by Professor J.J. O'Donnell of the University of Pennsylvania: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine.html

A memoir of Vygotsky (the major intellectual influence on Luria) by his daughter is on-line: http://www.j51.com/~tatya na/his_life.htm

Week of January 31: Bartlett's Vision of Constructive Memory

F.C. Bartlett: Remembering (on reserve; in bookstore), Chapters 1, 5, and 10.

Week of February 7: The Ars Memorativa: Places and Images

Excerpts from ancient and Renaissance manuals for cultivating the "art of memory" (photocopy)

Marshall, J.C. & Fryer, D.M. (1978) Speak, Memory! An introduction to some historic studies of remembering and forgetting, In Gruneberg & Morris (Eds.), Aspects of Memory. (photocopy)

For background to the ancient ars memorativa, try this website: Cicero: The Genres of Rhetoric. http://www.towson.edu/~tinkler/reader/cicero.html

Http://www.utexas.edu/depts/classics/documents/Cic.html

A web site which explores the connections between ancient memory arts and the structure and operations of the internet: The Semiotics of The Web: http://pauillac.inria.fr/~codognet/web.html

Week of February 14: A Medievalist's Reconstruction of a Memorial Culture

Mary Carruthers: The Book Of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (on reserve, in bookstore). Chapters 1-4.

Week of February 21: Mnemonics and Performance in Oral Tradition

David Rubin: Memory in Oral Traditions (on reserve, in bookstore), chapters 1-6.

Performing section of Neisser's Memory Observed

Noice, H. (1991) The Role of Explanations and Plan Recognition in the Learning of Theatrical Scripts, Cognitive Sciences, 15, 425-460.

Noice, H. (1993) Effects of Rote Versus Gist Strategy on the Verbatim Retention of Theatrical Scripts, Applied Cognitive Psychology, 7, 75-90.

Week of February 28: Body Languages, Choreography and Memory

Lucian of Samosata: Of Pantomime (photocopy)

Quintilian: selections from Institutio Oratoria (photocopy)
Jan Bremmer: "Walking, standing, and sitting in ancient Greek culture", in A Cultural History of Gesture. Ed,. Jan Bremmer & Herman Roodenburg (photocopy)

Fritz Graf: "Gestures and conventions: the gestures of Roman actors and orators", in A Cultural History of Gesture, ed. Bremmer & Roodenburg (photocopy)

Connerton, P. : How Societies Remember, pp. 79-82 (photocopy).

Klima, E. & Bellugi, U. (1979) The Signs of Language, Chapter 4.

Week of March 6: Field Trip to the PAC

A visit to the dance studio; a talk about dance and memory with dance faculty and students.

Week of March 27: Tools

Jocelyn Penny Small: Wax Tablets of The Mind: Cognitive Studies in Memory and Literacy in Classical Antiquity, Parts I and III; Carruthers: The Book of Memory, Chapter 7.

Selections from Bolter: Writing Space (photocopy)

There is a web site devoted to the ars memorativa of the great Catalan mystic and polymath, Ramon Llull: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/4572/cont.htm

Week of April 3: Memory and Mind, Remembering and Knowing

Selections from Plato (Meno, Phaedrus, Republic); Aristotle (De anima, De memoria et reminiscentia); Augustine (De trinitate)

For background: Janet Coleman: Ancient and Medieval Memories: Studies in The Reconstruction of The Past (on reserve)

Week of April 10: Remembering and Knowing: Modern Cognitive Studies

Tulving, E. (1989) Remembering and Knowing the Past, American Scientist, 77, 361-367. (photocopy)

Rubin, D. Memory in Oral Traditions, Chapter 7.

Edelman, G.M. (1998) Building a Picture of the Brain, Daedalus. (photocopy)

Schacter, D. (1996) Searching for Memory, Chapter 6: The Hidden World of Implicit Memory. New York: Basic Books. (photocopy)

Week of April 17: Memory, Identity, Character, Personality

Mary Carruthers: The Book of Memory, Chapter 5

Engel, S. Context is Everything, Chapters 1 & 2.

Pillemer, D.B. & White, S.H. (1989) Childhood events recalled by children and adults, In Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 21, 297-340. (photocopy)

Week of April 24: Constructing the Past: Biography and Autobiography

John Bayley: Elegy for Iris

Engel, S. Context is Everything, Chapters 4 & 5.

E. Salaman article in Neisser's Memory Observed

Week of May 1: The Mind's Eye: Mnemonics and Images

Lina Bolzoni: ""The Play of Images. The Art of Memory from Its Origins to the Seventeenth Century", Chapter 1 in The Enchanted Loom: Chapters in the History of Neuroscience, edited by Pietro Corsi, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991 (photocopy)
Color Images from this text.

Brown & Kulik in Neisser, U. (Ed.) Memory Observed.

Engel, S. (1999) Context is Everything, Chapter 6.

These sites collect images from medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and printed books which could and did function as mnemonic structures and tools:

Mappaemundi File on Pauline's web site: http://www.slc.edu/~pwatts
(get to it through Projects and Publications)

The Alchemy Web Site and Virtual Library: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html

Ciel et Terre: http://www.bnf.fr/web-bnf/expos/ciel/terre/index.htm

Title Pages to Robert Fludd's Books: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/fluddtit.html

Week of May 8 (Tuesday and Thursday): Student Presentations of Memory Palaces

CLASSES END FRIDAY, MAY 12

pdf version for printing