Snow Fall (2012) - Pulitzer Prize winning media story
In class we are going to have a discussion about the Empty Quarter exhibit, its conceptualization and its limitations. We will also be discussing what how we can use travel narratives of the Gulf region to build some itineraries and StoryMaps. We will discuss the storyboarding process for such texts.
Here are the texts that we will discuss:
1 George Keppel, Personal Narrative of a Journey of India to England (1827), ch 1-8 (up to page 180, to Baghdad)
2 Freya Stark, The Southern Gates of Arabia (1936), ch 1-13 (up to page 131)
3 Freya Stark, The Southern Gates of Arabia (1936), ch 14-end (page 132-end)
4 Henry Swainson Cowper, Through Turkish Arabia (1894), ch 12-17 (pages 301-441)
5 Charles Montagu Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta (1888), ch 1-5 (pages 1-149)
6 Charles Montagu Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta (1888), ch 6-10 (pages 150-300)
7 Charles Montagu Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta (1888), ch 11-16 (pages 301-461)
8 Charles Montagu Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta (1888), ch 17-22 (pages 462-619)
9 William Heude, A Voyage up the Persian Gulf (1819), ch 1- 6 (pages 1-137).
10 Bertram Thomas, Arabia Felix (1932), ch 1-12 (pages 1-163)
11 Bertram Thomas, Arabia Felix (1932), ch 13-end (pages 164-300)
You will do Assignment #2 in pairs and have the choice of working on the final assignment--the StoryMap--in pairs as well. Each group will choose one of the books sections mentioned above. You can sign up here.
For some historical background, see this short introduction.
For more about Doughty, see this chapter or this book.
For more information about Stark, see this chapter or this book.
For the Indian Ocean slave trade mentioned in Heude, see this article.
For more about Thomas, see this chapter.
Choose the text you would like to work on, and your partner. You can sign up here. Be sure to list the author and the section (or pages) you will do. If you don't have a partner, feel free to sign up and leave the person 2 column blank.
Watch: prerecorded video of an expert chat with Taylor Hixson (NYUAD, Librarian for Geospatial Services) for Thursday.
Skim: "Mapping the United Arab Emirates" (Malzahl, GĂ©ocritique: Etat des lieux, 2014) in the readings folder of Drive. It speaks about two popular culture products of the UAE: Freej and City of Life. This article takes what is known as a "geocritical" approach to thinking about the UAE. You will notice that there are no visual maps present in the article, and the notion of mapping is used in a different way that we have used it this semester. A geocritical approach promoted by Bertrand Westphal and the Limoges school is "multifocal, examining a variety of topics at once, thus differentiating itself from practices that focus on the singular point of view of the traveller or protagonist." Do you think such an approach compatible with story mapping do you think? How or how not? Post your thoughts by 1200, 10 Nov.
Today we will be having a live chat with Taylor Hixson, the NYUAD Librarian for Geospatial Services. It will be at the regular zoom link at the regular class time.
Blog 3 consists of an individual review of a story map of your choice. You can choose from the list of storymaps that were included on 27 October's class or find another that interests you. Here are some questions that you can use to guide your review:
What is the balance of text and maps?
How many maps are present and what do they show? How does the spatial contribute to the storytelling?
Could you make the story map using a blogging platform or site hosting (such as Sites), by simply embedding a map hosted elsewhere?
Compare it to the storymap that you made.