Learning Essay
Going into Marc Bousquet’s class about melodrama in popular culture and popular literature, I did not have a good understanding of melodrama at all. However, after creating twenty-six unique webpages and writing 6,447 words, I now have a very good understanding of melodrama and the way it is used in everyday life. The main component of melodrama that I grasped in the class is the classification of a villain and a hero. In addition to this classification, melodramatic works also use techniques like exaggeration and simplification. Melodrama also does usually not leave room for interpretation. At the end of melodramatic stories, mystery is dispelled and there’s a final resolution.
The class featured many different types of assignments that allowed me to display my learning in various ways. For example, a class blog was one of the main forums on which students displayed their work and learnings. Whether understanding the importance of melodrama in popular works like Harry Potter, U.S. and The America Play, or using the communist manifesto to analyze the ways in which melodrama is used to organize public opinion, the class blog served as a place to not only post my own work, but also as a place to view the work of my peers. In addition to blog posts, I engaged in larger assignments which often allowed me to flex my creative muscles. The main, and biggest, assignment of the semester was to compose and design a website to display my melodramatic research, which was melodramatic in the sense that I named an enemy and a victim.
I found the most enjoyable assignments to be those which allowed me to be creative and apply my knowledge about melodrama to the real world. For example, I created a powerpoint that analyzed the presence and effects of melodramatic tactics by the media. I also created a powerpoint in which I purposely misinterpreted screenshots from a movie to create a narrative of my own. However, creating a music video with melodramatic lyrics may have been my favorite project of the semester.
Ultimately, learning about melodrama showed me the many ways in which people and the media use melodrama to simplify. Whether its to organize public opinion or to dumb down a complicated scenario, this class showed me that melodrama is very widespread. It proved to me that seemingly inconsequential things like phrasing and word choice can have very significant effects on the people perceive information. The way in which one communicates is just as important as the what that person is communicating. The course, as a whole, also brought to my attention that I must continue to adapt to the new modes of communication. Having to write blog posts, make powerpoints, and create websites as opposed to merely writing papers helped prepare me for the professional world. For example, learning to use technology like storify and bitstrips not only allowed me to be creative, but it also forced my mind me to venture beyond the constraints of a word or excel document.
Going into Marc Bousquet’s class about melodrama in popular culture and popular literature, I did not have a good understanding of melodrama at all. However, after creating twenty-six unique webpages and writing 6,447 words, I now have a very good understanding of melodrama and the way it is used in everyday life. The main component of melodrama that I grasped in the class is the classification of a villain and a hero. In addition to this classification, melodramatic works also use techniques like exaggeration and simplification. Melodrama also does usually not leave room for interpretation. At the end of melodramatic stories, mystery is dispelled and there’s a final resolution.
The class featured many different types of assignments that allowed me to display my learning in various ways. For example, a class blog was one of the main forums on which students displayed their work and learnings. Whether understanding the importance of melodrama in popular works like Harry Potter, U.S. and The America Play, or using the communist manifesto to analyze the ways in which melodrama is used to organize public opinion, the class blog served as a place to not only post my own work, but also as a place to view the work of my peers. In addition to blog posts, I engaged in larger assignments which often allowed me to flex my creative muscles. The main, and biggest, assignment of the semester was to compose and design a website to display my melodramatic research, which was melodramatic in the sense that I named an enemy and a victim.
I found the most enjoyable assignments to be those which allowed me to be creative and apply my knowledge about melodrama to the real world. For example, I created a powerpoint that analyzed the presence and effects of melodramatic tactics by the media. I also created a powerpoint in which I purposely misinterpreted screenshots from a movie to create a narrative of my own. However, creating a music video with melodramatic lyrics may have been my favorite project of the semester.
Ultimately, learning about melodrama showed me the many ways in which people and the media use melodrama to simplify. Whether its to organize public opinion or to dumb down a complicated scenario, this class showed me that melodrama is very widespread. It proved to me that seemingly inconsequential things like phrasing and word choice can have very significant effects on the people perceive information. The way in which one communicates is just as important as the what that person is communicating. The course, as a whole, also brought to my attention that I must continue to adapt to the new modes of communication. Having to write blog posts, make powerpoints, and create websites as opposed to merely writing papers helped prepare me for the professional world. For example, learning to use technology like storify and bitstrips not only allowed me to be creative, but it also forced my mind me to venture beyond the constraints of a word or excel document.