Popular Culture Analysis

This assignment requires that you be familiar enough with the basic tools scholars use to understand culture in general that you can make use of these tools to analyze a particular contemporary cultural phenomenon related to the stated objectives of this class.

The particular objectives we're concerned with in this exercise are to examine the role culture plays in the development of human creativity, and to think critically about aesthetic and philosophical questions and issues. In order to do so, you must select a popular example of the performing, visual, or intellectual arts (or a form that combines any or all of these) and analyze its importance in contemporary culture by answering questions that lead to a short essay (about three pages long).

You may choose a film, a live performance (music or theater), a book, a museum or gallery exhibit, a television program, a video game, a fashion show--in short, any example of creative cultural expression that fits within the parameters we have used to describe the Humanities. Your essay will involve using critical thinking skills to evaluate the quality of the work, its potential impact on contemporary culture, its grounding in the history of the humanities, and other factors that help to situate it in the continuum of cultural activity. Just make sure that you can relate your choice closely to what we study in class.

Use the Humanities Toolkit as the basis for your analysis, so choose a work that can be related in some way to the themes we cover in class: myth, memory, the foundations of Western culture, the cultural history of the Americas, archaeology, the history and decipherment of written languages, the history and development of the performing arts, or combinations of any of these topics. For example, you could watch a television program about any of the periods or cultures we consider in class, and evaluate the presentation based on your understanding of how good archaeological or historical investigation works. Or, analyze a cookbook based on a related culture, considering how well the author has conducted research into its culinary history. Another possibility would be to consider whether a video game has to completely distort history in order to be entertaining--and perhaps suggest ways in which a game might be both engaging and accurate.

I will happily suggest films, television programs, or other possibilities--but the best analyses stem from personal investment; choose something of genuine interest that you would like to understand better and think about more deeply than we usually do about activities in which we participate.

Essays must be titled (and not just "Popular Culture Analysis"--think of a title that characterizes the topic or the results of your analysis), double-spaced, and typed in a readable 10- or 12-point font. Number pages consecutively, and document any primary and secondary sources according to MLA style on a separate page following your essay. Such sources would include the work itself (a film, television program, book, etc.), and any materials you consult in order to determine factuality, or to back up your views about the work. Title this page "Works Consulted" or "Works Cited" (if you actually cite anything). You must attribute anything you consult in order to accomplish the assignment.

Although I do not mean for this to become a major research effort, you may well have to conduct research to clarify meaning, verify evidence, or otherwise help you to support any claims that you make about the work. You will, in fact, produce an argument: a conclusion supported by premises that are themselves supported by evidence from the text (the work) and by secondary works that comment on it.

The following questions should form the basis for your essay:

Why did you choose this work? How does it relate to the content of this course?

What did you think of the work in terms of style, message, information, or any other factor that bears on its worth as a work of cultural significance, or an example of a cultural phenomenon?

What message do you think the work was meant to convey? How does it do so?

How does this work represent you and your values to a future audience--say, an archaeologist five hundred years in the future, or a student reading (or viewing, etc.) the work as an example of twenty-first century art or culture?

Remember to provide reasons for any conclusion you come to as a result of thinking about this work. Evidence to support factual claims must be properly cited, but even general observations need support; what makes you say what you say? On what aspects of the work are you basing your assessment?

This assignment is due by week 9, but it may be submitted at any point after week 5, when you should have enough theoretical background to be able to proceed. As soon as you have an idea about what to consider, consult me for suggestions about how to complete this project. The essay is worth up to 5 points of extra credit.

schedule
10.04.10