What makes pop culture so popular? What does popularity reveal about a society, a culture, even a nation? This essay asks you, first, to identify a person, an event, a movie/TV show, or other phenomenon that is currently popular. Taking into consideration how this pop phenomenon is represented or talked about, explain what this popularity suggest about our culture/society (or some segment of that society)—its priorities, beliefs, fantasies, etc.
Your goal in this essay is to broaden the ways that you interact with texts. Unit 2 asked you to interact with an academic text. Unit 3 asked you to interact with multiple texts that, together, made up a “conversation.” Unit 4 challenges you to interact with a popular phenomenon (and the oral and written texts surrounding that phenomenon) through a cultural lens. In other words, you’ll interact different sorts of text (popular publications, everyday conversations, etc.) through a different analytical method (cultural analysis).
Unit 4 Schedule Week 12
- Identify a popular phenomenon. Collect texts that discuss this phenomenon.
- Describe the current “conversation” around this phenomenon.
- Brainstorm: What does X’s popularity reveal about our society/culture/nation? What does this suggest about cultural values? What alternatives are there to such values? What do these values say about our culture’s priorities?
(NOTE: Avoid obvious reasons for X’s popularity—e.g., “Tom Brady is popular because he’s a great football player” or “I like Tom Brady.” Rather, push this thinking farther by asking “What does this say about American ideals about sport and bodies?” or “What does this say about masculinity?” or “How does commercial sponsorship affect X’s popularity” or… For more ideas, you may even browse the Text Wrestling essays since many of the authors comment on American cultural issues.)
Week 13
- Develop your focus. That is, how will your cultural critique offer something beyond what fans already know about X?
- Draw on your brainstormed cultural critiques, and extend these by exploring how some Text Wrestling employ cultural analyses. Discuss how readings can help you generate ideas for our essays.
- Write Draft 1. Discuss ways to refine the focus (in order to emphasize what you’re contributing to readers’ knowledge of X) to strengthen organization. Make revisions in light of discussion.
Week 14
- Peer review Draft 2 for focus, organization, and additional brainstorming ideas. Revise.
- Copy edit workshop on Draft 3.
- Reflect on how this essay expands your repertoire for “interacting with texts.”
- Unit 4 portfolio due [date]; final essay draft must be at least 3 double-spaced pages.
