Philosophy and Goals

This course is designed to get you to write effectively, persuasively, and cogently, using the culture which surrounds us as a subject for exposition. This course will question and investigate not only American popular culture, but also the ways in which we communicate with one another in our roles as teacher/student, writer/reader, and artist/audience. Just as this course will challenge what is considered the norms and effects of American popular culture, this course will challenge you to be a better writer by forcing you to analyze that which you have taken for granted and normal. This course will also not only use the assigned readings as examples, models, and evidence of cultural criticism and good writing, but the course and its members will also criticize these writers and their works' content and form, leading to discussions of writing, reading, and revising. Finally, this course will hopefully reflect and analyze the inherent binary around which all popular cultural manifestations and figures and all types of writing revolve: entertainment versus information. I want this course to be both fun and informative, to try to collapse the often unnecessary binary of entertainment/information found in many courses, as we seek to expose and investigate how that binary works in American popular culture and in writing.

Expectations

• I expect that you will attend every class. Attendance does not mean merely showing up: class attendance means being prepared for class, having read the assigned readings, and participating in class discussion and group activities.
• I expect that you will set up an email account (if you haven't already) and use it to communicate with me and the rest of the class.
• I expect that your papers will be turned in on time, free of mechanical and spelling errors, formatted according to MLA standards, and typed or word-processed.
• I expect that you will enter this course and every class session with an open mind, ready to question, listen to, read, learn, and write about everything and everyone, but always with respect for fellow class members and the subjects of our inquiries.

Requirements and Grading

Materials
Petracca, Michael F. and Madeleine Sorapure, eds. Common Culture: Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1995.
Reserve Readings as assigned (on schedule in bold)
Email account (active by the end of the first week of the course)

Written and Course Work

All of the essays you will write for this class, and with almost any essay in general, must have a clear thesis, arguing a specific point. The essay must provide some sort of fresh insight into the topic: saying that beer commercials often depict degrading portraits of women is hardly worth even saying. In addition to providing a clear, argumentative thesis, the essay should provide enough evidence to support that thesis. This evidence can be found through research, but for the most part should be found within the specific text(s) you are analyzing. Description and analysis should be thorough and engaging, but also to the point. Also, the conclusion should not simply restate the essay's main points, but should provide the reader with general conclusions about the topic and popular culture and/or other examples which prove or enhance your thesis. Finally, there should be no mechanical or spelling errors in the essay, especially ones that can be corrected through careful review or by "spellchecking" the essay.

Essays (700-1000 words)

Advertising Essay (10%)

Choose two of the following:

Television Essay (15%)

Music Essay (15%)

Film Essay (15%)

Presentation (15%)

Whichever section you are not writing a paper on, you will give a brief presentation (10-20 minutes) on a topic of your choosing: ideas can be found in the text or from myself or other classmates. This can be a group project, but the presentation must then be larger. You must use the media of choice in your presentation as support for your argument. A one-page written summary/outline must also be prepared for the class.

Final Essay (30%)

A longer essay which analyzes a specific popular culture issue, manifestation, or figure. This essay can be an extended version of an earlier essay or presentation, but it must be an almost complete rewriting and rethinking of the earlier work.

Attendance and participation (15%)

Because our time together is short, attendance is mandatory: absence from the class will result in a lower grade. In addition, because the class is small and focused on disussion, class particpation is vital to the course's success. Your words, opinions, and insights are important and necessary.

Schedule
This schedule is preliminary and can/will be changed. Readings and assignments are listed for the day in class on which they are due.

June 3

Introduction to the Course and Popular Culture

June 4

Chapter 1, Reading and Writing about American Popular Culture, 1-34

ADVERTISING

June 5

Jack Soloman, "Masters of Desire," 44-58

Jib Fowles, "Advertising's Fifteen Basic Appeals," 58-77

June 6

Ellen Seiter, "Different Children, Different Dreams," in Gender, Race and Class in Media. Eds. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. 99-108.

Mark Crispin Miller, "Getting Dirty," 122-130

June 7

Gloria Steinem, "Sex, Lies, and Advertising," 130-147

Viewing of Jean Kilbourne's Still Killing Us Softly

Peer Editing

TELEVISION

June 10

Harry Waters, "Life According to TV," 170-179

Paper Due

June 11

Mark Crispin Miller, "Family Feud," 180-190

Lewis Grossberger, "Triumph of the Wheel," 190-200

June 12

Arthur Asa Berger, "'He's Everything You're Not. . .': A Semiological Analysis of Cheers," 229-240

Norma Miriam Schulman, "Laughing Across the Color Barrier," in Gender, Race and Class in Media. Eds. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. 438-444.

June 13

Viewing of Twin Peaks

June 14

Neil Postman and Steve Powers, "The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures," 467-477

Debra Seagal, "Tales from the Cutting Room Floor," 477-493

June 17

Presentation or Paper Due

MUSIC

June 18

Allan Bloom, "Music," 257-270

Simon Frith, "Rock and Sexuality," 270-282

June 19

David Samuels, "The Rap on Rap," 283-293

Elsa Davis, "Sexism and the Art of Feminist Hip-Hop Maintenance," in To Be Real. Ed. Rebecca Walker. 127-143.

June 20

Jon Lewis, "Punks in LA: It's Kiss or Kill," 327-339

Jonathan Poneman, "Grunge and Glory," 339-344

June 21

Andrew Blake, "Madonna the Musician," 17-28

Beverly Skaggs, "A Good Time for Women Only," 61-73, both in Deconstructing Madonna. Ed. Fran Lloyd.

June 24

Presentation or Paper Due

FILM

(Film screening to be arranged)

June 25

Sydney Pollack, "The Way We Are," 498-508

Mark J. Schaefermeyer, "Film Criticism," 521-532

June 26

Stephen King, "Why We Crave Horror Movies," 533-536

Walter Evans, "Monster Movies: A Sexual Theory," 536-545

Douglas Heuck, "Freddy Krueger: Twisted Role Model?," 547-552

June 27

Harry Brod, "Clint Eastwood: Unforgiven"

Susan White, "Split Skins: Female Agency and Bodily Mutilation in The Little Mermaid"

June 28

Gregory M. Weight, "Xing Out Race: Generation X and its Media Representations"

Richard Dyer, "A Passage to India"

July 1

Presentation or Paper Due

SPORTS

July 2

Arthur Asa Berger, "Seven Points on the Game of Football," 390-401

Maya Angelou, "Champion of the World," 401-405

INTERNET AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB

July 3

Mark C. Taylor and Esa Saarinen, selections from Imagologies

Joey Anuff, "These Are Not the Droids You're Looking For"

July 5

Presentation of final papers and Wrap-up

Final Paper Due