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Paper Assignments:
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Paper #1: What’s Right /Wrong with Popular Culture? |
| Choose a specific artifact or example of popular culture you are very familiar with. Then, evaluate it according to the arguments presented in the texts we have been reading thus far. For example, in the first of two articles we have read from the Wilson Quarterly, Cantor defends “The Simpson’s” in the short article on page 33 as making a “profound comment …on family life in particular and politics in general ….” The opposing piece, by Bayles, decries certain tendencies in popular culture because she claims it has nothing to give us and is, in a sense, degrading our taste and stunting our understanding. |
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Like Bayles, the advocates for a "culture and civilization" tradition cited in the Storey text see popular culture either as a debased cultureor as mass culture, that is, something that is imposed by the powerful on the masses in order to exploit and dominate. |
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For this paper, you will need to choose a perspective and employ it to evaluate the particular piece of popular culture you have selected. |
| Your paper should not be longer than two pages, so you will need to get to your point quickly and use evidence efficiently. This should be a polished piece, one that adheres to the guidelines for writing at Grinnell included at the end of your syllabus. |