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POP CULTURE
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ESSAY
FORMAT |
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ITEMS IN GREEN SIGNIFY EVALUATION CRITERIA;
PLEASE USE THESE AS A CHECKLIST FOR ENSURING THAT YOU HAVE COMPLETED ALL
ASSIGNED TASKS
Write a 1500
word critical essay analyzing and
critiquing one icon (an extraordinarily
famous person or thing) from Western popular culture (e.g. Humphrey
Bogart, James Dean,
Pepsi Cola, etc.).
1) Try to be unique
in your selection:
20 essays/presentations on Madonna
or Elvis can be
quite boring; try unusual and challenging iconographic studies, whenever
possible (e.g. The
Pentagon: what does it symbolize in our culture? What did
terrorists who attacked it believe that they were attacking, in a
symbolic/iconographic sense?)
2)
Of what is your icon symbolic?
What does your icon represent in
the culture? This section should be the largest section of your paper.
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(a)
Discuss the semiotics
of your icon-- what are the signifiers
in your icon's appearance?
What is 'signified'
by your icon?
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| (b)
Discuss Maslowian applications with
respect to your icon;
on what levels of Maslow's
hierarchy of needs does your icon
involve or "hook" the perceiver, and how/why? |
| (c)
What would Marshall McLuhan
have to say about your icon and the way in which it/he/she has been
used in popular culture?
How is the medium
actually the message
in
the various manifestations of your icon?
Can your icon or any of its by-products be seen as an "extension"
of humanity (in the way in which McLuhan used this term)? |
3)
Be certain to discuss your icon's meaning
for all
perceivers-- for example, to many
Americans, George W.
Bush is a hero; to some, he is a war-hawk and a poor business manager;
to many people internationally, he is an imperialist.
To some, Eminem
or Tupac are
champions of free
speech; to others, they may be offensive; to feminists
or pacifists, they may
be considered misogynistic
or violent.
It is imperative that you present a balanced view of your icon that
discusses all aspects of meaning for all potential perceivers.
Be critical, even if you are a "fan."
4)
Be analytical and critical of your icon's
consumer
applications-- discuss in detail,
for example, how your icon has become a 'brand,'
used to sell posters, t-shirts, and other merchandise
(Che
Guevara, a revolutionary whose initial cause was a country's
liberation from fascistic oppression, is now a vague symbol of youthful
resistance, whose meaning has become diluted and whose image is used to
sell everything from t-shirts to vodka") and how your icon is used as
an ideological symbol, to promote a lifestyle or belief system; e.g. The
Pentagon
~ defense, American patriotism, secrecy, etc.; James
Dean
~ youth & rebellion, resistance, counterculture,
etc.
5)
Provide brief historical
background on the 'story' of your icon only where it is crucial to
a study of iconography;
you should concentrate more on symbolism,
semiotics, meaning,
usages, and effects of your icon in the culture.
6)
Discuss briefly (in about 200 words) the icon's impact
on your own life and consciousness.
How has this icon been a major influence on your own existence, beliefs,
consumer attitudes, etc.
Use the word "I,"
and talk about your feelings.
7) Use 3 hard-copy
sources (books, articles, journals, newspapers), and create a bibliography
(MLA or APA styles are acceptable). Be sure to credit
individual facts with in-text references, e.g...
(Medaglia-Miller 34). Even if you have not directly quoted from
other sources, any ideas, historical facts, or opinions of authors other
than yourself must be accurately referenced-- at a college level, you must
give credit to those who contribute to your essay in any conceivable
manner.
You may use some web sources, but these
must be included only in addition to your
three books, journals, or newspaper articles. You may not use
a web source unless the following information is provided: author,
title of article, web publisher name (organization posting the article),
and the date of the article. In addition, you must, as per MLA/APA
format, provide the date on which you 'retrieved' the article from the
WWW.
8)
Your work must be original--
the submission of even a partially-plagiarized
paper will result in an automatic failure.
Please write in your own
words. |
| To
view very-good-to-excellent (model) essays from past students, click these
buttons....
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| Here are some
excellent
essays from Fall 2007.... these papers truly demonstrate that the
medium is the message (Adobe Acrobat is required for viewing pdfs)
Risa Cappe ©
2007; Natasha Sterlin
© 2007;
Kamilla Khakimova ©
2007; Pamela
Lucian ©
2007:
The following three works, by Marian
Chiaramonte, Sarah Tam, and Lindsay Dick, are my favourite essays of
2008, in no particular order of greatness... well done, women!
Although there were a few very
fine essays written in 2009, there was only one essay that I would
call extraordinary. Would you like a mark of 100% on your
essay? Then, emulate Myriam Demers-Olivier, who also earned
100% for the entire course... best Pop student ever, I believe.
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Designing
an Outline
largely
based on: Buckley, J. (1991) Fit to print.
Toronto: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Once
you have decided upon your topic, determined your thesis statement, and
considered your audience and purpose, you need an outline.
Never
attempt to write an essay without some kind of outline-- whether it be a formal,
detailed itinerary or a hastily jotted map showing your destination, your
direction, and the stops you wish to make along the way.
Your
Outline is like a Table of Contents
Think
of the outline as your own flexible table of contents.
It is, after all, your note to yourself, your reminder of what details
you wish to include and what arguments you want to make.
Like a table of contents, the outline labels what the reader may expect
to find contained in the work itself.
Sort
Through Your Ideas
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1.
Make sure you have established your pivotal points: the thesis statement and
purpose.
Use
your thesis statement (subject to revision) and your selected purpose as the
launching points for your outline. From
them will emanate all the ideas, arguments, facts, and figures you have
gathered.
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2.
Gather your notes.
With your tentative thesis
statement on paper in front of you, gather your tentative remarks, your
research, and your questions about the topic.
One good way to take notes is to list separate ideas on index cards
(remembering to include sources, if any).
This way you can shuffle or discard material easily.
Keeping your purpose in mind, organize the material you have
selected, discarding any information not strictly related to it.
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3.
Classify your material.
Decide how many steps your
argument contains. Then classify your notes accordingly.
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4.
Order your material in a logical way.
Decide at what point a
particular argument should be mentioned.
Decide what your opening argument, your follow-up, and your last word
should be. Keep in mind the
tried-and-true notion that a strong point is best placed at the beginning or
ending of an essay.
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5.
Rank your points according to their importance.
Sorting your ideas
according to rank means deciding whether an item has a major role or merely
a minor one to play.
In order to rank your ideas, assign them numbers or letters (see example),
beginning perhaps with capital Roman numerals for major sections, moving to
capital letters for important supporting sections, through to Arabic numbers
for larger details, to small letters for the minor details.
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6.
Invent a title.
Don't entitle your paper,
"Camera Lenses in Badlands"; instead, entitle it, "Out
of Focus: The Use of the Telephoto Lens in Badlands" A title should be catchy and not too lengthy, but don't
sacrifice clarity for flourish.
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Tailor
the Outline
As
you outline, you may notice some bits of research material that seemed valuable
at the time that you took the notes, though now, they seem unrelated to the
development of your thought. Do not
hesitate to toss them out. One of
the main functions of the outline is to show you how well the material you have
gathered actually fits the viewpoint you have chosen. The outline which follows
shows a short, persuasive essay, developed by examples, definition,
classification, and comparison/contrast. The
essay consists of three arguments to defend the thesis, plus supporting
arguments.
Example
of an outline:
PATTERN
OF ARGUMENT: Example
I.
INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH:
Consists of three parts:
a) INTRODUCTION:
a catchy opening sentence
b) a clear THESIS
statement that clarifies the theory that you will be defending throughout the
essay
c) a PREVIEW
(this is essential) that acts as a kind of menu for the reader, outlining in
brief all of the items about which you will be writing throughout the BODY of
the essay-- the BODY paragraphs should appear in the same order as they are
outlined in this PREVIEW sentence.
For
example...
INTRODUCTION:
"You're tearing me apart," James Dean cries out to his parents in
'Rebel Without a
Cause,' the cult classic that is still, almost three
generations later, a movie-shrine to the angst of young people. In all of Pop
Culture, there are only a handful of icons that have maintained the enduring
impact of the legendary James Dean.
THESIS
STATEMENT: Throughout Western
popular culture, the icon that is James Dean has become virtually
equivalent
to the anti-establishment, rebellious views of youth and teenagers.
PREVIEW:
This essay will discuss and analyze James Dean as an icon of youthful
rebellion by providing discussion of four different critical issues:
A)
a brief discussion of the short, troubled life and career of James
Dean, ending with his tragic death due to speeding in his sports car;
B)
in-depth semiotic and symbolic analyses of how his attitudes and behaviours
have been transformed in Pop Culture, since his death, into an icon of
resistance and anti-establishment attitudes;
C)
how his image has been used in merchandising to sell "bad-ass,"
resistant products associated with counter-culture, such as motorcycles,
sports cars, cigarettes, leather jackets, blue jeans, rolling papers, liquor,
etc.
D)
how James
Dean's image has had a great influence on my own beliefs about
considered and critical resistance against the establishment, unjust authority
figures, and attempts by elders to unnecessarily control and stifle youthful
attempts at creativity and expression.
II.
BODY
A.
Brief background paragraph: a brief discussion of his life
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1.
Brilliant, moody young method
actor; expressed his emotions: frustration, anger, depression, anxiety
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2.
Only a handful of films
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3.
Aloof, distant... very
much a loner |
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4.
Always seen smoking; wore cool clothes
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5.
Death in a sports car crash... speeding
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B.
Several long paragraphs: in-depth analysis of iconographic meaning (this
is the bulk of the essay).
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1.
Anti-establishment
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2.
In films, spoke out against unjust controls
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3.
His very image was different; hair, clothes, speech patterns, stance,
demeanor |
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4.
Idol among young people |
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5.
Sex symbol |
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6.
Symbol of new rock n' roll age |
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7.
Smoking, motorcycles, leather |
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8.
"Rebel Without A Cause" |
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What is the signifier(s) of the icon? |
| 10.What
are the signified representations (several levels please). |
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On what levels of the Maslowian hierarchy of needs does James Dean make the
perceiver 'need' him? |
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How is the medium that we call James Dean "the message" of James
Dean? Make specific reference to McLuhan's theory. How, then, is the
user the content? |
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How is James Dean an extension of your senses? Does this extension
make any of your sensory capacities obsolete? Answer this question
making specific reference to Marshall McLuhan's "Extensions of
Man" theory. |
C.
Branding & Merchandising: ironically, co-opted by corporate world to promote
sales
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1.
Motorcycles and sports cars |
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2.
Liquor, cigarettes, rolling papers |
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3.
Leather jackets and blue jeans |
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4.
Buttons, posters, and T-Shirts: just his image on these items connotes
'rebellion' |
D.
How James Dean has influenced me
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1.
Resistance against authority |
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2.
Resentment of control freaks |
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3.
Rebellion against unjust authority figures |
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4.
I dress like him: jeans,
leather, etc. |
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5.
Creative expression |
III.
CONCLUSION:
Throughout this essay, I have shown how James Dean transcended his initial
status, as a mere mortal who happened to be a fine, method
actor, to become
ultimately a grand icon representing the rebellion of young people throughout
the ages. His own life story was filled with numerous examples of
attitudes and behaviours that went against the grain of society.
Iconographic analyses of his many usages in Popular Culture show how his very
image represents revolutionary, anti-establishment views and counterculture
ideas. The merchandising of his image, time after time, is used in
conjunction with the sale of non-mainstream or 'counterculture'
products. James Dean, both as man and as icon, has had an enormous
influence on my own personality and attitudes, helping to shape me into the
rebellious, critical person I am.
James Dean has helped all of us to see how the obsessive- compulsive attitudes
and restraints of a controlling establishment, hell-bent on monitoring our
behaviours and shaping our very personalities, is "tearing us
apart."
IV.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
For precise details on both the MLA and APA techniques of referencing, see the
link
below....
Plagiarism:
Any usage of the text of other authors
must be brief, sporadic, and rigorously-referenced. Avoid plagiarism
(using the words of other authors without appropriate referencing) at all
costs. Plagiarism of even a small portion of your work will yield
tragic consequences and failure.
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