Critical Essay
For your critical essay, I would like you to examine a particular sphere of cultural production: literature, publishing, digital media, music, law, academia, or another area of your choosing. Please focus on a particular example—a successful book, a particular artist, a court case, an exhibit, a specific controversy within academia, a development within the world of online games, an advertising campaign, etc.—and explain what that example reveals about cultural production in contemporary society. Please choose as narrow and specific a topic as you can, so that you can produce an in-depth discussion. This essay will be part research and part analytical. You will need to consult books, articles, websites, and so forth in order to gather relevant facts about the example that you choose. But you will also need to offer your own analysis, and you may want to relate your subject to some of the assigned readings from the course. What does your example reveal about the particular challenges faced by the sphere of culture that you are investigating? (Is book publishing doomed? Is great literature going to disappear? Should video games be considered high art? Are they destroying our brains? Will anybody ever watch movies in theaters in ten years, and how will that change the medium? Why are there so many smart and intellectually challenging television shows right now, and will this trend continue?) What political or social functions does that form of culture perform? What needs does it seek to satisfy? To what kinds of consumers does it appeal? The questions you explore will depend largely on the subject you choose, but you should try to present both a careful description of a particular cultural form and an argument about the role that form plays in society.
The essay should be 10 pages long doubled-spaced with MLA style citations and a works cited list. You should consult a minimum of 10 sources and at least one book.
*A one-page tentative proposal is due March 5. A rough-draft of your essay is due April 16. A final draft is due May 14, the last day of classes.