Please print out (or have available on your device) the following excerpt from John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice. Annotate the reading, and come to class ready to discuss. The reading: A Theory of Justice (Excerpts).

For Monday please print or have available on your device the following second excerpt from Canetti’s Crowds and Power.  Read the excerpt and annotate carefully, paying special attention to how Canetti extends his analysis of crowds in mapping the relationships of the ruler and the governed. How do Canetti’s ideas here help extend our thinking about the self? Here is the excerpt: Canetti Survivor chapter excerpt.

For this final production of the semester you will take on the role of a cultural critic and reflect on some work of popular culture (television shows, movies, in particular come to mind, but almost any mass media, including advertising, social media, etc. will do), and using the skills you’ve developed this semester of looking beneath the surface of texts, reveal what goes unsaid, deconstruct its assumptions, and illuminate its secrets.

Three options for how you might proceed:

• Write a paper, three pages in length (about the length of a standard movie review in a newspaper);
• Create a podcast in which you deliver your thoughts perhaps in the manner of a radio movie reviewer (though creative approaches are encouraged); this option will also require a brief written statement of purpose;
• Create a video in which you make your points about the work (format and approach open to your interpretation); as in bullet two above, this would require a brief written statement of purpose.
This paper is a chance for you to be creative and perhaps have fun. Go beyond in your use of language. Be that “cerebral berserk deacon of words” (Eminem) you always knew yourself to be.

Due date: Monday, December 14 (last day of class)

Grade: The grade will be based on the work you turn in on the last day of class (in whatever format you choose) AND a brief presentation you’ll deliver to class during our final meeting of the semester, which will take place during the time assigned for our final: Monday, December 21, in A-713.

Please come to class with the following excerpt from Elias Canetti’s book, Crowds and Power, either printed out or available on your device. Given that your papers are due Wednesday, we’ll keep the reading light: read to the end of the section titled “The Discharge” (pages 15 to the top of 19). Here is the link: Canetti Chapter 1 excerpt.