Write a critical reflection in essay form. Choose one of the topics below. Regard these topics as prompts to help you begin a critical assessment of the popular culture around you, rather than as strict limitations. Draw on your enthusiasm for works you have an interest in, and use this energy to drive your critical perspective.
1. Write an analysis of a work of popular culture (inside or outside of this course) that holds particular interest for you. Use one of the critical paradigms outlined in Units 1 to 3 as a tool or method for understanding the popular product. You may apply the theoretical model to the popular work, or you may measure the suitability of the model against the complexities of your chosen popular work. Ideally, the theory and the text will work together so that you discover something new about both, rather than simply using one to understand the other; however, the latter approach is acceptable.
As a creative option, you might wish to consider how a theorist you have read about would regard a particular work of popular culture. For example, how would Karl Marx watch “The Simpsons”? In what ways would Steven Lukes understand “Mad Men”? How might Theodor Adorno listen to a Justin Bieber album?
2. Choose a work of popular culture, such as a compact disc, a pulp novel, a movie, or a television production, and analyze it from three of Raymond Williams’s perspectives on the meaning of the word “culture”: the ideal, the documentary, and the social, based on your understanding of these categories from Unit 2.
Answer such questions as: Which audience does the work play to? Who, if anyone, in the audience does the work validate? Who, if anyone, is the work likely to offend or provoke? Who benefits from attitudes or habits normalized by the work? As a product, how does it reflect the social conditions of its production? How do people consume it? You do not need to answer all of these questions—regard them as prompts to begin your critical argument.
