There are three due dates set over the term: September 28, October 26, November 23.You must submit one of the three papers on each of the due-dates. You may choose the order in which you submit each of these papers, but you must write each of the three. There will be no extensions for these due-dates, unless you discuss them with me. Late essays will be penalized 5% per day late, to a maximum of 50%. Each essay can be no more than 1500 words (about five typed double-spaced pages) Make sure that you have a focused critical argument, and that you write in a concise, direct style. Make sure that you always cite relevant examples, and that you analyze those examples. Please follow the current MLA style for format and documentation.
1. Write a close reading of a text (such as a song lyric or advertising copy) or an excerpt (such as a page or two from the novel, or from the TRC report). How does the poetic or rhetorical form of the text you choose contribute to its social, cultural or artistic meaning? How is representation shaped or articulated in this text? What is significant about your choice?
2. Write an extended definition (or a "keywords" style entry, NOT a dictionary definition) of how one of the following terms is used in the study of media: screen, popular, mass culture, media, text, sign, transgression, hegemony ideology, genre, literacy, hybridity, global, distraction, convergence, polysemy, diaspora, interpellation, gender, agency. Show how defining that concept or term contributes to a critical analysis of one of the three figural constellations (Harry Potter, Bob Marley, the TRC) on the course syllabus; give an example of how you apply that term in your analysis.
3. Write a close analysis of a key media artefact -- an icon, a technology, a platform, an object, a performance, a costume, but not a stand-alone text -- associated with one of the three figural constellations (Harry Potter, Bob Marley, the TRC) on the course syllabus. How do form and material structure (visual, auditory, textual, spatial) contribute to the production of meaning? How does the artefact evoke various tactics and practices of representation? How do material form and content intersect?
Due on Thursday September 28, Thursday October 26, and Thursday November 23.