Assignment:
You are required to write a 5 to 6 page paper, in twelve-point Times-Roman font, with one-inch margins at top and bottom and 1.25 inches left and right. The paper should be double spaced, including between paragraphs (no extra spaces between paragraphs). No cover sheet is required on the paper: simply indicate your name and the class name and date in the first two lines at the top of the paper. The next line down should contain the title of your paper. Following that, the text should begin. NOTE: A title is required! Be creative. Suggest through the title some aspect of your argument. A title such as "Popular Culture Paper" is not a good title.
Proper quotation and citation (of references to ideas, words, quotations, and significant information found in someone else's writing) are required. Citations will be done in the parenthetical style (author/s, short version of title, page).
A bibliography (in Chicago Manual of Style) must accompany the paper for any sources used that are not part of the assigned readings. A "quick guide" version of the Chicago Manual of Style citation and bibliography formats can be found on line. FINDING OUTSIDE SOURCES IS NOT THE POINT OF THIS ASSIGNMENT. YOU MUST CLEAR ANY OUTSIDE SOURCES WITH PROFESSOR O'BRYAN.
Paper Topics: This is not a research paper, in the sense that you go out and search independently for sources. Rather, we will provide "topic readings" on two different cultural forms (cultural products) in global contexts, karaoke and Chinese food, from which you choose one about which to write. Your task is to do the extra "topic readings" provided and combine these with the appropriate readings from the course we have already done. You will in part be evaluated on your intelligent use of the entire range of topic readings. It goes without saying that use of only one or two readings will result in a lower evaluation.
You must write about the cultural form you have chosen as an example of popular culture, making sure to discuss whatever conceptual ideas we have been using in class that you feel are appropriate to understanding
1) what makes your topic "popular culture"?;
2) how the cultural form "operates" in the East Asian and global contexts (that is, how it is produced, consumed, understood, received, changed in meaning or use, and by whom, etc.?).
Examples of potentially relevant conceptual issues we have explored include conventional attempts to "nationalize" culture, personal identity, subcultures, cultural supermarket idea, authenticity debates, mass-media saturation, etc. You might also consider how the cultural form has changed over time in the context in which you are writing about it.