Term Paper on "Movie Theater as a Popular Culture Activity"

Quoted Instructions for "Movie Theater as a Popular Culture Activity" Assignment:

One of the objectives of this course is to get you to think critically about your own personal relationship with popular culture. For this first assignment, you are asked to select one *****thing***** in your own life that you think qualifies as *****popular***** culture. I*****m being deliberately vague when I say *****thing***** because we could be talking here about a book, poster, toy, song, clothing item, movie, game, food item, (etc.) but we could also be talking less about a concrete *****text***** and more about an activity (ritual, sport, performance) or interactive media technology*****¦ the possibilities are endless.

MY *****"THING*****" IS GOING TO THE MOVIE THEATER AND THE MOVIE THEATER EXPERIENCE AS A WHOLE

Once you have selected your thing, write a short, interesting, reflective paper in which you address the following:

Your personal history with this selection

· How, when, and why did it come to be in your possession and/or part of your life?

· What meaning(s) does it have for you?

· How have forces such as family, peers, and media influenced your view of it?

Why this selection qualifies as popular culture

· Under which/whose definitions of pop culture does it fit and why?

· Could it also be considered high culture? Why or why not?

How the thinkers we have discussed in class so far would likely view this selection

· Based on the readings, why might our thinkers like or dislike it? Discuss at least 2 perspectives.

· With whose view(s) do you most agree and why?

How your perspective on this selection has evolved as a result of this course

· How have the course readings/lectures up to this point challenged, altered, and/or reinforced your previous perception of/relationship to it?

In order to receive full credit, you will need to address all of the areas outlined above. You are also welcome to add your own angle(s), but be sure to stay on assignment.

It is very important that your paper be grounded in the literature from class. This means your ideas (with the exception of the *****˜personal history***** section) should be supported by references to and quotations from the texts we have read. You may also need to do a small amount of additional research for section 2 (e.g. If you claim that your selection is *****well liked by many*****, you should offer some sort of *****˜proof***** such as statistics on sales, viewership, etc.).

Bear in mind that your paper will be more successful if you are able to defamiliarize the familiar ***** to visit your thing with fresh eyes (try imagining you*****re from outer space*****¦ what does your thing tell you about earthlings? about you? about the culture you*****re from? about the life of a Penn student?) If you think you*****ll find this defamiliarizing or *****denaturalizing***** process challenging, it might help you to select something that doesn*****t have overwhelming sentimental value for you.

Grading Criteria:

· Quality of Thinking: (Your understanding of how and why your selected things are interesting in relation to the materials we have studied thus far) 0-5 POINTS

· Quality of Exposition (how well your paper is organized and written) 0-5 POINTS

· Originality/Memorability/Creativity: 0-5 POINTS

All papers must (that*****s *****must***** as in we*****ll deduct points if you don*****t follow these instructions):

1) Be well written and well organized. Use clear topic sentences to launch each new paragraph (and make sure the ensuing paragraph follows on from that topic sentence). Also, try to avoid bumpy transitions between paragraphs.

2) Include page numbers

3) Have original titles written on page one (do *not* submit separate cover sheets for titles ***** poor trees!)

4) Have your full given name written on the back of the final page (and NOT on any other page)

5) Be 1,000 (min) to 1,200 (max) words long. Include your word count on the bottom of your final page

6) Be double-spaced with one inch margins and carefully proofread

7) Include page numbers, in parenthesis, after any quotes taken from course readings (for any outside sources, please use footnotes or endnotes, whichever you are more comfortable with)

8) Incorporate the ideas of at least two but not more than three scholars of popular culture (at least two must be syllabus readings)

9) Be your own original work. Any student who plagiarizes any paper this semester (this includes outsourcing paper-writing or re-using a paper from another class) will fail the entire class

10) Be handed in on time: papers will lose 1 point for every hour they are late. Late papers should be submitted electronically (that way we know exactly how late they are*****¦ please don*****t go this route!)