ENGL 151-01, Reading and Writing Popular Culture, Fall 2002

Abstract

The purpose of this course is to develop the skills needed to produce college-level writing. However, this course takes as a given that in order to be a good writer, you need to be a good reader, both of conventional texts (e.g. literature, history, philosophy) as well as the texts that surround us all the time and that we constantly “read” without even being aware that we’re doing so. These “texts” of popular culture range from movies and TV sitcoms to music, advertisements and the architecture of the shopping mall. The premise of this course is that all these signs of popular culture have meanings that go far beyond simply attracting paying customers. We will read and discuss a series of essays by cultural critics who present arguments about the meanings of different aspects of popular culture. In your writing you will be engaging with these writers—agreeing, disagreeing, or modifying their arguments—and you will also be learning from them how to read and write about the signs of popular culture.