english

Citrus College

Winter 2021-- English 101E Instructor: David Godoy

Just Entertainment--What’s it Mean? (Entertainment as Political)

Through our look at semiotics, we have seen that entertainment can indeed be political and carry with it, its own connotations. Now is your chance to contribute to the conversation with a cultural analysis of your own.

Task

-Write an essay that examines a cultural entertainment artifact

( i.e. a movie, a book, a video game, a TV/Netflix series episode, a music video, a comedy sketch *satire etc.)

-Unearth the ideological work that said artifact does.

*ideological--What ideas/values are glorified? What ideas/values are vilified?

-In other words, use the kind of denotation-->connotation analysis that we have been doing in class to unpack the meaning and implications of your artifact.

-This process moves from surface-level meaning (denotation) to

deeper-level meaning. (connotation)

-In order to do this, it is very important to answer the “so what?” question.

*implication=so what?

Ex:

1) I notice that a feature of my chosen artifact’s plot point is ‘x.’

2) What are the implications of the fact that ‘x’ is such a feature?

3) I notice that my artifact’s plot resolution is ‘y.’

4) What are the implications of the fact that my artifact’s plot resolution is ‘y?’

Guiding Questions

-Which figure(s)/character(s) is glorified? Who is vilified?

-What idea(s)/value(s) might these characters represent?

-What does this say about the artifact’s larger message?

-Is any group(s) affected by the message that this piece of entertainment connotes?

-Is one group celebrated & another vilified?

-Why does this matter?

-What is at stake?

-Anything else?

*Be as thorough as you can with your analysis. Stronger papers will have more analysis than summary. Support your claims by referencing concrete evidence from your chosen source of entertainment.

Format Requirements

-MLA Citation

-1" Margins All Around

-Times New Roman/Arial Font

-Double Spaced

-Minimum of 3.5 Pages

-Works Cited Page

Distribution of Points

-Essay= 100 points

-peer review workshop= 20 points

-correct MLA Format + works cited page= 5 points

Important Dates

Brainstorm Sunday, Jan. 17

Workshop: *Post rough draft by Jan. 20

Final Draft Due: Sunday, Jan. 24 by 11:59pm *Assignment link=Canvas Page