Coherent And Well-Structured Argumentative Essay
Final Essay Assignment
VCC201 Summer 2013
Due June 10th
4-5 pages (1,000 – 1250 words)
This assignment is worth 30% of your final grade.
Your essay must be thesis driven and present a coherent and well-structured argument. You must make use of at least four scholarly sources and follow a standardized referencing format, such as MLA, APA, or Chicago. Your essay must be double-spaced and include, if possible, copies of any images that you discuss. Your essay will be graded on following criteria:
1) Clear thesis and well developed argument.
2) Well-organized, well written, and interesting.
3) Use of appropriate sources and examples.
4) Proper spelling, grammar, and referencing style.
Assignments WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED BY …show more content…
EMAIL. Essays will only be graded if they are received both in hard copy AND on Turnitin.com.
You have three topics to choose from:
# 3: The Politics of Reproducibility
Choose an image of a political or historical figure, celebrity, or of an icon or symbol that has recently taken on profound social significance. Analyze its significance in shaping political opinion or political action, and the role of reproduction (dissemination through the media, the Internet, and so on) in this process. Read carefully and incorporate ideas from the textbook and from Walter Benjamin’s 1936 essay: “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”
Required Source:
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm).
# 1: The Gaze in Art and Popular Culture
Explore the dynamics of the gaze, as staged within a film, artwork, or popular cultural text such as an advertising campaign or music video. Discuss how the gaze operates within this text and in relation to the viewer. Consider any of the following questions: What kinds of identities are being produced? What kinds of gazes are at work? How does power operate through the gaze? Is the gaze resisted? You do not have to answer all of these questions, but only those that are relevant to your thesis and argument.
Suggested Sources:
Laura Mulvey "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" Amelia Jones (2003) (ed.). The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (Routledge: New York & London), pp. 44-52. This essay is also available on Blackboard.
Jen Hutton, “Gaga and the ‘Gaze,’ C Magazine 104 (Winter 2009), pp. 5-8. This essay is available on …show more content…
Blackboard.
Bell Hooks "The Oppositional Gaze: Black Male Female Spectators." Amelia Jones (2003) (ed.). The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (Routledge: New York & London), pp. 94-104.
# 2: Power and Panopticism
Choose a visual text or imaging technology, and examine how it produces and regulates certain kinds of subjects.
Examples of visual texts might include National Geographic Magazine articles, public health campaigns, or television shows like COPS or Extreme Makeover. Technologies of surveillance might include CCTV cameras, ID cards, or biometrics. Consider what forms of social power are produced through the gathering and presentation of visual information, as well as what kinds of subjects are being produced and to what ideals are they forced to conform. You may want to use ideas discussed in class and in your textbook, such as the docile body, biopower, discourse, and
power/knowledge.
Suggested Sources:
Michel Foucault (1977). Discipline & Punish. New York: Vintage Books., pp. 195-228. http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html Michael Foucault, “The Subject and Power, in Foucault, Power: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, vol 3, ed. By James D. Faubion, The New Press, 2000: 326-348. Available on Blackboard.
VCC201 Summer 2013
Due June 10th
4-5 pages (1,000 – 1250 words)
This assignment is worth 30% of your final grade.
Your essay must be thesis driven and present a coherent and well-structured argument. You must make use of at least four scholarly sources and follow a standardized referencing format, such as MLA, APA, or Chicago. Your essay must be double-spaced and include, if possible, copies of any images that you discuss. Your essay will be graded on following criteria:
1) Clear thesis and well developed argument.
2) Well-organized, well written, and interesting.
3) Use of appropriate sources and examples.
4) Proper spelling, grammar, and referencing style.
Assignments WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED BY …show more content…
EMAIL. Essays will only be graded if they are received both in hard copy AND on Turnitin.com.
You have three topics to choose from:
# 3: The Politics of Reproducibility
Choose an image of a political or historical figure, celebrity, or of an icon or symbol that has recently taken on profound social significance. Analyze its significance in shaping political opinion or political action, and the role of reproduction (dissemination through the media, the Internet, and so on) in this process. Read carefully and incorporate ideas from the textbook and from Walter Benjamin’s 1936 essay: “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”
Required Source:
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm).
# 1: The Gaze in Art and Popular Culture
Explore the dynamics of the gaze, as staged within a film, artwork, or popular cultural text such as an advertising campaign or music video. Discuss how the gaze operates within this text and in relation to the viewer. Consider any of the following questions: What kinds of identities are being produced? What kinds of gazes are at work? How does power operate through the gaze? Is the gaze resisted? You do not have to answer all of these questions, but only those that are relevant to your thesis and argument.
Suggested Sources:
Laura Mulvey "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" Amelia Jones (2003) (ed.). The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (Routledge: New York & London), pp. 44-52. This essay is also available on Blackboard.
Jen Hutton, “Gaga and the ‘Gaze,’ C Magazine 104 (Winter 2009), pp. 5-8. This essay is available on …show more content…
Blackboard.
Bell Hooks "The Oppositional Gaze: Black Male Female Spectators." Amelia Jones (2003) (ed.). The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (Routledge: New York & London), pp. 94-104.
# 2: Power and Panopticism
Choose a visual text or imaging technology, and examine how it produces and regulates certain kinds of subjects.
Examples of visual texts might include National Geographic Magazine articles, public health campaigns, or television shows like COPS or Extreme Makeover. Technologies of surveillance might include CCTV cameras, ID cards, or biometrics. Consider what forms of social power are produced through the gathering and presentation of visual information, as well as what kinds of subjects are being produced and to what ideals are they forced to conform. You may want to use ideas discussed in class and in your textbook, such as the docile body, biopower, discourse, and
power/knowledge.
Suggested Sources:
Michel Foucault (1977). Discipline & Punish. New York: Vintage Books., pp. 195-228. http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html Michael Foucault, “The Subject and Power, in Foucault, Power: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, vol 3, ed. By James D. Faubion, The New Press, 2000: 326-348. Available on Blackboard.