Posted: February 25th, 2016

Cultural Analysis of Issues in Popular Culture

ou can use Persepolis: the story of a childhood OR Black jack volume 1

Our cultural identity impacts many facets of our daily lives without us realizing how and why these factors affect how we perceive the world around us. What we say, the words we choose, and even who we talk and why are affected by our cultural and personal history. While making a complete list of all the cultural issues we deal with on a daily basis would be difficult, here is the list of issues we developed in class to discuss our cultural readings of the course texts. Using one or two of the issues from class discussion, explain the social and cultural significance of this issue in one of the course texts. If using more than one issue, the connection between these issues must be clear in the paper’s thesis:
 Education
 Ethnicity/Race  Class/Status
 Nationality
 Religion
Topic
 Politics
 Gender/Sexuality
 Age/Generation
 Geography/Space(s)
Write a four-to-five page essay (c1000 words) explaining how and why this reading is significant to our cultural understanding of the work (graphic novel) as a text:
 How does my culture view this issue, and/or how does my cultural identity affect my reaction to this issue and/or the text?
 How do my cultural identity (Race, Gender, Class, etc.) and/or the cultural identity of the characters in the text (in comparison or opposition to my own) alter my reading of the text? If so, how and why are these aspects of my cultural identity significant to reading the text?
 What is the source of the connection, if any, of the issues brought up by the text, its characters, or my reaction to it?
While this is only a partial list of questions for analysis, you’ll need to delve beneath the surface of these issues in the text. Once your analysis is complete, you can begin to address the significance of your observations in your own thesis. This thesis should address the significance of the issue to our cultural identity and its effect on your interpretation of the work as a text. Be sure you stay focused and on topic, use the text as support for your conclusions, and make clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas. Don’t forget to include a Works Cited page with any texts from outside the course.