For my research paper, I plan to examine Batman as a text of popular culture. Batman is a comic book superhero character that has become an influential figure in American as well as World popular culture since 1939. Originally appearing in the medium of comic books, Batman has bled over into almost every other entertainment media including film, television, novelizations, video games, and even music. Batman’s most recent film adaptation, The Dark Knight, became a highly successful record breaking blockbuster, pushing the text to a greater degree of cultural popularity.

In my paper, I would fit Batman into the broader context of superhero fiction by giving a short history of the comic book industry and its incursion into other media, particularly film. This would serve to give background information of Batman as a popular culture text and its dissemination. The central question I wish to investigate is: why and how does Batman matter people’s lives, or why do people enjoy this character and his universe? I would like to study the encoding and decoding of meaning of Batman. In doing this, I would investigate the perspective of those who control the production of the text and those who consume (or do not consume) it. I would incorporate hegemonic negotiation theory in order to analyze the dynamics of these meanings. In this way, I believe tracing the history of the character’s reception is important in analyzing negotiation of meanings in action. Batman, as a text, has gone from serving as nationalist propaganda during wartime to being seen as subversively homosexual to being a valuable commodity that helps corporations rake in enormous profits.

In terms of research, I would use secondary sources like written critical analyses of Batman such as The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and his Media edited by Roberta E. Pearson and William Uricchio. For a broader contextual look at Batman, other secondary sources would be Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America by Bradford W. Wright as well as television documentaries such as Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked, Once Upon a Time: The Superheroes, and Comic Books Unbound. I would also look at reviews of films and comic books featuring Batman.

1. Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked, Once Upon a Time: The Superheroes. Dir. Steve Kroopnick. 2003.Youtube. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DEo0t_3Fig>.

2. Comic Books Unbound

3. Once Upon a Time: The Superheroes

4. Pearson, Roberta E., and William Uricchio. The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media. New York: Routledge, 1991.

5. Wright, Bradford W. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

Barack Obama as a Cultural Object

Our shiny new President occupies an elite iconic space usually reserved for the great Presidents of the past, and is usually not entered until years and years after the President’s time in office. Never before in our nation’s history has the ideal of a Presidential candidate so permeated the very fabric of popular culture as that of Barack Obama did during the 2008 election and continues to do. Compare, if you will, the typical representation of politicians in political cartoons and the occasional parody on SNL to the pure, unadulterated, postmodern weirdness of examples such as these:

http://gamu-toys.info/sonota/sw/obama/obama.html (Japanese action figure; keep scrolling, it gets more and more mindblowing)

http://3rdworldimagineer.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/custom_1237395322201_obamaad.jpg (Russian ice cream ad, translated)

Using this basic assumption as a jumping-off point, I will study cultural representations of Obama, both disseminated by his campaign and unofficial. Example range from the already-iconic 4-color “HOPE” poster—now dubbed an “Obamicon” and enjoying a second life on the Interwebs in the form of custom-made Obamicons—to more abstract notions of political rebirth and renewal surrounding Obama.

Roland Barthes’ semiology will be particularly fruitful, especially in studying actual images of Obama such as the aforementioned Obamicons. Something tells me the fellas of the Frankfurt School would also have something to say about this blending of politics and popular culture; and, regardless of their feelings about Obama, the similarities to propaganda images of Stalin, Mao, Hitler, and the like would undoubtedly crop up. Furthermore, encoding/decoding theory (and, by extension, the “circuit of culture” notion) will be useful—seeing as Obama-stuff is generated both by his camp and the general public—as will other strains of Reception & Negotiation theories; after all, it was us that elected him.

If I’m feeling particularly plucky, ventures into the deeper waters of issues like the dangers of idealization of a politician and the current state of political campaignery will be in order.

As it’s a bit early for many books to be written on this topic yet, research will lean slightly more towards primary sources, and less in-depth works of study such as articles will be more plentiful and useful.

I propose to examine the complex fan relationships with the 1999 film The Matrix and its sequels while incorporating some of the popular analyses of the text. Released a little more than ten years ago, on March 31, 1999, the Wachowski Brothers’ opus ostensibly revolutionized the American action film, incorporating aspects of Japanese and Hong Kong cinema and with thematic layers encouraging repeat viewings. As an avid fan of the original films and an occasional “basher” of its sequels, Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, they have special personal meaning to my role as a fan. As a major part of my research, I want to examine fan viewing practices of speculation using forum archives before and between the two later movies, as well as fan reaction.

Interestingly, The Matrix producers have closely supervised several official paratexts: the companion comic books and The Animatrix, a collection of nine short animated films. Additionally, an unofficial ARG (Alternate Reality Game) called Metacortex developed a devoted community around the time of Revolutions’ release. ARGs are multimedia games that involve puzzle solving, somewhat advanced computer skills, and often real world interactions. The level of “canon” of official and unofficial auxiliary texts creates debate among fan groups as well.

At least two books examining the philosophy of The Matrix have been published as well and may prove useful in psychoanalytic analysis of the films as well.

I hope to obtain a copy of The Matrix in Theory (Diaz-Diocaretz, Rodopi: 2006) through ILL to supplement our own library’s The Matrix and Philosophy (Irwin, Open Court: 2002) and related works.

In my paper, I will look at the popular children’s television show Sesame Street.  Indeed, today it is just as hard to avoid Sesame Street references in popular culture as Star Wars references.  Sesame Street, in terms of popularity, is a televised monster: A survey in 1996 shows that 95% of American preschoolers have been exposed to the show by the age of three.

The show is hailed as the first educational show for children to successfully combine education and entertainment.  The main focus of the essay is to examine Sesame Street as a unique and original experiment, blending education and entertainment. Why will children be content to sit in front of the screen for extended periods of time learning? What is it about the show’s construction that appeals to children? Most importantly, how do all of the adult producers and adult writers and teachers and psychologists and others who devoted their time and energy into making the show take the tool of television and create something educational and entertaining for preschoolers?

First I will discuss the context in which the show came out (the late 1960s) and the public hesitancy and discontent about exposing children to television. Then I will discuss the creation of the show and examine its structure, content, and form in an attempt to determine why televised education appeals to preschoolers. Then I will discuss Sesame Street‘s role in educational reform and promoting multiculturalism.

For primary sources, I will use a few episodes of the early Sesame Street (not the “For Adults Only” episodes, but still early ones), as well as “The First Year of Sesame Street: The Formative Research” by Barbara Frengel Reeves of the Children’s Television Workshop.

For secondary sources, I will use the following books:

Morrow, Robert W. Sesame Street and the Reform of Children’s Television. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2006.

Lesser, Gerald S. Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1975.

This proposal has been brought to you by the letter “P”

For my research paper I plan to examine Kanye West. Kanye West is a pop culture icon and has an overwhelming influence on everything ranging from fashion to music. Kanye has a record label, multiple multi platinum albums, a large endorsement deal with Louis Vuitton, a wildly successful blog, and a recently released Nike shoe (now selling for around $700 -$800). His first album debuted in 2004 and within 5 years he has attained an unimaginable level of success, fame, and influence.

In my paper I plan to give a brief history of Kanye’s sudden rise to fame. I will also examine the scope of his influence.  There are numerous questions I would like to raise such as how does a rapper, that claims the South Side of Chicago, become an icon for high fashion? How has Kanye been able to almost effortless penetrated the world of modern art and architecture? Why is Kanye such a trendsetter nationally and internationally? How does Kanye challenge tradition conceptions of masculinity in a socially accepted and celebrated manner? I believe that Kanye West is an interesting case study in the power of popular culture. Examining and understanding his influence and how he attained it will provide valuable insight in the effects and role of popular culture. I believe that much of Kanye’s power and influence comes from his ability to expose unique art forms (such as street art, sampling music, shoe design, architecture and high fashion) and turn them into commodities for the masses. However, I don’t believe that this is the only source of his power and influence. I plan to look at Kanye West using many of the theories and theorists we have studied such as Marxist Theory, Hegemony, Feminism, Stuart Hall, Althusser.

In terms of research I plan to use information from Kanye West’s website and blog http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/ .I will also use fan websites such as http://www.kanyelive.com/ . There are also a numerous news articles on Kanye. One  interesting article was done by Time Magzine entitled “Why You Can’t Ignore Kanye”. I also know a few hardcore Kanye fans that I plan to interview.

I would gladly welcome any feedback or suggestions.

For my research paper I would like to write on the internet phenomenon World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft (WoW for short) is one of many of what are referred to as massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). WoW was released on November 23, 2004 and was instantly praised by both game critics and game players alike, in fact, WoW holds the Guinness World Record for being the most popular MMORPG.

In my paper I will give a brief history of MMORPG’s and of WoW itself. Then I would like to investigate how gamers interact with this text and tackle the question that is most interesting to me: Why do gamers love this game so much? As a hypothesis I imagine that I will find that people enjoy WoW because it offers them the ability to be a part of a community and also to advance or better themselves more quickly in that community than they can in their day to day lives. I would also like to study the impact and effects of game play on the gamer, (what happens if someone plays too much? Can gamers become addicted?) but that may be too much to try and handle in this one paper. What do people think?

            In Terms of research I think that interviews with actual gamers seem like the best way to go, as well as blogs dedicated to the game or other games of its kind. Also the books Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role Playing Games by Matt Barton and Gaming as Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity, and Experience in Fantasy Games. In addition to these two books the library has many more relevant to this topic.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.

In my paper, I will examine the cannibalization of the Keffiyeh (also spelled kuffiyah, kuffiya, kaffiyeh, and other various spellings exist as there is no standardized translation) from a regional identifier and political symbol into a Westernized fashion statement. I will first present a brief overview of the traditional use of the keffiyeh—its use in Arab countries as a tribe identifier, incorporation into the British Army, and in recent years, its more controversial status as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism. Then, I would like to proceed with a brief history of its fashion use in earlier periods, including its popularization during the 1920s era of American cinema, its visibility in “Lawrence of Arabia,” and later its revival in 1980s bohemian fashion. I will then move onto its prevalence in current “counter-culture” fashion trends and the controversy this causes in a Post-9/11 America. I want to pay particular attention to the Rachel Ray/Dunkin’ Donuts controversy as well as the pressure placed upon retail-chain Urban Outfitters by pro-Israel advocacy groups to remove the scarves. I would also like to place the entire argument in the broader context of fashion as a political statement, examining the punk movement, Che phenomenon, and the sickle and hammer. In terms of theory, I will probably use mostly Marxist and also semiotics, focusing on how the keffiyeh as a sign can have many different meanings.
For research materials, it seems as though blogs are definitely going to be a hotspot. There have also been many newspaper and magazine articles written—including coverage from The New York Times and The Village Voice. There is also an interesting book The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict : A Political, Social, and Military History that has a good section on the keffiyeh. More generally, the library also has some good books on fashion theory and fashion as communication.

Any and all suggestions, additions, criticism, etc. is welcome. Thanks!

Please read through the research paper assignment and then use this thread as a place to post ideas for your paper topics, and provide feedback for each other.