As the syllabus explains, I'm asking each class member to write a 4-5 page analytical essay on a critical article which both synopsizes that article and assesses how persuasive it is.  By and large, the list below emphasizes practical, methodological articles rather than theoretical ones.  As you'll see, most of these essays are in American cultural studies or history; quite often they take up an artifact or genre (the sentimental novel, Victorian diary, scrapbooks, a True Confessions magazine, a group of paintings, hall furniture, a television news broadcast) in order to create a portrait of a given cultural group, moment, artistic vision, or social practice.  Some are more pronounced in their "textual" orientation than others.

By "assess," I mean that you should explicate and evaluate the essay's argument.  Whether you do that by concentrating primarily on its methodological or theoretical assumptions, or its "evidentiary" content (for example, how well it reads/captures a given primary text) is up to you.  But the best essays will combine a close demonstration of the argument's workings as well as some distance from its premises and conclusions.

If the essay takes up texts with which you're unfamiliar, you can feel free to apply or test  the article's model against one you have (e.g. another fan magazine, a TV news brodcast you look at, a literary text.)   I really only have 3 requirements for your approach:

1.  First, start right in on the assignment in your opening.  No long-winded introductions:  you can just treat this like an essay exam answer.  "In 'Sparing the Rod,' Richard Brodhead argues that...."

2.  At some point in your essay, I ask that you at least take up a conceptual or methodological issue: how the article or chapter defines "culture," how it determines the coordinate of its genre, what assumptions it makes about a genre's audience or producers, what kinds of materials it chooses.  Again, your choice as to how much you emphasize this dimension, but you must address it somewhere.

3.  Finally, feel free to use this paper as an exploratory exercise for your own final, longer paper.  That means you can choose an article other than the ones on this list, so long as you clear it with me.

Two additional requests:

1.  I'd like to hear from each of you, by email or preferably in person, what article you've chosen.  Let me help pick one you like.  But you must let me know if your choice is not from the list on the syllabus.

2.  If you're analyzing an article not on the list below, I'd appreciate having a xerox attached to your paper (I'll return it to you).

Some of these essays are in books on reserve (R), some are available in the stacks, some I've linked here.  And some you can borrow from me.  Here is my opening list of choices:
 

Richard Brodhead, the chapter called "Sparing the Rod" in Cultures of Letters (R), or his chapter on Sarah Orne Jewett, "Jewett, Regionalism, and Writing as Women's Work"

Peter Gay, "Discreet Pleasures of the Bourgeoisie" American Scholar 53 (1983-4):  91-100 (an essay about Victorian sexuality and the diary);

Marilyn Motz, "Visual Autobiography:  Photographs of Turn-of-the Century Midwestern Women" American Quarterly  41 (1989): 63-92.  Linked here

Ann Fabian, "Making a Commodity of Truth:  Speculations on the Career of Bernarr McFadden," American Literary History  5 (1993):  51-76   (about a physical culture guru who created True Confessions)

Jane H. Hunter, "Inscribing the Self in the Heart of the Family: Diaries and Girlhood in Late-Victorian America"  American Quarterly  44 (March 1992): 51-81    Linked here

David Park Curry,  "Winslow Homer and the Croquet Game" (about Homer's depiction of courtship in the Newport social scene of his day)    (get a copy from me)

Kenneth Ames:  "Meaning in Artifacts:  Hall Furnishings in Victorian America"  Journal of Interdisciplinary History  9 (Summer 1978):  19-46  Linked here

Alexandra Chasin, "Class and Its Close Relations:  Identities Among Women, Servants, and Machines" (about gender, class, and ATM's; get a copy from me);

Robert K. Manoff, "Modes of War and Modes of Social Address: The Text of SDI," Journal of Communication 39 (winter 1989) (about a news presentation of the Strategic Defense Initiative).

Again, I will be adding other suggested titles as the weeks progress. And you can feel free to suggest one of your own.