Overview
Midterm #1 Due FRIDAY August 16th
Resources will be provided through a google link.
? Insert header with page numbers, your name, and our course information (SOCI 160).
Avoid even unintentional plagiarism.
Cite all direct quotes, all paraphrases.
Give full credit to the sources for your ideas and writing.
Cite where your major concepts/ideas/arguments are coming from.
Part One: Identifications. 25 points x 3 IDs = 75 points
? For each of the three concepts below, provide an explanation in your own words describing what the term means.
12.5 points per explanation.
? For each of the three concepts below, provide an example from our course lecture slides that provides an illustration of the concept. Be sure to briefly explain how/why the example provided serves as an illustration of the concept.
12.5 points per course-specific example.
Each ID response (explanation plus example) to be 4-5 sentences total.
1.) Reification
Explanation:
Course-Specific Example:
2.) Base & Superstructure
Explanation:
Course-Specific Example:
3.) Culture Industry
Explanation:
Course-Specific Example:
Part Two: Short Essay. 225 points
? Respond to the following two-part prompt in short-essay format.
? Short-essay response to be approximately 6-8 paragraphs.
? Short essay response must include four distinct uses of direct textual evidence from at least four course materials that provide evidence and/or examples for your response. Use of textual evidence must include elaboration.
?Include a References Page
.
? Use ASA References Page Guide:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/asa_style/references_page_formatting.html
? Use ASA formatting/citation:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/asa_style/in_text_citation_references.html
? When using direct quotations or paraphrases of course materials, you must include citation information to maintain academic integrity. Please refer to ASA citations link above.
Short Essay Grading Rubric
Accuracy of Response = 100 points
Four Distinct Uses & Elaborations Upon Textual Evidence = 30 x 4 = 120 points
Organization and Clarity of Essay = 5 points
Short-Essay Prompt
Part I
One of the central questions of our course on culture concerns the relationships between [ideas/
beliefs/values] and [relations/practices/actions]. As we know, Karl Marx carefully and critically
examines the relationship between forms of consciousness and material social relations.
? We know that Marx never uses the phrase ‘false consciousness’ to describe
ideology. What is ideology, according to Marx?
? How and why does ideology emerge and get maintained, according to Marx?
? Marx contends that: “liberation is an historical, not a mental act” (GI: 169). What
does this mean?
Part II
We have also been examining a series of thinkers who draw insight from Marx’s analyses in order to present their own critical analyses on the relationships between culture and capitalism. In particular, we have compared and contrasted investigations of popular (or ‘mass’) culture presented in the writings of Max Horkheimer & Theodore Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and Ryan Moore.
Using direct textual evidence in support of your responses, provide explanations to the
following questions:
? Horkheimer and Adorno’s analysis of the culture industry results in a relatively
pessimistic series of conclusions regarding ‘mass’ culture.
How and why do Horkheimer and Adorno reach their relatively pessimistic
conclusions?
? By contrast, Benjamin’s and Moore’s analyses of popular (or ‘mass’) culture
result in (relatively) more hopeful conclusions.
How and why do Benjamin and Moore reach their relatively hopeful
conclusions?
Bonus Questions: 4 points Total
(Approx. 1-2 sentences per question)
1.) What structural parallels does Marx draw between religion and commodity
‘fetishism’?
2.) What do Horkheimer & Adorno mean by the term ‘pseudoindividuality’ in
relation to the culture industry?
3.) Why is the ‘loss of the aura’ a potentially positive development, according to
Benjamin?
4.) What does Moore mean when he contends that music – and culture more
broadly - is ‘relatively autonomous’ in relation to a political-economic/material
‘base’?