How writing shapes thinking--and actions. Acting Out Culture peels back the layers of embedded cultural messages and teaches students to analyze what we believe, but it also demonstrates that writing is a powerful tool we use to shape how we come to believe it. Six chapters foreground the ways in which we think, watch, eat, learn, and work, according to sometimes contradictory cultural norms, and how we negotiate it all through writing.
Vivid readings that students connect to. Through inventive questions, wit, and surprising points of view, the 49 readings by both cultural critics and academic writers tap into students' enthusiasm for challenging authority. Sources, from books to blogs, show how writers engage with assumptions in a range of contexts.
Visual and textual examples that expose cultural norms. Woven into each chapter, thought-provoking cultural artifacts offer alternative ways to frame questions about our assumptions.
- Who is shaping, marketing, and, in many cases, profiting from our cultural norms? "Rule Makers/Rule Breakers" introduces students to current cultural debates by showing them real-life examples of public figures at odds.
- We don't still think that way! Do we? "Then and Now" examines popular thinking from the past and links it to the present.
- What are you looking at? Using visuals that range from Norman Rockwell's Freedom from Want to dvertisements, "Scenes and Un-Scenes" demonstrates how images are used to promote certain ideas while hiding others.
Assignments that encourage students to stake a claim and get involved. Writing prompts after each selection ask students to analyze the push-and-pull of cultural norms and to take a stand on the topics they care about. The "Putting It in Practice" assignments at the end of each chapter suggest opportunities to observe, evaluate, and question the rules at work in their own lives.