Unit 4: Theorizing "cool"

Unit 4: Theorizing “The Cool” 
Eng. 102, Jack Christian
Genre: Photo-essay  Length: at least 4 original photos and 700-800 words
Audience: An informed public interested in contemporary culture
Essay Assignment: Your job in this essay is to use your photographs and your own writing to present an original “theory of cool” that is focused around, and delimited by, the photos you have taken.
Just as David Foster Wallace considers underlying meanings, associations and attributes of the Maine Lobster Festival in his essay “Consider the Lobster,” your job is to unpack the various meanings, associations, and attributes of coolness. (Again, not coolness in general, but coolness in whatever specific way it is suggested by your photos)
Consider this sentence from Foster Wallace’s essay: “I’m trying, rather, to work out and articulate some of the troubling questions that arise amid all the laughter and saltation and community pride of the Maine Lobster Festival” (313).
Your assignment is to do similarly with “the cool,” in whatever way you have defined it for yourself and have documented in your photos. In so doing, you may choose to consider yourself in nearly any relationship to “the cool” : i.e. are you an insider or an outsider, are you a participant or an observer, or both, is your tone serious or sarcastic, or seriously sarcastic?
In so doing, you might ask: What is the outward identity of the people in your photos? What do they hope to suggest about themselves? What are the values and assumptions implicit in their attitudes, dress, body language, etc? Likewise, what is valued by the culture they are a part of? What troubling / provocative questions are brought up by your analysis of your photos?
Also consider: How do these things relate to our classroom discussion of music videos and cigarette advertisements? What are the various ways you can consider “the cool”? And, how do these considerations link up?
Structure: Part of your job in this essay is to arrive at the best possible structure for your essay. How can you use your photos and your writing together to present the most interesting, most meaningful essay possible? What should the order to the photos be? How should they be arranged in the text? How do you want a reader to interact with your essay?
Schedule:
Mon 10/24: In-class writing activities
Wed 10/26: Initial Draft Due, peer-editing
Fri 10/28: Final draft due