Textbook Review: Pop Perspectives by Laura Gray-Rosendale ($60.63, McGraw-Hill)
· Theoretical Lens(es):
Gray-Rosendale creates a combination of process and critical pedagogies, asking students to not only consider the ways in which they write and what goes into a solid rhetorical discussion, but provides cultural readings that demonstrate thoughtful analysis and well-reasoned writing, but also ask students to examine from different rhetorical angles familiar images and ideas they may not have previously stopped to consider.
· Author:
Gray-Rosendale is an Associate Professor of English at Northern Arizona University (NAU). Of particular interest to those who may be interested in using her textbook in a composition class, Gray-Rosendale runs S.T.A.R. (Successful Transition and Academic Readiness) writing center for NAU’s Multicultural Student Center. S.T.A.R. is “a program that addresses the needs of students who are first-generation, racial and ethnic minorities, and/or in economic need” (Northern Arizona University Department of English). Her areas of scholarship include contemporary rhetoric, feminism, visual and cultural studies, and politics. All of this makes her an ideal author for this particular textbook, which is not only a primer in beginning rhetoric, but a thoughtful and critical survey of the messages embedded in cultural texts (visual and written), often touching on themes of marginalized cultures.
· Organization:
The first three chapters of Pop Perspectives focuses on the instruction of rhetoric and composition. These initial pages provide a straightforward and highly practical guide to the nature and aspects of rhetoric, the basics of reading and writing critically, the revising process, and analysis of texts. Gray-Rosendale’s explanations are clear and easy to understand, without being patronizing. She includes checklists to help break down for students the details of which they should be conscious in analyzing texts, including their own, or creating their own compositions. The remainder of the textbook consists of mainly critical essays/articles on various facets of popular culture, focusing on such areas television, movies, music, cyberspace, and advertising. Each article is followed by different sets of questions that ask students to put to test the critical skills to which t hey were introduced at the beginning on the textbook — “Critical Perspective,” “Rhetoric and Argument,” and “Analysis.” In this way, students not only strengthen the more process-minded aspect of composition studies, but are engaged in critical discussions about the world around them, thus giving them the tools with which to be both better writers and better (as in more discerning) citizens of their world.
Though I think the readings in Pop Perspectives applied to certain upper-level classes — these are by no means simplified readings; they are intelligently written and problematize issues in such a way that would make them applicable to more advanced classes focusing on critical thinking (communications classes seem the most likely) — this is best geared toward a freshman composition class, particularly given its emphasis on basic rhetorical skills.
Given the way ISU structures their ENG 101 classes, I don’t know that Pop Perspectives would be a viable option for use in our first-year composition classes. Pop Perspectives is, by and large, a reader and ISU’s more writing-intensive focus doesn’t allow for the sort of focus on critical reading and discussion that a textbook like this requires. Certainly, the more practical aspects of the textbook would be a useful aid and could be integrated into ISU’s 101 classes, though the fact that we, as teachers, are not really permitted the freedom to choose texts for these classes also stands in the way of a book like Pop Perspectives being properly integrated into the curriculum.
Nonetheless, I really like the focus, style, and overall approach of this textbook and I would love to tailor an ENG 101 course in such a way as to include it. I’m keenly interested in the ways in which we can integrate “pop culture” (a term which seems to have such a dirty, non-academic stigma attached to it) into our classrooms as a means of widening the scope of what we typically consider text, especially considering the rate at which we as a contemporary culture consume this sort of storytelling/rhetoric. A textbook like Pop Perspectives, I believe, lends credence to the idea of pop culture as an area deserving of (if not begging to be) serious critical inquiry and consideration. Gray-Rosendale has nicely organized the readings to correspond to genres (TV, music, movies, internet) that are immediate in the lives of students and could allow for different “units” of study throughout the semester.
I’m especially impressed and pleased by Gray-Rosendale’s inclusion — right at the beginning of the text — of a discussion of the differences between high culture and popular culture and why it is important that we have an awareness and understanding of more popular conceptions of culture in order to be more informed “readers” of our daily lives. I do wish she had devoted some time to discussing how and why these non-”high” cultures are disdained or thought unworthy of serious consideration, but it does allow for that discussion to take place in the classroom, providing an opportunity to consider which voices are given privilege in our society and which are marginalized or disparaged. Again, this brings us to another entrance into a discussion of narratives and voice and can help students as they seek their own narratives and voices.
