The document outlines an assignment for a college English class to analyze a form of cultural resistance and construct an argument for a particular understanding of the issue. Students are instructed to identify a topic related to cultural resistance, conduct research to explore various perspectives on the controversy, and write a paper arguing their own position while incorporating sources to further develop their argument. Examples of topics that could be analyzed include music, art, language, media, and various social movements.

1. College English WRT 105
Dr. Smyth
Date Due:
Keep track of Developmental Due Dates in Syllabus
Documented Argument Assignment
Cultural Resistance and Dissent
Both the culture we enjoy and the culture in which we live
provide us with ideas of how things are and how they should be,
frameworks through which to interpret reality and possibility.
They help us account for the past, make sense of the present and
dream of the future. Culture can be, and is, used as a means of
social control. More effective than any army is a shared
conception that the way things are is the way things should be.
The powers-that-be don’t remain in power by convincing us that
they are the answer, but rather that there is no other solution.
But culture can be, and is, used as a means of resistance, a place
to formulate other solutions. In order to strive for change, you
have to first imagine it, and culture is the repository of
imagination.

2. ~Stephen Duncombe
It is the common failing of totalitarian regimes that they cannot
really understand the nature of our democracy. They mistake
dissent for disloyalty. They mistake restlessness for a rejection
of policy. They mistake a few committees for a country. They
misjudge individual speeches for public policy.
~Lyndon Baines Johnson
In his introduction to the Cultural Resistance Reader, Stephen
Duncombe reluctantly defines “cultural resistance” as “culture
that is used, consciously or unconsciously, effectively or not, to
resist and /or change the dominant political, economic, and/or
social structure” (5). He goes on to raise questions about how
cultural resistance works, whether or not it can also be thought
of as political resistance, and eventually whether or not
cultural resistance is even possible. We’ll spend the next
segment of WRT 105 entertaining these ideas; exploring,
analyzing, questioning, critiquing and arguing about how and
why (and if) culture is being used to resist or challenge the
dominant ideologies, policies, and practices of the
contemporary American landscape. During that time we’ll

3. grapple with difficult questions: How is culture being used to
demonstrate dissatisfaction with the status quo, with the
dominant American culture? What are the cultural artifacts
associated with resistance and dissent? What are various
countercultures, subcultures, or cultures of resistance
identifying as the social, economic and political problems of the
day? What are their goals (to raise awareness, to change the
way we think, to affect “real” social or political change, etc.)?
Are they effective? How do the critiques offered by these
groups connect with larger issues being debated by the greater
public? And where do you stand on the issues, on the means of
resistance or dissent?
Your first task will be to identify a form of cultural resistance
(or attempted cultural resistance) and its connected
controversies and then to spend some time listening in on and
analyzing the arguments that are embedded in the debate. Who
is saying what? What positions are the various participants
taking? What are the ethical and social consequences of those
positions? Who wins? Who loses? What is the history of this
issue? What kinds of arguments are being constructing for what
kinds of audiences? What seems to influence who takes what
position? What is the scale of this controversy (local, regional,
national, global)? Which positions seem to have the most
credible arguments? Which positions seem to have the most
power? What visual images do the various participants deploy?
You are going to, more or less, map out the opinions and the
implications surrounding your issue.
You will use the skills of analysis that you have honed in unit 2
to arrive at research questions, which you will then explore
through the various methods we have identified in class
(database research, personal experience, etc). As you perform
your analysis, you will again practice deferring judgment,
identifying parts and how they are connected, looking for
patterns, making the implicit explicit, and reformulating
questions. However, unlike your analysis essay, your central

4. purpose in the essay your write for unit 3 (Argument) will be to
persuade your academic audience to adopt the position that you
recommend from the position of authority you have built with
your research. Your argument will be based on and will emerge
from your analysis of the controversy. In your essay for this
unit, you will construct an argument that positions you within
the controversy. You will not simply argue for who is right and
who is wrong—rather, you will argue for a particular way to
understand the issue and, if appropriate, you will include a call
for a certain kind of action from your audience as a way to
resolve the controversy. To do this, you will select a limited
number of sources (these may be written, visual, audio, video,
etc.) from those you uncovered in your research. No more than
three or four of these (at least two scholarly) should represent
the views you wish to explore in depth, support, work against or
develop in building your own argument. Others may be included
if you need to reference them briefly in order to summarize the
controversy or present statistics, etc. This is not a “full blown”
research project.
Examples of some general topics you may want to explore could
include, but are certainly not limited to: Music (protest music,
gangsta rap, punk, noise, hardcore, Burning Man, mix
tapes/CDs/playlists, piracy); Art (graffiti, Banksy, busking,
guerilla and performance art, various art movements); Language
(non-standard dialects of English, Spanglish); Alternative
Media (alternative radio, zines, blogs); Alternative Education
(Montessori schools, Ebonics); Use of Space (parkour,
skateboarding, Reclaim the Streets, Critical Mass); Body Art
(tattoos, piercing, branding); Culture Jamming and Culture
Jamming Organizations (Abrupt, Subvertise, Adbusters);
Resistance to National or Normative Identities (in terms of
sexuality, family, race); Role playing games; Anti-war activism;
Animal-rights activism; Environmental activism . . .The list
goes on. . .

5. Again, create a good, descriptive title and follow MLA citation
procedures. This paper will be graded using the WRT105
standard rubric. Required length: 8 pages
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