Stage 4

Build an Idea

Warp to...

Bubble Map
Broader Scope of Research
What's your Purpose of the Research
Current articles in the Course

Bubble Map

The Bubble map is an exercise in extending your research into many other domains/disciplines. The aim is to first expand the research far beyond a 15 minute presentation or 20 page paper, then to reduce the research to a more concise focus.

Broader Scope of Questions

History
- first mention of or first narrative of
lineage or parentage
- What lineage of theories does your work connect to?
- If not lineage, does your work hinge on a specific theorist or theorists
Genesis of interest
- What sparked an interest in this research
Bring the sexy
- What causes others to be alerted to your presentation
- What is enticing, intriguing, enigmatic, or curiosity piquing?
What does your research add to others' understanding of your topic?
What would professors and teachers get out of your presentation?
- People like to take ideas from PCA back to their classroom
What's the main point you want your audience to understand
- Above all else, what one idea should they understand from your research?
What's the most interesting story or anecdote from your research?
So what?
- Why do your research findings matter and to whom do does it matter?

What purpose does your research serve?

Undergraduate level Literary Device Paper: Applied Concepts and Devices
- Unacceptable for PCA.
- Applies an older, traditional concept or narrative device to a narrative.
- Using symbols, metaphors, motifs, etc.
- The Literary Devices, which are basic Middle School or High School concepts.
Undergraduate Level Theory Driven Paper: Applied Theories
- Unacceptable for PCA.
- Applies an older, traditional theory to a narrative, such as Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Sartre's concept of Dread/Angst, or Veblen's Conspicuous Consumption.
- Level 3 through Level 8 theory papers written in my Composition 2 course.
Shaping Popular Discourse through Professional Writing: Adding to a current discussion among the Literati.
- Like memes, there are usually ideas du jour among the Literati. Sometimes these last for weeks; sometimes for years. Sometimes they rise out of more academic work; sometimes they are just a discussion that someone starts, and the discussion roils forth.
- One former Student's PCA research on the Death of Adulthood in American Culture added to a Literati discussion from a decade ago concerned the lack of mature (40+ year old) characters in TV shows.
- Literati: See Stage 2 for the list of popular Literati sources.
- These literati ideas du jour are not what's in the swiftly churning 24-hour news cycle or what is "trending" or what is the latest hot button, open-nerve, twitter-esque/ tumbler-speak fleeting and flitty mindscape.
Shaping Popular or Academic Discourse: Travelling an idea across disciplines.
- Uses an idea/concept/theory from one discipline (such as Psychology) to apply to another discipline to create a new are of research.
- Such as Hailey's research of personality disorders on female characters in Sci-fi & Fantasy.
- Or, this idea that uses psychology in the chapter "The Psychological Process and Cost of Killing in an Undead Wasteland" The Walking Dead Psychology: Psych of the Living Dead
- Or, this article that uses a concept of Risk Society from economics to apply to post-apocalyptic stories.
Master's Level Work to Shape the Discipline: Amend/Update a current theory
- Uses an existing theory but updates/ amends that theory toward a more applicable use concerning narratives and/or an era/worldview.
- Sonnel's grief cycle inferred from hero films rather than pulled from psychology and applied to films. While this is a new cycle, she amended/updated current psychological grief cycles in relation to hero films.
- This concept of Anthrop-scene in "The Anthropo-scene: A guide for the perplexed" was du jour for a few decades. while it is still used, currently the concept has been denied offical position in Anthropological studies
PhD Level Work to Shape the Discipline: Creating and utilizing a New Theory

Created a new theory to analyze narratives, sometimes including how that helps us analyze our world in a new way.
A new theory can help shape a discipline (such as Humanities, or English Literature, or Film)
Guitton's research (using the burn chart on He-man characters) created a new method by which we can see the limits of creativity.
Matt Hudson's extension of Barthes' idea of the Enigma and the idea of Primary and Secondary characters to create the concept of the Enigmatic Tertiary character.
Kristina Hill's revision and new theory of the term "cultural infiltration" allows us to understand a new subversion of/about power, knowledge, and how films can enter/ irrupt into a broader market.