I. Select a text that fits one of these descriptions:

1. seems to express the temper of its time, as T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland did

2. is woven deep in the culture's history, as "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is

3. has proved to be greatly respected and is consistently taught

4. was overwhelmingly popular, but never cononized, as Gone with the Wind was

5. you find deeply meaningful

6. has recently entered the canon, deservedly in your opinion (perhaphs The Awakening)

7. was a media event, as MacBird and a recently discovered and published manuscript of Hemingway's

Alternative: You can "read" an object, an event, or a cultural icon.  Ex.: A good, timely topic would be Sacajawea.
 

II. Subject it to cultural studies analysis and present your findings

1. Do a "thick description"

2. Speculate about its appeal

3. Identify how it is socially symbolic

4. Explain how it participates in a cultural debate or change

5. Present its "usefulness," in any, today