Hi Maria
Thanks for your willingness to help. I don't have one particular research method in mind - beyond the fact that a qualitative analysis is not about numbers, but theoretical interpretation. Rather, I want my students to actually analyse some text (in this case song lyrics) as part of the course. In order to do this, they would need to have some theoretical concepts to talk about (I'm thinking gender relations, and the ideologies of religion and the USA (democracy, capitalism, individualism). I have found some controversial examples of analyses of Madonna's work, e.g. the infamous Steve Allen article, which functions as a great example of how NOT to do an analysis! However, why I asked for help was to try to make the course more authentic.. I'm not convinced that the academic voice is necessarily the "most authoritative" (if anyone actually is!) when it comes to Madonna. Particularly seeing as the feminists seem to have one problem after another with her! I suppose clearer questions to have asked you would have been - (i) what are the central themes that epitomise Madonna and the album, (ii) what kind of a model for identity formation is she for young people?, (iii) or maybe even more simply, why have you been a fan for 30 years? Thanks again - Gill
