Inventing human rights

In the lecture below, historian Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights, contends that 18th-century European literature and art actually taught its readers/viewers how to be human in the modern sense. Please watch and listen carefully to the lecture, then complete the following by the start of next class:

First: In a single paragraph, please summarize that argument. This paragraph will later be revised to form part of the introduction to your first graded paper, so aim to do a stellar job with it: that means carefully explaining the reasoning behind Hunt's claims as clearly, concisely, and completely as you can. (Formatting instructions are here.) 

By the start to next class, please post your paragraph to Google Drive and share it with me. (Instructions are here.) Since this is the first step in drafting Essay 1, you should name the Google Doc as follows: WRIT 1133 - Your name - Essay 1. 

Second: When you've finished summarizing Hunt's argument, think back upon your own experience as a consumer of culture, then pick one contemporary cultural artifact that, you believe, is teaching us how to be human today, and come to class prepared to share and explain your choice. This little experiment will likely work best if you deliberately aim to make a non-obvious choice: that is, you should feel encouraged to define "human" differently from Hunt, and you should feel encouraged to choose any kind of contemporary cultural artifact -- from a novel to a video game to a stop sign to a dance to a dollar bill: the more surprising the choice, the better. 

It'd be great if you'd either bring your artifact to class or include a link to it in your Google Doc me a link to it.