Syllabus—Cultural Criticism in the Digital Age

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Required Materials:

·      Daniel Mendelsohn, “A Critic’s Manifesto,” New Yorker, 28 August 2012

·      Dwight Garner, “A Critic’s Case for Critics Who Are Actually Critical,” New York Times, 15 August 2012

·      Barry Schwabsky, “A Critic’s Job of Work,” The Nation, 9 March 2016

·      Edward Mendelson, “What Is the Critic’s Job?,” New York Review of Books, 28 September 2017

·      The 50 Year Argument, dir. Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi (2014)

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Required Materials:

·      AO Scott, “Everybody’s a Critic. And That’s How It Should Be.,” New York Times 30 January 2016

·      Anya Ventura, “Slow Criticism: Art in the Age of Post-Judgement,” Temporary Art Review, 15 February 2016

·      Various Authors, “Do We Need Professional Critics?,” New York Times, 7 October 2012

·      “Arts Journalism and Criticism in a Digital Age” Talks and other materials, Walker Arts Museum, 28-30 May 2015

·      Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936), in Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, ed. Hannah Arendt (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968), 217-252

·      This week’s New Yorker back of the book, course reserves or subscribe

·      Chicago Reader arts section

·      Third Coast Review

·      Subscribe to daily or weekly ArtsJournal email

·      Join listserv mailing lists for Block Museum, MCA, Art Institute of Chicago, Arts Club of Chicago, and any other Chicago venues of interest (Links Hall, Constellation, Elastic Arts, Dance Center of Columbia College, Siskel Film Center, Facets, Steppenwolf, arts at other area universities, museums, concert venues, theaters)

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Required Materials:

·      Matthew Arnold, “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time,” Essays in Criticism (originally published in The National Review, 1864; reprinted, Macmillan & Co., 1865), 9-36

·      Walter Pater, “Preface” and “Conclusion,” The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry, ed. Donald L. Hill (1893; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), xix-xxv, 186-190

·      Oscar Wilde, “The Critic as Artist: With Some Remarks Upon the Importance of Discussing Everything,” in Intentions (London: Methuen and Co., 1913), 95-220

·      TS Eliot, “The Perfect Critic,” The Sacred Wood (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1921), 1-14

·      HL Mencken, “Footnote on Criticism,” in Prejudices, Third Series (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1922), 84-105

·      RP Blackmur, “A Critic’s Job of Work” in Language As Gesture: Essays in Poetry (1933; reprinted, New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1952), 372-399

· John Crowe Ransom, “Criticism, Inc.,” VQR 14, 3, Autumn 1937     

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Required Materials:

·      Susan Sontag, “Against Interpretation,” in Against Interpretation (1966)

·      Manny Farber, “White Elephant Art and Termite Art” (1962), in Negative Space (New York: Da Capo, 1998), 134-44

·      Regarding Susan Sontag (documentary film, 2014)

·      New Yorker back of the book

·      Chicago Reader, NewCity, Third Coast Review

·      ArtsJournal email

Introductory Essay, 500-1000 words. Compile a list of quotations from our readings/viewings of whenever any writer/speaker attempts to define what cultural criticism is what a cultural critic does. Make a list of these. Develop a 500-1000-word exploration of 1-3 of the quotations. What do you make of each one? How do they compare to each other: similarities, differences, larger implications from those contrasts or intersections? Are there any “keywords” you notice among your quotations? Can you tell us more about why these are “keywords”? Remember to select Assignment category, add a featured image, and add any relevant tags. Post on WordPress website.

Respond to at least two other students in the comments section of their WordPress post.

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Required Materials:

·      Raymond Williams, “Criticism” and “Culture,” in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (1976), 84-93

·      “Culture” in New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, eds. Bennett, Grossberg and Morris (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005), 63-69

·      Stuart Hall, “Notes on Deconstructing ‘the Popular'” in People’s History and Socialist Theory, ed. Raphael Samuel (Boston: Routledge, 1981): 227-39

·      bell hooks, “Cultural Criticism and Transformation” Video, 1997

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Required Material:

·      George Santayana, “The Genteel Tradition Defined,” from Critics of Culture: Literature and Society in the Early Twentieth Century, ed. Alan Trachtenberg (New York: Wiley, 1976), 14-35

·      Van Wyck Brooks, “On Creating a Useable Past,” The Dial 64 (11 April 1918), reprinted in Critics of Culture: Literature and Society in the Early Twentieth Century, ed. Alan Trachtenberg (New York: Wiley, 1976), 165-180

·      Jonathan Letham, “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism,” Harper’s Magazine (February 2007)

·      New Yorker back of the book

·      Chicago Reader, NewCity, Third Coast Review

·      ArtsJournal email

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Required Materials:

·      Stephen F. Eisenman, “William Blake and the Age of Aquarius,” in William Blake and the Age of Aquarius (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017), 1-78

Block Museum

Guest:

·      Susy Bielak, Associate Director of Engagement/Curator of Public Practice, Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University

In 750-1000 words, respond to one artwork in the Block Museum exhibitions. Your short critical essay should include a “close reading” (detailed description) of whatever it is you are examining and then should compellingly link detailed description to interpretation. Why does this artwork matter? What is it “saying”? What is its significance? Try to develop an effective opening “hook” and develop a clear, cogent, and exciting organizational flow for your essay. End strongly. Consider potential multimedia elements (photographs, annotations, video, experiments with design of text, hyperlinks, timelines, etc.). Refer to the rubric for additional information and consider examples and models from our materials as you develop your short critical essay. Remember to select Assignment category, add a featured image, and add any relevant tags. Post on WordPress.

Respond to at least two other students in the comments section of their WordPress post.

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Required Materials:

·      Nathan Heller, “Five Classic Pauline Kael Reviews,” New Yorker, 14 October 2011 (read the five reviews too!)

·      Raymond Haberski, Jr., “Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael and the Duel for the Soul of Criticism,” in It’s Only a Movie!: Films and Critics in American Culture (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001), 122-143

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Required Material:

·      Craig Seligman, Sontag and Kael: Opposites Attract Me (Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 2005)

·      New Yorker back of the book

·      Chicago Reader, NewCity, Third Coast Review

·      ArtsJournal email

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Required Material:

·      Greil Marcus, Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music: Sixth Edition (New York: Plume, 2015), xi-89

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·      Greil Marcus, Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music: Sixth Edition (New York: Plume, 2015), 113-168

·      New Yorker back of the book

·      Pitchfork

·      Chicago Reader, NewCity, Third Coast Review

·      ArtsJournal email

In 750-1000 words, write a review of one song, album, or film. You may review a film or song or album that Kael or Marcus discuss, or choose your own to review. Draw upon ideas you gleaned from Kael and/or Marcus for your review: what that you learned from their cultural criticism translates to your own review? Your short critical essay should include a “close reading” (detailed description) of whatever it is you are examining and then should compellingly link detailed description to interpretation. Why does this artwork matter? What is it “saying”? What is its significance? Try to develop an effective opening “hook” and develop a clear, cogent, and exciting organizational flow for your essay. End strongly. Consider potential multimedia elements (photographs, annotations, video, experiments with design of text, hyperlinks, timelines, etc.). Refer to the rubric for additional information and consider examples and models from our materials as you develop your short critical essay. Remember to select Assignment category, add a featured image, and add any relevant tags. Post on WordPress.

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Required Material:

·      Ann Powers, Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music (New York: Dey Street Books, 2017), xi-154

·      Ellen Willis, “Dylan,” Cheetah (1967) and “Janis,” Rolling Stone (1970), in Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music, ed. Nona Willis Aronowitz (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 1-20, 125-130

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Required Material:

·      Ann Powers, Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music (New York: Dey Street Books, 2017), 155-350

·      Hilton Als, “I Am Your Conscious, I Am Love: A paean 2 Prince,” Harper’s, December 2012

·      New Yorker back of the book

·      Pitchfork

·      Chicago Reader, NewCity, Third Coast Review

·      ArtsJournal email

MCA Chicago

Guests:

·      Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli, Director of Digital Media, MCA Chicago

·      Abraham Ritchie, Social Media Manager, MCA Chicago

·      Yolanda Cesta Cursach, Curator of Performance, MCA Chicago

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Required Material:

·      Mark Greif, “Against Exercise,” in Against Everything: Essays (New York: Pantheon, 2016), 3-15

·      Teju Cole, “Black Body,” in Known and Strange Things: Essays (New York: Faber, 2016), 3-16

·      Zadie Smith, “Two Directions for the Novel,” in Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays (New York: Penguin, 2009), 72-98

·      The Examined Life, dir. Astra Taylor (2008)

·      New Yorker back of the book

·      Chicago Reader, NewCity, Third Coast Review

·      ArtsJournal email

In 750-1000 words, write a piece of cultural criticism on a topic of your own choice: it can focus on a museum exhibition, theater performance, music, or topic of social, political, or cultural importance. Draw upon ideas you gleaned from our readings: what that you learned from their cultural criticism translates to your own review? Your short critical essay should include a “close reading” (detailed description) of whatever it is you are examining and then should compellingly link detailed description to interpretation. Try to develop an effective opening “hook” and develop a clear, cogent, and exciting organizational flow for your essay. End strongly. Consider potential multimedia elements (photographs, annotations, video, experiments with design of text, hyperlinks, timelines, etc.). Refer to the rubric for additional information and consider examples and models from our materials as you develop your short critical essay. Remember to select Assignment category, add a featured image, and add any relevant tags. Post on WordPress.

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Guest:

·      Joanna Furnans, Windy City Times, Art Intercepts, Performance Response Journal

·      Ellen Chenoweth, Interim Director, Interim Director, Dance Presenting Series, The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago; Editorial Board Member, ThINKing Dance

Required Materials:

·      Joanna Furnans, Selected writing TK

·      Ellen Chenoweth, Writing, Making, Curating, Blog sections of https://ellenchenoweth.com

·      Zachary Whittenburg, “Sudden Flash: Twenty-first century ballet arrived thirteen years early,” Critical Read, 2016

·      Ann Daly, “The Interested Act of Dance Criticism,” in Critical Gestures: Writings on Dance and Culture (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2002), xxix-xlii

·      Kate Lydon, “Confessions of a Dance Critic,” Pointe Magazine, 11 November 2011

·      Lauren Warnecke, “One Dance Critic’s View On Choreography And Criticism,” 24 February 2014, 4dancers

·      Madison Mainwaring, “The Death of the American Dance Critic,” The Atlantic, 6 August 2015

·      SeeChicagoDance

·      Performance Response Journal

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Required Materials:

·      New Yorker back of the book

·      Chicago Reader, NewCity, Third Coast Review

·      ArtsJournal email

Attend one of the Danceworks 2018 @ Hi-Speed performances on campus. In 750-1000 words, write a review of or reflection on the performance. Draw upon ideas you gleaned from our readings and discussion. Your short critical essay should include a “close reading” (detailed description) of whatever it is you are examining and then should compellingly link detailed description to interpretation. Try to develop an effective opening “hook” and develop a clear, cogent, and exciting organizational flow for your essay. End strongly. Consider potential multimedia elements (photographs, annotations, video, experiments with design of text, hyperlinks, timelines, etc.). Refer to the rubric for additional information and consider examples and models from our materials as you develop your short critical essay. Remember to select Assignment category, add a featured image, and add any relevant tags. Post on WordPress.

Final Assignment

·     Develop a longer interpretive multimedia essay about a work, activity, event, critic, curator, historical phenomenon, or other topic related to cultural criticism and the contemporary museum. Imagine your essay as a “feature” article or long review, roughly 2000-3000 words but also could be fewer words and more video or audio or use of images other modes of critical analysis/communication. Select something of interest to you, a topic that you wish to spend time investigating. For instance, your essay can be a focused historical study of a particular critic or a time period or it can be a more theoretical exploration of contemporary criticism, it can draw upon and compare readings from our syllabus or branch out to new readings and materials, it can focus on the MCA or Block or it can reach toward other institutions and contexts. You need not aim for breadth in your final assignment, but rather substantive inquiry based on close readings that inform an argument about a particular aspect of cultural criticism. Think carefully about how to unfold your argument and evidence effectively in the digital framework through multimedia and design elements. Consider how your voice and style enhance the interpretation you seek to make—how does the form of your essay fit the content? You may consult with the instructor over the course of the quarter to conceptualize and hone your final essay into successful content and form. Remember to select Assignment category, add a featured images, and add any relevant tags. Post on WordPress.