The Cultural Critic Online

3 credits

NOTE TO JOURNALISM MINORS: THIS COURSE SATISFIES THE REQUIREMENT FOR AN ELECTIVE WITH A CRAFT" ORIENTATION." What is the role of the critic in an algorithm-driven, high-metabolism, numbers-obsessed society? Today, this question looms large over the practitioners of the craft across multiple disciplines, from food to popular music to architecture. In this seminar, students will learn the history of criticism and read examples from the past and the present, while writing their own capsule reviews and essay-length interrogations of culture. Guest speakers will include modern writers and editors of criticism as well as artists who engage in the practice. Students will be given the chance to cultivate and develop their own critical frameworks based on their knowledge and individual aesthetic leanings.