THE MODERN CULTURE WRITER

This course will examine the lineaments of critical writing. A critic blends the subjective and objective in complex ways. A critic must know the history of an artwork, (its past), while placing it on the contemporary landscape and contemplating its future.  A single piece can report, analyze, argue, describe, reflect and interpret. And, since examining a work of art also means examining oneself, implicitly or explicitly, the task includes a willingness to probe one’s own assumptions and biases. The best critics are engaged in a conversation -- a dialogue a debate --with changing standards of taste, with their audience, with their own convictions and emotions. The best criticism is part of a larger cultural conversation. It spurs readers to ask questions rather than accept answers about art and society.

We will read reviews and essays that address a wide range of forms and genres: performance (from theatre to sports), music, visual art, literature and the uses of language. A number of them also address, implicitly or explicitly, cultural boundaries and divisions: the challenges of new forms; negotiations between popular and high art; between art and politics; the post-modern blurring between artist, critic and fan.