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ENGL-475-01 Public Intellectuals
Spring only
“So what?” and “Why should anyone care?” are the two fundamental (and most irritating) questions that anyone writing for a diverse audience must address: by necessity, public intellectuals must explicitly confront these questions within their writing and throughout their careers. As a matter of professional survival, public intellectuals also must develop a writing style that negotiates between high and low cultures, addressing themselves to audiences composed of educated non-specialists as well as the erudite.
“Crossing Over” explores selected moments in the twentieth-century history of American cultural criticism as well as the practice of writing criticism in an accessible yet intellectually rigorous manner. Students will study critical writing and investigate its influence; they will also practice the art of critical writing in regular assignments. The course will begin by exploring the elusive and changing definitions of “the public intellectual.” It will then explore twentieth-century culture critics such as H.L. Mencken and the wits of the Round Table. It will then focus on the mid-century with the rise of the New York Intellectuals (Edmund Wilson, Dwight MacDonald), the early stirrings of the Women’s Movement (Betty Friedan). It will conclude with the emergence of post-1960s public intellectuals out of the New Left and Conservative political movements. (e.g. Tom Hayden, Norman Mailer, Barbara Ehrenreich, Todd Gitlin, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Stanley Crouch).
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
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