Cultural Criticism

Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it - Bertolt Brecht

Creative writers often have a shared goal: to not only understand the world, but to open it up and make room for change. The greatest strength of the creative arts does not lie in its capacity to offer concrete solutions, but to map problems and raise new perspectives in such a way that change seems necessary and conceivable. This is a key assertion of cultural criticism, one of the most important traditions in modern cultural theory. This course offers an introduction to cultural criticism. On the one hand, we will look at how critical thinkers have made connections between culture and society; on the other hand, we analyse a selection of novels and other texts in which key concepts of criticism are explored imaginatively. Through theoretical reflections, we will attempt to answer the question: what is the relationship between literature and other forms of art and the culture and society from which they originate? Each week of the course is organised around a key idea or concept in cultural criticism.