Reimagining Cultural Criticism

Sundays: November 1 - 22
3 - 5:30 p.m. EST

Led by CARINA DEL VALLE SCHORSKE
with guest authors John Jeremiah Sullivan, Namwali Serpell, Joseph Earl Thomas, & Isabelia Herrera

$420 $370 (until July 31)

Cultural criticism is under threat from every direction: artificial intelligence, vertical video, celebrity publicists, newsroom budget cuts, university censorship. But these threats suggest that there’s still something vital and subversive about engaging with culture as a collective project rather than as corporate commodity or soothing stream of so-called content. 

In this four-session course, we will emphasize approaches to cultural criticism that push against the boundaries of traditional genres (the review, the hot take, the profile) or bypass them altogether in favor of forms that respond more idiosyncratically to their subject matter.

We will also explore zones of culture—rare blues records, backup dancers, sex work, video games—often ignored by contemporary criticism, expanding our sense of what “counts” as worthy of public comment. And even as we think critically about the current media landscape, we will learn how to persuade mainstream magazines to support and publish innovative work. 

Each session features a different guest writer—John Jeremiah Sullivan, Isabelia Herrera, Namwali Serpell, & Joseph Earl Thomas—whose work elevates cultural criticism to the level of literature. Students will have the opportunity to pose questions directly to these writers and to experiment with writing prompts inspired by their work. 

Together, we will plant the seeds for four culture essays inspired by our visiting writers, sketching out the research plans, aesthetic forms, and potential outlets for each. Following the psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott, who described culture as the adult’s zone of free play, we will practice using culture as a tool for rethinking our own lives, politics, and place in history. 

In this course, students can expect to:

• Engage with prize-winning writers who have expanded the literary scope of cultural criticism 

• Explore connections between cultural criticism and other genres, including memoir, history, manifesto, and poetry

• Read contemporary cultural criticism with a critical eye, identifying and writing into existing deficits

• Practice situating contemporary culture in deep time and finding “news hooks” for evergreen stories 

• Conceptualize at least four new writing projects based on in-class prompts that they can pursue further once the course is over 

• Develop a research practice that will consistently yield story ideas over time

This is a craft intensive, not a workshop. While there’s no direct feedback on your writing, you’ll generate plenty of new material through customized prompts and weekly assignments. This course will take place live on Zoom, but is designed for asynchronous value if you are unable to participate in all sessions; recordings will be shared each week.

About the Instructors

A limited number of scholarships for this course are available. Please fill out this form by August 7, and we’ll get back to you within a week after the deadline. (Please hold off on registering until you have received a scholarship decision.)

Payment plans are available at checkout via ShopPay.

There is a 10% cancellation fee if you cancel your enrollment more than 1 week before the start of the course. No refund will be given if cancelling within less than a week of the course start date (or after the course has begun).

FAQs →

Off Assignment’s Masters’ Series courses are unique four-session courses that delve deep into a specific writing topic by harnessing the expertise and craft tactics of a renowned writer in a particular niche, plus four celebrated authors. Participating writers gain a wealth of advanced techniques while benefiting from a cohesive community of disciplined writers.