CS301-6-PT-CO:
Dangerous Ideas: Essays and Manifestos as Social Criticism Capstone
2024/25
Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring Special
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Monday 13 January 2025
Friday 27 June 2025
0
11 December 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
NONUYYAJ Essex Abroad (Ajou University)
This module examines the social criticism and subversiveness of writing in the form of the essay and the manifesto.
The module will study the essay as a critical tool to explore and interrogate one`s own certainties.
No information available.
No information available.
`Essay` here does not refer to the sort of thing you typically write for an undergraduate module. The essay, rather, is a distinct literary genre that has played an important role in the humanities and social sciences ever since its invention by Michel de Montaigne in the 16th century. Essays may mask themselves as innocent excursions but, as with Jonathan Swift's `A Modest Proposal` or George Orwell`s `Politics and the English Language`, the essay can rapidly overturn accepted opinions and provoke the questioning of values. In addition to studying some classic essays, students will get a chance to contribute to the genre by writing an essay of their own.
In the spring, we will turn our attention to the manifesto. Manifestos typically denounce dominant trends and/ or accepted conventions, question the grounds of prevailing, ideas, behaviours and practices, and involve a call and/or a programme for action. But they can take many forms. Manifestos, like Marx and Engels` `The Communist Manifesto`, are written to inspire action and overthrow existing social and working institutions, while the `How to be Idle`' manifesto proposes we abandon work itself and thereby challenges the incessant demands in our society that we devote our lives to paid labour. Students will get to write their own manifesto on a subject of their choosing.
To consider the structure of the module as a whole, students are encouraged to think about the essay as a tool to develop, explore, and reflect on fundamental questions, and the manifesto as a means to answer those questions. The essayist, as Montaigne puts it, "speak(s) as one who questions and does not know..." (Montaigne C 237); the manifesto writer knows the answer and conveys it with force.
To prepare for this module, suggested introductory reading:
Nussbaum, Martha C. (2010) Not for profit: Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press
This module will be delivered via:
- One lecture per week.
- One seminar per week which functions as a writing workshop.
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Tolentino, J. (2020) Trick mirror: reflections on self-delusion. London: 4th Estate.
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Montaigne, M. de and Cotton, C. (2017)
The complete essays of Michel de Montaigne. [New edition]. Edited by W.C. Hazlitt. [Lawrence, Kansas]: Digireads.com. Available at:
https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/1244144.
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Karshan, T. and Murphy, K. (eds) (2020)
On essays: Montaigne to the present. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at:
https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198707868.001.0001.
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Srinivasan, A. (2018) ‘Does anyone have the right to sex?’,
London Review of Books, 40(6). Available at:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n06/amia-srinivasan/does-anyone-have-the-right-to-sex.
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Rebecca Solnit – Abolish High School (no date). Available at:
https://harpers.org/archive/2015/04/abolish-high-school/.
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T. W. Adorno (1984) ‘The Essay as Form’,
New German Critique, (32), pp. 151–171. Available at:
https://www-jstor-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/stable/488160?origin=crossref.
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Thomas, Merton (no date) ‘Monastic Interreligious Dialogue - Creative Silence’. Laikos. Available at:
http://www.laikos.org/Thomas_Merton_Creative_Silence.pdf.
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Thoreau, H.D. (no date)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. Project Gutenberg. Available at:
https://www-gutenberg-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/ebooks/71.
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Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848)
Manifesto of the Communist Party. Available at:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/.
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Puchner, M. (2006)
Poetry of the revolution: Marx, manifestos, and the avant-gardes. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Available at:
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=665898.
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Wheen, F. (1999)
Karl Marx. London: Fourth Estate. Available at:
http://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=110236&titleID=978647.
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Friedman, M. (13AD) ‘The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits’,
The New York Times [Preprint]. Available at:
https://search.proquest.com/docview/117925408/E7B618E850A84B37PQ/1?accountid=10766.
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Figueres, C. and Rivett-Carnac, T. (2021) Future We Choose. Bonnier Books Ltd.
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Nussbaum, M.C. (2010)
Not for profit: why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=846171.
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Foster, H. et al. (2016) ‘1909’, in Art since 1900: modernism, antimodernism, postmodernism. Third edition. London: Thames and Hudson.
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Marinetti, F.T. (2009) ‘Founding and manifesto of futurism 1909’, in Futurist manifestos. London: Tate.
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Fraser, N., Bhattacharya, T. and Arruzza, C. (2019)
Feminism for the 99%. London: Verso Books. Available at:
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=2032228.
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Hayes, N. (2020)
The book of trespass: Crossing the lines that divide us. Available at:
http://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=110236&titleID=5387589.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Assessment required in future academic year.
Reassessment
Assessment required in future academic year.
Module supervisor and teaching staff
No
No
No
Prof Raphael Hallett
AdvanceHE
Higher Education Consultant - Senior Advisor
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
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