Manifesto
Manifesto for Creative Living and Lifelong Learning
From the Course Notes and Instructions:
- A manifesto is designed as a strong, public declaration of your ideas, often describing the basis for thinking that orients you around your overall work: this may include an expression of fundamental principles, claims, or assumptions that you make about a topic (in this case, "Criticism and Creativity in Literature and the Arts"). A good starting point for your manifesto is to go back and examine all of the "Principles and Practices" that you identified for the individual Written/Creative Products, prioritize them, choose the ones most important to you, and develop your manifesto to reflect them. Another way is to think of the manifesto as capturing the "bottom line" of what this course is about for you. Where do you feel most clear about what should be carried forward from the lessons that you learned this semester?
- In contrast to a research paper, the implication of the manifesto is that what you write is mainly your own thinking, rather than a synthesis of the thoughts of others (that is to say, you may cite references if absolutely needed, but this will mainly be done as background support -- the bulk of the manifesto should be original ideas).
- Because your manifesto may involve beliefs or proposals that are not provable directly, focus on articulating the ideas, not on providing lengthy evidence.
- Use statements of strong convictions; this may be directed toward your own work and decisions, or it may be directed toward a wider community (for example, your field). It may be designed to provoke a strong reaction and serve as a starting point for dialogue or discussion, and it may even be perceived as controversial to some.
- A manifesto often addresses some aspect of the tension that exists between theory and practice-how the world should work vs. how it does work. [Sometimes this is referenced as normative (how things ought to be) vs. descriptive (how things are)].
Specific Requirement (submt to your assignment dropbox by Monday, Dec. 18th):
- Cover note to the instructor: 1-3 paragraphs explaining your thinking process around the manifesto - how did you come up with the ideas here, and what questions, concerns, or issues came up as you came to understand what you needed to do for this assignment?
- The Manifesto itself (1000-1400 words or equivalent). The format for the Manifesto may be a creative one. It need not be entirely prose writing. You may also use images or other visual elements, or other media in any way that help to convey your meaning. It should stand alone and be understood on its own terms, so don't refer to anything from class directly, such as readings or activities. Imagine that the reader will be able to understand what you write as a general statement and doesn't need to know anything about the course.
There will be no chance to revise Manifestos, so check with the instructor if you would like a draft to be reviewed before confirming the final submission, which will be graded based on meeting all basic and content requirements described here. All manifestos will be compiled and shared with everyone in the course by email after the due date.
Examples:
(note that some are from outside sources and groups with quite focused/narrow/controversial perspectives, and some are also rather long as they include extended descriptions of their principles-in-action):
First, see a manifesto for manifestos. More specific examples: