MOVEMENT III · WEEK 11

One-Dimensional
Thinking

WEEK 11  ·  CRDM 790  ·  Spring 2027
Reading: Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man — selected chapters (Perusall)
Activity: One-Dimensional Draft Audit
First week after Spring Break — welcome back
UDL COMPLIANT
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 11 · Movement III
Session Map

Today's Arc

🌿 Back from Break
  • 20 minutes: What did you read for pleasure? (This is a real question.)
  • Signals that you take seriously what you were asked to do — and that rest matters
  • Transition: from rest into Marcuse's argument about why rest is not enough
📖 Primary Reading (Perusall)
  • Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man
  • Introduction to 1st Edition: pp. xi–xvii (~7 pp.)
  • Chapter 1, 'The New Forms of Control': pp. 1–18
  • Chapter 3, 'Repressive Desublimation': pp. 56–83
💬 Discussion
  • Marcuse on false needs, one-dimensional thought, and absorption of dissent
  • Students read first prospectus paragraph aloud — group applies Marcuse's critique
  • Discussion anchor: true vs. false needs (pp. 4–8)
✦ One-Dimensional Draft Audit
  • Each person reads prospectus paragraph aloud (2 min)
  • Group offers one 'one-dimensional' observation — no fixes yet
  • 5 minutes: write a revised first sentence that opens up rather than closes down
  • Volunteers share before and after
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 11 · Pre-Class Writing
What You Brought to Class

Two Paragraphs

Paragraph One — First Prospectus Draft

The opening statement of your project. What is the problem? Why does it matter? Who is it for?


Write it as if you're writing the opening paragraph of your actual prospectus — present tense, declarative, claiming an argument. Don't hedge. Don't qualify into vagueness. Say what you think you're doing.

Paragraph Two — The Marcusean Critique

Apply Marcuse's analysis to your own first paragraph. Where does it reproduce the assumptions of your field without questioning them? Where does it fail to imagine alternatives? Where is it one-dimensional?


This is not self-flagellation — it is the intellectual move that makes the contribution claim possible. You cannot claim to offer something new until you can identify what you are departing from.

The Diagnostic Question

"Where in my first paragraph am I writing what the field expects me to write — rather than what I actually think?"

Perusall Annotation

Find the passage in Marcuse where you feel the critique most directly. Where does his analysis name something you recognize in your own field's disciplinary language?

Return from Break Check-In

The first 20 minutes of class: What did you read for pleasure over break? What surprised you? This is not small talk — it is the intellectual warm-up for a session about imagination.

CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 11 · Discussion
Click to Reveal · or press Enter

Guiding Questions

1
Marcuse argues that advanced industrial society absorbs and neutralizes dissent — that we have become incapable of imagining alternatives. Do you believe that? Where do you see it in your field? What does "one-dimensional thought" look like in the journals you read?
2
What would it mean for your dissertation to be "one-dimensional"? What field assumptions would it reproduce without questioning? Marcuse: the one-dimensional thinker can identify the problem but cannot imagine outside the system that produced it.
3
Marcuse's critique is partly a critique of academic language itself — the way technical discourse forecloses political thought. Do you recognize that in your field's writing? What happens when you translate your research question into plain language? What do you lose — and what do you suddenly see?
4
Kelley's Freedom Dreams offers the counter-move: imagination as scholarly and political practice. What would it mean for your dissertation to be a "freedom dream"? Not optimism — rigorous imagination. What future does your work have to believe in to be worth writing?
5
Read your first prospectus paragraph with Marcuse's critique in mind. Where is it one-dimensional? Where does it open rather than close? This is the diagnostic question for the audit. No defensiveness — just the observation.
Click a question to reveal · or press Enter
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 11 · Activity
Hands-On Activity · Press A to Advance

One-Dimensional Draft Audit

1
Read aloud
Each person reads their first prospectus paragraph aloud — approximately 2 minutes each. No framing, no apology, no explanation. Just the paragraph as it is.
2
One observation
After each reading, the group offers one 'one-dimensional' observation: a place where the project might be reproducing field assumptions rather than challenging them. Not a critique of the person — a critique of the argument.
3
No fixes yet
The writer listens without defending. Take notes. The observation is data. The goal is not to solve the problem in the moment but to name it clearly enough that it can be worked on.
4
5 minutes — revised sentence
Each person writes a revised first sentence — one sentence that opens up rather than closes down. It doesn't have to be good. It has to try to imagine outside the assumption.
5
Share before and after
Volunteers share their original sentence and their revised sentence. What changed? What did Marcuse give you permission to do? What opened up when you stopped writing for the field?
Step 1 of 5
The Key Norm

Set this explicitly before you start: the 'one-dimensional' observation is a gift when it lands. Model genuine engagement with the observation — not defensive deflection. Go first. Submit your own writing to the audit.

What this activity does

This activity is the one most likely to crack open a stuck prospectus. The 'one-dimensional' observation from a peer — when it lands — often does what months of individual advising couldn't. The Marcusean critique of your own work is the beginning of the prospectus's contribution claim.

Synthesis Question

"What did Marcuse give you permission to do? What can you now say that you couldn't say before?"

CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 11 · Synthesis
Closing the Loop

Discussion & Synthesis

The move Marcuse makes possible

Marcuse does not offer an alternative — he names the condition that makes alternatives feel impossible. That diagnosis is the gift. You cannot imagine your way out of one-dimensional thought until you can see where you are inside it.

The contribution claim, reframed

Your prospectus's contribution is not just 'I fill a gap in the literature.' The stronger claim is: 'The field has been unable to think about X because of Y assumption — and my project challenges that assumption by doing Z.' The audit surfaces the Y.

Looking toward Week 12

Ghosh picks up where Marcuse leaves off — not diagnosis but stakes. What can the imagination actually do? What does humanistic inquiry owe the world? Come with your revised first sentence. We will put it under pressure again.

Writing Seed

"My prospectus was one-dimensional in that it assumed ___. The assumption I'm now trying to challenge is ___. What that opens up is ___."

Before You Leave

Save your revised first sentence from the audit. It may become the opening of your prospectus. The before-and-after is evidence of what the course is doing — you may want it at Week 15.

CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 11 · Further Reading
If This Week Opened Something

Further Reading

📖
Herbert Marcuse
One-Dimensional Man — Full Text
The assigned chapters give the argument — the rest of the book applies it across philosophy, culture, and political theory. Chapter 6 on technological rationality is particularly useful for scholars working on media and platforms.
📖
Robin D.G. Kelley
Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
The counter-Marcuse. Kelley argues for imagination as a scholarly and political practice — not optimism, but the rigorous capacity to envision alternatives. Useful for scholars who want to move from critique to possibility.
📖
Theodor Adorno & Max Horkheimer
Dialectic of Enlightenment
The Frankfurt School context for Marcuse — particularly the culture industry essay. If Marcuse's argument resonates, this gives the theoretical genealogy. Dense; the culture industry chapter is the most accessible entry point.
Primary reading on Perusall · Further reading available through NCSU Libraries
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 11 → Week 12
Before You Leave

Looking Ahead

📖
Week 12 · Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement

On Perusall. Ghosh asks why literary and humanistic imagination has failed to reckon with climate change — and what that failure reveals about what scholarship can and cannot do. Come ready to be implicated.

✏️
Pre-Class Writing for Week 12

Write a 150-word version of your dissertation project for a smart non-specialist — someone curious and educated, but not in your field. What can you keep? What falls away? What is actually essential? Bring it. We will put it through the 'So What?' Gauntlet.

📝
Save Your Revised First Sentence

The sentence you wrote today — the one that opened up rather than closed down. Keep it. It is the beginning of your prospectus's contribution claim.

"What did Marcuse give you permission to do?"

CRDM 790 · Movement III · Week 11

One-Dimensional Thinking

First week after Spring Break — welcome back. Where does your field reproduce what is already sayable?

Reading: Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man (Perusall) Activity: One-Dimensional Draft Audit

Session Map

🌿 Back from Break

20 minutes: What did you read for pleasure? This is a real question — it signals that you take seriously what you were asked to do. Transition: from rest into Marcuse’s argument about why rest is not enough.

📖 Primary Reading (Perusall)

Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man — Introduction (pp. xi–xvii), Ch. 1 “The New Forms of Control” (pp. 1–18), Ch. 3 “Repressive Desublimation” (pp. 56–83).

💬 Discussion

Marcuse on false needs, one-dimensional thought, absorption of dissent. Students read first prospectus paragraph aloud — group applies Marcuse’s critique. Discussion anchor: true vs. false needs (pp. 4–8).

✦ One-Dimensional Draft Audit

Each person reads prospectus paragraph aloud (2 min). Group offers one “one-dimensional” observation. 5 minutes: write a revised first sentence. Volunteers share before and after.

Reading Guide

Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man · Beacon Press (original 1964; various reprints)
Assigned (Perusall)
  • Introduction to 1st Edition — pp. xi–xvii (~7 pp.)
  • Chapter 1, ‘The New Forms of Control’ — pp. 1–18
  • Chapter 3, ‘Repressive Desublimation’ — pp. 56–83
Perusall annotation prompt

Find the passage in Marcuse where you feel the critique most directly. Where does his analysis name something you recognize in your own field’s disciplinary language?

One-Dimensional Thought

Thought that can identify problems only within the terms the system itself provides. Cannot imagine outside the system that produced it.

Repressive Desublimation

The absorption of dissent and transgression into the culture it was meant to critique — radicalism made consumable, critique made safe.

True vs. False Needs

False needs are those imposed by particular social interests in repression — the needs the system teaches us to have. True needs emerge from genuine self-determination. (pp. 4–8)

Further Reading
  • Robin D.G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams — the counter-Marcuse: imagination as scholarly and political practice, not optimism but rigorous capacity to envision alternatives
  • Adorno & Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment — Frankfurt School context for Marcuse; culture industry essay is the most accessible entry
  • Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man full text — Ch. 6 on technological rationality is particularly useful for media and platform scholars

Pre-Class Writing

Paragraph One — First Prospectus Draft
The opening statement of your project. What is the problem? Why does it matter? Who is it for? Write it as if writing the opening paragraph of your actual prospectus — present tense, declarative, claiming an argument. Don’t hedge. Don’t qualify into vagueness. Say what you think you’re doing.
Paragraph Two — The Marcusean Critique
Apply Marcuse’s analysis to your own first paragraph. Where does it reproduce the assumptions of your field without questioning them? Where does it fail to imagine alternatives? Where is it one-dimensional?

This is not self-flagellation — it is the intellectual move that makes the contribution claim possible. You cannot claim to offer something new until you can identify what you are departing from.

The diagnostic question
“Where in my first paragraph am I writing what the field expects me to write — rather than what I actually think?”

Guiding Questions

1
Marcuse argues that advanced industrial society absorbs and neutralizes dissent — that we have become incapable of imagining alternatives. Do you believe that? Where do you see it in your field?
What does “one-dimensional thought” look like in the journals you read?
2
What would it mean for your dissertation to be “one-dimensional”? What field assumptions would it reproduce without questioning?
Marcuse: the one-dimensional thinker can identify the problem but cannot imagine outside the system that produced it.
3
Marcuse’s critique is partly a critique of academic language itself — the way technical discourse forecloses political thought. Do you recognize that in your field’s writing?
What happens when you translate your research question into plain language? What do you lose — and what do you suddenly see?
4
Kelley’s Freedom Dreams offers the counter-move: imagination as scholarly and political practice. What would it mean for your dissertation to be a “freedom dream”?
Not optimism — rigorous imagination. What future does your work have to believe in to be worth writing?
5
Read your first prospectus paragraph with Marcuse’s critique in mind. Where is it one-dimensional? Where does it open rather than close?
This is the diagnostic question for the audit. No defensiveness — just the observation.

One-Dimensional Draft Audit

Hands-on activity · Apply Marcuse’s critique to your own opening paragraph
1
Read aloud
Each person reads their first prospectus paragraph aloud — approximately 2 minutes. No framing, no apology, no explanation. Just the paragraph as it is.
2
One observation
After each reading, the group offers one “one-dimensional” observation: a place where the project might be reproducing field assumptions rather than challenging them. Not a critique of the person — a critique of the argument.
3
No fixes yet
The writer listens without defending. Take notes. The observation is data. The goal is not to solve the problem in the moment but to name it clearly enough that it can be worked on.
4
5 minutes — revised sentence
Each person writes a revised first sentence — one sentence that opens up rather than closes down. It doesn’t have to be good. It has to try to imagine outside the assumption.
5
Share before and after
Volunteers share their original sentence and their revised sentence. What changed? What did Marcuse give you permission to do? What opened up when you stopped writing for the field?
The key norm

Set this explicitly before you start: the “one-dimensional” observation is a gift when it lands. Model genuine engagement with the observation — not defensive deflection. Go first. Submit your own writing to the audit.

Synthesis

The move Marcuse makes possible

Marcuse does not offer an alternative — he names the condition that makes alternatives feel impossible. That diagnosis is the gift. You cannot imagine your way out of one-dimensional thought until you can see where you are inside it.

The contribution claim, reframed

Your prospectus’s contribution is not just “I fill a gap in the literature.” The stronger claim: “The field has been unable to think about X because of Y assumption — and my project challenges that assumption by doing Z.” The audit surfaces the Y.

Synthesis question
“What did Marcuse give you permission to do? What can you now say that you couldn’t say before?”

Looking Ahead

Week 12 — Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement
  • On Perusall — Ghosh asks why literary and humanistic imagination has failed to reckon with climate change
  • Come ready to be implicated
Pre-class writing for Week 12
  • Write a 150-word version of your dissertation project for a smart non-specialist. What can you keep? What falls away? What is actually essential? Bring it — we will put it through the “So What? Gauntlet.”
Save your revised first sentence
The sentence you wrote today.

The one that opened up rather than closed down. Keep it. It is the beginning of your prospectus’s contribution claim.

◆ M4 — On the Horizon
Dissertation Prospectus

Workshop draft due night before Week 14. Begin prospectus framing now — the Marcusean critique of your opening paragraph is the first draft of your contribution claim.

“What did Marcuse give you permission to do?”