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COURSE NUMBER: ENGL 399G
COURSE TITLE: Special Topics in English - 2015/16 Winter: Writing the Metropolis: The City in Literature
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Connor Byrne
CREDIT WEIGHT AND WEEKLY TIME DISTRIBUTION: credits 3(hrs lect 3 - hrs sem 0 - hrs lab 0)
COURSE DESCRIPTION: A course on a topic of figure of special interest to a member of the English faculty and offered on a non-recurring basis.

Prerequisites: ENGL 204, 205

2015/16 Winter

This course examines literary representations of urban space in order to investigate the enduring yet evolving role the city has played in shaping human identities and communities. It will consider depictions of urban experience from a broad historical and generic range in order to trace the varied responses to the dynamic social, cultural, and political metropolitan landscape as it is manifest through 18 th , 19 th , and 20 th  century works of literature. Of central importance to the course will be an investigation of the diverse modes of morality, psychology, and spirituality that emerge in the city and a consideration of the variety of literary forms that explore and embody them.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
  • Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Agent.
  • Larsen, Nella. Quicksand.
  • Place, Vanessa. LA Medusa
  • Further texts accessible via course Moodle Page
MARK DISTRIBUTION IN PERCENT:
Attendance & Participation 10%
Seminar Intro & Discussion Questions10%
Short Close Reading Essay15%
Research Proposal5%
Term Research Paper30%
Final Examination 30%
100%

COURSE OBJECTIVES:
  • To come to class prepared and engaged, willing to share your thoughts and questions etc.
  • To explore a broad range—historical and generic—of literary engagements with city life. 
  • To introduce students to key concepts, terms, and discourses used to discuss urban experience and its representation within literature. 
  • To consider the social, cultural, political, and even economic forces shaping urban space and identity. 
  • To investigate how different literary forms emerge from and/or are attuned to their urban sites of exploration.
COURSE OUTLINE: January
  • 5: Introduction. Wordsworth, “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge;” Blake, “London.”
  • 7: Gay, Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London (Book I).
  • 12: Gay, Trivia (Book II and III).
  • 14: Wordsworth, from The Prelude, Book Seventh. Residence in London.
  • 19: Dickens, from Sketches by Boz.
  • 21: No Class: Winter I. S. Conference
  • 26: Sketches by Boz; Engels, from The Condition of the Working Class in England.
  • 28: Poe, “The Man of the Crowd.”
February
  • 2: Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life.”
  • 4: Conrad, The Secret Agent.
  •  9: The Secret Agent
  • 11: The Secret Agent
  • 15-19: Reading Week: No Classes.   
  • 23: Pound, “In a Station of the Metro”; Williams, “The Great Figure;” Williams, from Manhattan Transfer.
  • 25: Eliot, from Prufrock and Other Observations.
March
  • 1: Woolf, “Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street.”
  • 3: Harlem Renaissance selections - TBA
  •  8: Larsen, Quicksand.
  • 10: Quicksand.
  • 15: Quicksand.
  • 17: Mid-to-late-C20 selections – TBA (from among Ginsberg, Page, Bishop, Baldwin, Purdy,
  • Ferlinghetti, Levertov, Brooks, Rukeyser, et al.).
  • 22: Selections – TBA.
  • 24: Selections – TBA.
  • 29: LA Medusa
  • 31: LA Medusa
April
  • 5: LA Medusa
  • 7: LA Medusa
  • 12: LA Medusa
  • 14: Review


Required texts, assignments, and grade distributions may vary from one offering of this course to the next. Please consult the course instructor for up to date details.

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