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.
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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 Questions | 10% |
Short Close Reading Essay | 15% |
Research Proposal | 5% |
Term Research Paper | 30% |
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.
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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
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