May be repeated for credit provided the letter designations are different, but only 12 units may be applied to the English major.
This seminar examines different representations of the modern metropolis from the 19th to the 21st century, by turning to literature, cinema, and urban theory. The city and urban life crucially shaped the experience of modernity. From fin de siècle Paris to 1920s Berlin, to mid-twentieth century Algiers to contemporary London, New York, Dubai, and L.A., we will study urban space in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Emile Zola, J.G. Ballard, Hanif Kureishi, Buchi Emecheta, Roland Barthes and Georges Perec, together with current critiques of urbanism (David Harvey, Rem Koolhaas, Mike Davis, Henri Lefebvre, Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord). Topics for discussion will include: the crowd, walking in the city, looking and the spectacle of consumption, shopping, public vs. corporate space, women in the city, colonialism, the multicultural city, and the immigrant experience. Films: Berlin Symphony of a City, Playtime (1967), The Battle of Algiers, Unknown Code, and The Matrix.