ENGL-218 Literature of the City

Faculty:

Corrigan, Maureen

"New York City is, arguably, the cultural capital of twentieth- (and, so far), twenty-first century America—the center of literature, music, art, architecture, and fashion as well as the focal point for political debates on the viability of cities, immigration, and the meaning of America itself. This course proposes to study autobiographical, fictional, non-fictional, poetic, and cinematic accounts of twentieth-century life in New York City in order to understand the dreams and nightmares embodied by the city in the popular imagination. Beginning with the first decades of the twentieth century, we will investigate the decline of “old guard” aristocratic society in the early 1900s and the nature of the immigrant experience in New York. The course will then focus on the Jazz Age when New York artists, writers, and architects shaped a new ethos of modernity that would define “The American Century.” Attention will also be devoted to the various “counter-cultural” movements (e.g. the rise of the American Communist Party, the Beat Movement) that erupted in New York City during the early and middle decades of the last century. The course will conclude with contemporary dystopian and stubbornly utopian predictions about the future of New York City and urban life in America.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: None

Other academic years
There is information about this course number in other academic years:

• 2007-2008 Fall and Spring
• 2010-2011 Fall and Spring
• 2011-2012 Fall and Spring
• 2012-2013 Fall and Spring

More information
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