ENGL 9921 PhD Seminar: Imagining the City

In this PhD seminar we consider how literature and other forms of culture respond to the interlinked formal, conceptual, and social problems posed by cities. Although we will not attempt a comprehensive survey of urban literature, we will sample significant elements of it in exploring the fit between the material facts of city life and the stories, images, and other aesthetic choices that artists have imposed on them, and we will consider secondary works that offer models for an urban reading of a text. The examples we consider are mostly American and from the 20th and 21st centuries, but the approaches we take can be applied in your own work across the full range of national and period literatures. Similarly, in terms of method, this course considers problems that fall into the category of " literature and X": our X is the city, but the kinds of argument we practice should also prove useful when you solve for a different X. We will pay special attention to writing as a craft tool for scholars, and we will also make some time during the semester to think about how you might best prepare yourself to make a way in the professional world opening in front of you.