Literature and the urban experience come together as a man reads his book on the subway. (Image by JanneM on flickr.).
Instructor(s)
Prof. Sarah Brouillette
MIT Course Number
21L.701
As Taught In
Spring 2009
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
Alienation, overcrowding, sensory overload, homelessness, criminality, violence, loneliness, sprawl, blight. How have the realities of city living influenced literature's formal and thematic techniques? How useful is it to think of literature as its own kind of "map" of urban space? Are cities too grand, heterogeneous, and shifting to be captured by writers? In this seminar we will seek answers to these questions in key city literature, and in theoretical works that endeavor to understand the culture of cities.
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