ENGL2800: Literature and Culture of New York City

Abstract

This course focuses on the literature and culture of New York City from its emergence as America’s cultural center until the present time. Beginning with America’s first internationally recognized literary figure, Washington Irving, we will explore work by New Yorkers including Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, Hettie Jones, and Ben Lerner. We will consider New York and its citizens in the context of many mediums, including novels, poetry, short fiction, and documentary film. Depending on circumstances related to Covid, students may also embark on one or more "field trips" to New York landmarks pivotal to the era, and we will learn about the history of New York City’s people and culture. This is a “Forms, Identities, Reading Practices” course in English, designed to pose questions about who writes and reads for whom, in what ways, and why does it matter? It fulfills a III C Intro. requirement for the English Major. It fulfills Interpreting Literature and the Arts. Pre-requisite: English 1100 or 1200H or FYWR 1020. This course counts toward the American Studies Minor.