ENGL 009Y. First-Year Seminar: Metropolitan Forms and Fictions

Urban life is a definitive feature of modernity. As people moved into increasingly massive cities, basic ways of life changed: how people earned a living, what kinds of communities they formed, the gendered and sexual identities that became possible and legible, the spaces people inhabited and how they moved through them. Urban life, in turn, shaped literary expression. This course will examine modern and contemporary works about metropolitan experience, by writers such as Virginia Woolf, Nella Larsen, Mohsin Hamid, and N. K. Jemisin. Key topics include flânerie, anonymity, migrations, chance and repetition, and visibility and (dis)connection. As a first-year seminar, we will dedicate considerable attention to forming analytical arguments, practicing revision, and entering into scholarly conversations.
Humanities.
Writing course.
1 credit.
Fall 2022. Bryant.
Spring 2023. Bryant.
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

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