Urban Narratives

What is a city and how has its meaning changed from antiquity to modernity? What is a city myth and what are its origins? How do we inhabit a city, and how do we move through its streets? How does the tension between belonging and rejection play out in urban literature? In this course students will explore these and other questions in literary and theoretical texts about the cities of Paris, London, New York, Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Mexico, and La Paz/ El Alto (Bolivia). We will read literary works authored by Baudelaire, Aragon, Poe, Lorca, Borges, Faiza Guene, Juan Villoro and Elena Poniatowska. Students will also engage with theoretical readings by Walter Benjamin, de Certeau, Foucault, Beatriz Sarlo, Marc Augé, and others. This course is part of a collaborative cluster of First Year Seminars focused on home and belonging.