106-034 Imagining the City: Dream, Fact, Style

Usually 25 points of first year English, see Prerequisites.

This subject explores some of the ways in which life in cities has been envisaged in Western literature, with attention to visionary and realistic elements and to the styles in which these are presented. Students will engage with a variety of texts, contemporary and otherwise, to explore the representation of the city as a powerful site of imagination and identification. Students who complete this subject successfully will have a general knowledge of images of the city generated in the set texts and be able to discern the main stylistic elements in the writings.

• be able to read attentively a variety of works;

• write both critically and lucidly;

• discuss coherently and patiently;

• both think and change their minds.

An essay of 4000 words 100% (due at the end of the semester).

• I Calvino, Invisible Cities. Paladin.
• C Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby. Penguin.
• Shakespeare, Henry IV 1 & 2. Penguin.
• J Swift, Gulliver's Travels. Viking/Penguin.
• Virgil, D West (trans), The Aeneid. Penguin Classics.