PdF:AJB_MCF Modern City - Course Information

AJB_MCF Modern City in Film, Literature and Culture

Extent and Intensity

0/1/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).

Teacher(s)

Ing. Mgr. Věra Eliášová, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)

Guaranteed by

PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D.
Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Contact Person: Jana Popelková
Supplier department: Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education

Timetable of Seminar Groups

AJB_MCF/01: Fri 7. 3. 8:00–13:00 učebna 6, Mon 5. 5. 8:00–13:00 učebna 57, V. Eliášová

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

there are 6 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display

Course objectives

This course examines the significance of the concept of the city in English, American as well as global literature and culture and will focus on the recurrent themes and motifs of the urban phenomena. At the end of the course students will be able recognize major literary works on the city and identify major issues in the debate on the public sphere and urban space. They will be able to make their own connections between the assigned reading and also question and actively interpret them as well as create their own critical evaulation.

Syllabus

• Session I: The Rise of the Modern City and of the Modern Urban Subjectivity
• Questions: What is the modern city? How do we undertsand it? How has it changed us? Who is a modern urban subject and in what ways is his or her subjectivity new? What are the principal concerns, joys and fears of the nineteenth-century city dwellers and how do they differ from the those of the twentieth century?
• Readings:
• Richard Lehan: The City in Literature (selections)
• Lewis Mumford: The City in History (selections)
• Charles Dickens: Sketches by Boz (selections)
• Henry Mayhew: London Labor and the London Poor (selections)
• Edgar Allan Poe: "The Man of the Crowd"
• Bram Stoker: Dracula
• T.S. Eliot: "The Waste Land"
• Session II: The Modern City and Gender
• Questions: What happens to women in the modern city? In what ways is the female urban subjectivity different from the male one? Does the twentieth-century city offer more freedom to women than the nineteenth-century city?
• Readings:
• Candace Bushnell: Sex and the City (selections)
• Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway
• Iva Pekarkova: Gimme the Money
• Elizabeth Wilson: The Sphinx in the City (selections)

Literature

• PEKÁRKOVÁ, Iva. Gimme the money. Translated by Raymond Johnston - Iva Pekárková. 1st publ. London: Serpent's Tail, 2000, 278 s. ISBN 1-85242-658-6. info
• LEHAN, Richard Daniel. The city in literature : an intellectual and cultural history. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, xvi, 330. ISBN 0520212568. info
• MUMFORD, Lewis. The city in history. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1979, 693 s. info

Teaching methods

Lecture and class discussion on assigned readings

Assessment methods

attendance and participation is required in both block sessions
oral presentation
contribution to discussion
a short written assignment (1-2-page essay)
short quiz on reading (10 questions- multiple choice)

Language of instruction

English

Further comments (probably available only in Czech)

Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
General note: Literární seminář. Předmět bude realizován pokud se přihlásí alespoň 10 studentů.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 2 dopolední bloky, pátek 7.3. 2014 a pondělí 5.5. 2014, 8.00-13.00.

• Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  
• Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/ped/spring2014/AJB_MCF