Cities and Edgelands: Writing Place and Displacement c. 1850 - Present

Overview

This course explores notions of place and displacement from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, focusing on an international corpus of texts that range widely in time and space, across cities including Paris, London, Belfast, New York and Lagos, but also those peripheral, quotidian spaces where the urban meets the rural – namely, the edgelands.

Topics and genres that are covered include: theories of mobility, space and place; the flaneur and flaneuse; contact zones; psychogeography; the postmodern city; and the new nature writing. From the enchantments and disorientation of urbanisation to the ‘golden age of travel’, from post-colonial migration to the crises of the Anthropocene, how have the experience and representation of place and displacement informed literary creation?

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students will have gained an understanding of how different areas and aspects of cities and edgelands have shaped literary forms and cultural practice. Students will be equipped with relevant critical terminology, and understanding of key critical issues in theorising space, place and mobility. They will be able to reflect on points of continuity and difference in literary works that deal with cities and edgelands across national boundaries, and through the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Through an optional field-trip, students will have applied aspects of their learning to local landscapes.

Skills

Demonstrable understanding of some key critical issues in theorising place, mobility and displacement and their literary narration.

Evaluate critically the aesthetic and ideological aspects of writing about cities or edgelands, and show knowledge of the ways in which marginalised groups have found ways of representing such places.

Demonstrable awareness of the ways in which historical and cultural factors shape literary form and practice; the ability to interweave close reading and historical reading skills

Transferrable skills in the form of engagement in classroom debate and discussion, research skills, and presenting coherent and well-substantiated arguments in writing

Assessment

None