This course will mainly focus on 20th and 21st-century representations of London in literature and film. Our enquiry will be directed at three different aspects: first, at the impact of historical and social developments as well as trends in cultural theory from Modernism to Postmodernism on textual and cinematic representations of the city; secondly at the way literary texts and films themselves produce a powerful discourse about metropolitan life; and thirdly at the specificities of the respective medium and its technical as well as generic conventions that shape these metropolitan representations. Since this course will cover a lot of material, I strongly advise participants to read the following texts during the semester break (a full list of texts will be announced later; a reader with further material will be made available in due course): Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway Sam Selvon, Lonely Londoners P.D. James, A Certain Justice Penelope Lively, City of the Mind Ian McEwan, Saturday |
