Literature of New York ((3 Credits))

Catalog description

This course will consider the literature of New York City and the Hudson River Valley in its historical, cultural, and sociological context. We will look at themes of regionalism, nature, industrialism, social class, race, gender, immigration, and identity in relation to the historical and cultural context of New York and to theories of urban studies, gender studies, and multiculturalism. Possible writers include Washington Irving, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Edith Wharton, Henry James, Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, Anzia Yezierska, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Audre Lorde, Diane di Prima, Don DeLillo, and Jay McInerney. Students are encouraged to visit related sights such as Irving’s Sunnyside estate in Tarrytown, Sugar Hill in Harlem, the garment district of the lower East side of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Museum of the City of New York, the Tenement Museum, or Ellis Island. This course was previously LIB-640584.