First Year Writing and Project-Based Learning Seminar

Catalog description

Section information text: This course examines the traditions and impacts of Los Angeles-based or identified literature across multiple genres including, but not limited to, utopian, noir, sci-fi/ecological dystopian, and contemporary realism and surrealism. Los Angeles has long been a wellspring of literary treasures, too many to possibly account for in a single course. The city and region have provided the workplace, setting and themes for writers as celebrated and disparate as Christopher Isherwood, Raymond Bradbury, Chester Himes, Joan Didion, Octavia Butler and many, many more. Which raises the question: is there something indelible about Los Angeles literature, does it have its own identity? If so, what defines it? Through novels, short stories, essays, criticism and other media, we will explore how Los Angeles has been imagined, mythologized, and challenged by its writers and how its writers have helped shape our understanding of ourselves and our larger literary legacy.