The City in Literature: New York
(English BC3140)

William Sharpe
Barnard College
USA

Fall 1988

SYLLABUS

TEXTS

The following required texts have been ordered at Bookforum:
  • Whitman, LEAVES OF GRASS (Signet)


  • Melville, BILLY BUDD AND OTHER TALES (Signet)


  • Kazin, A WALKER IN THE CITY (Harvest/HBJ)


  • Bellow, SEIZE THE DAY (Penguin)


  • Petry, THE STREET (Beacon)


  • Ellison, INVISIBLE MAN (Vintage)


  • Mailer, AN AMERICAN DREAM (Owl/Henry Holt)


  • Selby, LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN (Grove)


  • O'Hara, SELECTED POEMS (Vintage)


  • Ginsberg, HOWL (City Lights)


  • Paley, THE LITTLE DISTURBANCES OF MAN (Penguin)


  • Leavitt, THE LOST LANGUAGE OF CRANES (Bantam)


  • Janowitz, SLAVES OF NEW YORK (Crown)

Recommended:
  • Peter Conrad, THE ART OF THE CITY (Oxford)


  • Paul Goldenberger, THE SKYSCRAPER (Knopf)

ASSIGNMENTS

Sept. 8 - Introduction

Sept. 13 - Whitman: "City of Orgies," "To a Stranger," "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," "Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun," "City of Ships," "Mannahatta," "Broadway," sections 8 and 42 of "Song Of Myself" (1855-1889)

Sept. 15 - Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener" (1856)

Sept. 20 - New York Architecture and Urban Planning
Cf. Goldberger, THE SKYSCRAPER

Sept. 22 - New York and the Modern Artist: painting, photography, the art scene.
Cf. Conrad, ART OF THE CITY

Sept. 27 - Kazin, A WALKER IN THE CITY (1951)

Sept. 29 - Kazin

Oct. 4 - Bellow, SEIZE THE DAY (1956)

Oct. 6 - Bellow

Oct. 11 - Petry, THE STREET (1946)

Oct. 13 - Petry

Oct. 18 - Ellison, THE INVISIBLE MAN (1952)

Oct. 20 - Ellison

Oct. 25 - Mailer, AN AMERICAN DREAM (1965)

Oct. 27 - Mailer

Nov. 1 - Selby, LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN (1964)

Nov. 3 - Selby

Nov. 8 - Election Day

Nov. 10 - Ginsberg, HOWL (1956)

Nov. 15 - O'Hara, poems including "Poem (At night Chinamen jump), "Poem (The eager note on my door)," "Memorial Day 1950," "1951," "Blocks," "Walking to Work," "Meditations in an Emergency," "Music," "to the Harbormaster," "A Step Away from Them," "Why I am Not a Painter," "A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island," "The Day Lady Died," "Steps"
(1950-1966)

Nov. 17 - Paley, THE LITTLE DISTURBANCES OF MAN (1956-59)

Nov. 22 - Paley

Nov. 24 - Thanksgiving

Nov. 29 - Leavitt, THE LOST LANGUAGE OF CRANES (1986)

Dec. 1 - Leavitt

Dec. 6 - Janowitz, SLAVES OF NEW YORK (1986), especially "The Slaves in New York," "Engagements," "Life in the Pre-Cambrian Era," "Sun Poisoning," "Snowball," "Turkey Talk,", "Physics," "Spells," "Ode to Heroine of the Future," "Matches"

Dec. 8 - Janowitz