Studies in American Literature (378-0-22)
Topic
“The Chicago Way”: Urban Spaces and American Value
Instructors
William J Savage
847/491-8916
1908 Sheridan Road, OUSA
Office Hours: By appointment
Meeting Info
Locy Hall 214: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
Urbanologist Yi Fu Tuan writes, "What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place when we get to know it better and endow it with values." In The Untouchables, Sean Connery tells Kevin Costner, "You want to get Capone? Here's how you get Capone. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He puts one of yours in the hospital, you put one of his in the morgue. That's the Chicago way." In this class, we will examine "the Chicago way" from many different angles in order to interrogate the values with which various artists have endowed Chicago. We will read in a broad range of media: journalism, poetry, song, fiction, film, and sequential art to see how a sense of Chicago as a place works over time. We will pay close attention to depictions of the construction of American identity, and to the role of the artist and intellectual in the city.
Teaching Method
Discussion, brief lectures, guest speakers, and an optional urban tour.
Evaluation Method
Class participation; brief written responses to each text; several options for papers of various lengths.
Class Materials (Required)
Nelson Algren's Chicago: City on the Make and The Neon Wilderness; Richard Wright's Native Son; Stuart Dybek's The Coast of Chicago; journalism by Ben Hecht, Mike Royko and others; short fiction by Sandra Cisneros, James T. Farrell and others; poetry by Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks, Tony Fitzpatrick and others; the films The Untouchables, The Blues Brothers, Call Northside 777, and Barbershop; the graphic novel 100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call.
Note: Texts will be available at Comix Revolution, 606 Davis Street.
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area