First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-21)

Topic

California Dreamin': Los Angeles, Utopia or Dystop

Instructors

June Shou Li

Meeting Info

University Hall 318: Mon, Wed 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

So you just hopped off a plane at LAX with a dream and a cardigan…now what? What do you imagine you will find, and what will your journey look like? Los Angeles has a special place in the American psyche as a city where dreams are invented and come true. Yet, representations of Los Angeles in the media swerve wildly from Hollywood glamour and beachside luxury to wildfire and political crisis. This course will introduce students to the multi-dimensional City of Angels as it is portrayed in contemporary literature. We will study texts that creatively engage with the idea of Los Angeles as a place that is brimming with potential. Whether that potential is for power, stardom, or total destruction, however, is up to us to figure out. First, we will explore the cultures and histories of Los Angeles' ethnic neighborhoods by reading Salvador Plascencia's experimental novel The People of Paper, which is set in the predominantly Latinx East Side. Then, Ryka Aoki's genre-bending novel Light from Uncommon Stars will take us on a trip from the majority-Asian San Gabriel Valley into outer space, and Claire Vaye Watkins' novel Gold Fame Citrus will invite us to a futuristic Los Angeles that has become a drought-ridden desert. Alongthe way, we will think about Los Angeles as a place that manages to appear apocalyptic and optimistic at the same time, by examining news coverage of the wildfires, listening to song lyrics about California Dreamin', and examining excerpts from Joan Didion's essays.

Class Attributes

WCAS Writing Seminar

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.
Add Consent: Department Consent Required