Downtown Paris is expensive, with its posh mansions, its ‘bobo’ markets, its artist’s lofts. Suburban Paris is… less glamorous. What about London and New York City? Are their city centres as attractive for their inhabitants as they are for tourists? In Britain and America, representations of ‘downtown’ have always been ambivalent. For some, it is a place full of opportunities where streets are paved with gold and your dreams can come true; for others, it is synonymous with deprivation and isolation.
This course will walk the streets of the major American and British cities. It will also take a detour into the suburbs and the countryside to see if the grass is really that green there. We will listen to what poets, novelists and musicians, say about the city, watch the wildest urban fantasies come to life on canvas or on silver screen, and study the suggestions of town planners and sociologists to make urban spaces more environmentally-friendly and to promote class and ethnic diversity.
Coursework material will include films (Taxi Driver, Gangs of New York, West Side Story, to name but a few), songs (from Elvis Presley to Arctic Monkeys), novels (1984 and other urban dystopias), and articles (by Kevin Lynch, among others).

Evaluation will take the form of one oral presentation in class + homework (one piece of creative writing) + final exam. Participation will be taken into account for the final mark.

Modalités d'évaluation : Evaluation will take the form of one oral presentation in class + homework (one piece of creative writing) + final exam. Participation will be taken into account for the final mark.

Dernière mise à jour : lundi 12 décembre 2011