HON 101 the Urban Imagination

HON 101 The Global City

Fall 2012 5 Credits Monday/Wednesday/Friday 12:45-1:50

Kathleen Merrow 503 725 5365 [email protected] Office Hours MWF 3:30-4:30 in 205 UHB

Required Texts:

Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities

Hanif Hureishi: The Buddha of Suburbia

Additional Texts (available online or in course reserves through PSU Library):

Rina Swentzell, “Conflicting Landscape Values: The Santa Clara Pueblo and Day School” in Understanding Ordinary Landscapes, eds. Groth and Bressi (Yale University Press, 1997)

Lewis Mumford “What is a City?” (1937)

J. Donald, “Metropolis: The City as Text” in Social and Cultural forms of Modernity. Eds. Robert Bocock and Kenneth Thompson (Open University 1992): 417-461.

Blade Runner (film) (students will find on their own)

Course Description This is the first term of a year long sequence is designed to serve as a foundations course in the four year University Honors Program curriculum. It is aimed at high achieving students entering the university as first term freshman. It will introduce the basic intellectual framework for the social, cultural, political, and material study of the urban environment and rehearse the reading and writing skills necessary for the successful completion of a senior thesis.

This first term studies the representation of the city and asks what it means to think of the city as both a space and as an idea. The readings study different representations of the city in order to think about how these ideas works to shape attitudes towards the geopolitical city. Our texts begin with two essays quite separate in time that reflect upon the nature of the city as a form of social organization and as a representation, an “imagined city” or “imagined environment” that is produced by the variety of ways through which our culture makes the experience of living in a city (or nation) meaningful. These texts can frame our discussion of the texts we read next. First we look at Rina Swentzell’s study of two different relationships to the land and thus two divergent cultures represented by the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico and the Bureau of Indian Affairs day school located next to it. We will supplement this by looking at other urban plans, those of the 1573 Laws of the Indies and the 1875 Northwest Ordinance in order to think further about the relationship between forms of representation and practice. We will then inspect three fictional imagined cities. Invisible Cities, by the Italian author Italo Calvino, explores the idea of a city through the frame of an imagined conversation between the emperor Kublai Khan and the explorer Marco Polo. The Buddha of Suburbia, by the English author Hanif Hureishi, tells the story of a mixed-race teenager desperate to escape his South London suburban environment for a new life in London. Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner depicts a dystopian Los Angeles of the “future” of 2019. These texts are very different in kind and formal structure, and offer strikingly different visions of the city. They will thus lend themselves to our task this term, which is to learn to work with the formal structures of texts and to begin to understand how form shapes meaning.

Work Expectations for this Course: We will try to work in seminar fashion as much as possible. Your first responsibility results directly from this format: your classmates and I must be able to expect of you flawless attendance, and lively and intelligent participation in the discussion of the works read. This is not possible without diligent attention to the reading schedule and to doing the work of the close and careful reading of the texts in a timely fashion, in other words, before the day they are scheduled for discussion. You will also need to set aside time to watch the Ridley Scott’s 2007 final cut of the film Blade Runner (2 hours) with your working group for this film. This should be readily available via Netflix for those with subscriptions or through either PSU or a local library, etc. Students will also be working on group presentations that will entail arranging some time outside of class to meet and to rehearse your project. Last but not least, you will need to pay careful attention to the draft writing process for your papers. This will be a collaborative work between you and myself that will not have the desired effect if work is not handed in on time and in polished form. Students should come to office hours at least once (and hopefully more) during the term to discuss their work. Students should also print out in hard copy any assigned readings available through the PSU Library.

Recitation credit: This course includes one credit of recitation. You are expected to meet one hour weekly outside of class with one of the following: a peer adviser, an honors adviser, an Honors faculty, an Honors librarian, or a writing tutor. You will keep track of your hours and turn them into your instructor at the end of the term along with a 2-3 page summary of what you learned specifically about writing and the expectations for writing in your major.

Learning Objectives and Outcomes: 1. Students will learn how to think critically about the role that representations play in shaping social thought. 2. Students will become more aware of and learn to think critically about the tensions that exist in the urban environment with populations that diverge in racial, economic, gendered, and cultural ways. 3. The course readings and written assignments will develop students’ skills in reading, writing, and oral communication: a. Students will learn how to interpret texts of different kinds by focusing upon structure and the relationship of form to content. This will introduce them to more sophisticated critical approaches to textual artifacts. b. Students will become more comfortable and skilled at speaking in public and working closely with others in groups. c. Students will acquire one of the skills—the careful reading of complex texts— that is a component of successful thesis writing.

Assignments: There are three assignments for this class (see schedule for due dates): 1. A very brief (one or two pages) essay describing your own idea of the city. What is a city to you?

2. Participation in a smaller group that watches Blade Runner and selects a segment of the film as the basis for a short 10-15 minute presentation to the class as a whole.

3. A formal longer paper (1500-2000 words) that carries out a formal explication of the text Invisible Cities. An explication works to identify the component parts of a text (what are they, how do you know this, what do they do?). You thus need to catalogue these component parts (or formal structures) and then describe them. This part of your paper is called a “taxonomy.” Then, on the basis of work done in the taxonomy, your paper shows how these individual components work together as part of a patterned whole. Finally your paper uses the results established by this point to reflect on how this pattern shapes possibilities of meaning. The first step is the construction of your taxonomy, followed by a first draft that incorporates this taxonomy. Please note that “first draft” does not mean rough or unfinished draft. All drafts handed in must be complete. I will give you substantial comments on this draft that will enable you to make the necessary revisions for your final draft.

All drafts will follow the following format: Title and Author information Introduction Main body Conclusion Works Cited In all Honors written work we expect a “directive introduction” that identifies the purpose of your paper, states a thesis, and that lays out the steps taken in the main body of the paper to support and develop this thesis. You need to establish clearly and concisely (without yet engaging in the argument proper) what you do, why you do it, how you will do it and what results from doing so. We also require a “retrospective conclusion” that briefly revisits the work done in the main body and that then moves to point out the larger significance of having done this work. The main body of your paper should then do what the introduction states it will do. You need to think about the logical organization of your main body. The steps should be clear and the rational generating them should also be clear. Transitional statements are key to this and need to be carefully framed.

Grading Policy: Participation and attendance = 20% Since, as said above, I’m asking you to act as my colleagues in doing the work of the course, attendance will count toward the grade. 3 unexcused absences will result in a reduction of the grade. Excused absences—for an illness or emergency will not count against the grade. (Please note that this will not include scheduling appointments in conflict with the course meeting time.) “Idea of the City” essay = 5% Presentation on Blade Runner = 15% Preparatory work for Calvino paper (taxonomy≈ 2 pages) = 10% First draft = 20% Final Draft = 30% Here too lateness will affect your grade: every class period missed will result in a reduction of your grade for any portion of the paper assignment.

Class Schedule: Week: 1. Monday: Introduction Wednesday: Mumford essay Friday: Donald essay

2. Monday: Donald essay; Short essay on “idea of the city due in class

Wednesday: Swentzell Friday: NW Ordinance/ Law of the Indies

3. Monday: Group work in class on the “idea of the city” essays to compare and contrast perspectives and report out to the class for discussion Wednesday: Discussion of textual explication writing assignment Friday: Invisibile Cities

4. Monday: Invisible Cities Wednesday: Invisible Cities Friday: Group work on generating list of significant structures (taxonomy) in Invisible Cities

5. Monday: Group work on structures in Invisible Cities Wednesday: Invisible Cities Friday: Discussion of Blade Runner assignment Taxonomy due for Invisible Cities

6. Monday: Introduction: London and its Suburbs Wednesday: Buddha of Suburbia Friday: Buddha of Suburbia

7. Monday: Buddha of Suburbia Wednesday: Group work on Buddha of Suburbia Friday: Buddha of Suburbia First Draft due in class

8. Monday: No Class: Veterens’ Day Wednesday: Presentations: Blade Runner Friday: Blade Runner

9. Monday: Blade Runner Wednesday: Discussion of Common Problems in first draft Friday: No Class: Thanksgiving Holiday

10. Monday: Group work in class to compare readings Wednesday: Group reports and class discussion Friday: Course Summary Final Drafts due in class

Academic Misconduct: The University describes academic dishonesty in the Student Code of Conduct as “the act of knowingly or intentionally seeking to claim credit for the work or effort of another person or participation in such acts. This includes, but is not limited to: (a) cheating, (b) fraud, (c) plagiarism, such as word for word copying, using borrowed words or phrases from original text into new patterns without attribution, or paraphrasing another writer's ideas; (d) The buying or selling of all or any portion of course assignments and research papers; (e) Performing academic assignments (including tests and examinations) for other persons; (f) Unauthorized disclosure or receipt of academic information; (g) Falsification of research data; and (h) Unauthorized collaboration.” This is unacceptable and could result in failing grades for individual assignments or even the course as a whole.