230331 "Making it there": New York City Exceptionalism in Literature, Media and Culture (S) (WiSe 2015/2016)

<<On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy. It is this largess that accounts for the presence within the city's walls of a considerable section of the population; for the residents of Manhattan are to a large extent strangers who have pulled up stakes somewhere and come to town, seeking sanctuary or fulfillment or some greater or lesser grail. The capacity to make such dubious gifts is a mysterious quality of New York. It can destroy an indiviudal or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck. No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky. >>
--- from "Here is New York" E.B. White 1949

This course will not be about the New York of the tourist but about the city of those who live there. Why did they come? Why do they stay? What can they find here that they can find nowhere else? We will consider geography (including real estate, neighborhoods,and the outer boroughs), history, demographics and cultural interactions and forms of artistic expression. Our underlying quest will be to investigate why New Yorkers have long believed their city to be "exceptional" and to explore how, why and to what extent this might be a a meanigful way to approach the city's culture and its reflections in literature, film and art. Or not? In what sense(s) is New York a mythical media creation? How do the realities of New York life contribute to the myth?

“The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.”
― John Updike What does Updike mean by this?

Prepare to be curious, brave, adventurous, street-smart and lucky and to get to know the city from new perspectives. The goal of the course is to deconstruct and reconstruct you vision of New York City in the light of the insights you gain from engaging with the course content and the interaction with all the other participants.

Requirements for participation, required level

You should have already completed BM 1 and BM 2 before taking this course. This course can function as the second element or third element (PM 3.2 or PM 3.3) for the Profile Module in American Studies

Bibliography

The classic text is E.B. White's essay, "Here is New York" (1949). Will be distributed in class at the cost of the copies. A detailed reading list will be presented in the course and in a Semseterapparat. Video and audio material will also be made available.

Meanwhile, as preparation, start reading regularly on these websites:

http://gothamist.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/ the section labeled "New York" and "Metropolitan"--use search function to find entries for "Metropolitan Diary" also look at "Real Estate"