Cities of Words

Module code: EN7224

In this module, you will read and analyse literary and linguistic representations of the city from the early modern period (or earlier) to the present. Topics include crime, eighteenth-century black Londoners, industrialisation, regionalism, migration, and creativity. In weekly two-hour seminars, you will be introduced to historical, geographical, cultural, and theoretical concepts that aim to explain changes in urban forms and meanings. Drawing on these, you will practise contextualising literary representations across a range of urban topographies.

Recent seminar topics have included:

• The Comical City in Renaissance Drama
• Crime and Governance, 1660-1730
• Black Londoners in the Eighteenth Century
• The Condition of England: Industrial and Post-Industrial Cities
• Migrant Cities
• Postcolonial Cities: Reading the Midlands
• Creative Cities