The University of Western Ontario
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures

(UN)SETTLING THE CITY: LITERATURE AND FILMS OF MIGRATION

COMPLIT 3393G

Time: Tu&Th 11:30 am to 1:00 p.m.                          Location: UC 207
Instructor: Maria Mayr                                                           e-mail: mmayr@uwo.ca
Office: UC 351                                                                        Office Hours: tba

Course Contents, Aims, and Outcomes:

This course explores recent literature and film by migrant artists who re-imagining the topographies of West-European and North American metropolitan centers of Berlin, London, Paris, Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, and New York.
Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, the course introduces concepts from disciplines such as urban studies, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and literary studies in order to explore the degree to which migrant art has ‘arrived’ at its chosen locale. That is, while themes such as nostalgia, homesickness, cultural conflict, and alienation will inevitably be discussed throughout the course, the main thrust of the course is to read and view urban migrant art as an ‘art of settlement’ (Tom Cheesman). Therefore, we will investigate if and how figures such as the rootless migrant, the migrant labourer, the cosmopolitan, the hybrid, the hyphenated subject, or the nomad ‘settle’ and/or unsettle concepts such as the diaspora, the borderland, the ghetto, the banlieue, and other central and marginal urban spaces. That is, we will compare and question the means by which contemporary migrant film and literature subverts, resists, or appropriates the processes and pressures of economic and cultural globalization converging in Western urban centers.

Course requirements:

class attendance and participation        15%
2 response papers (ca. 3 pages)          10%    
Presentation (15 min)                           15%
mid-term exam                                     25%     (Thursday Feb 12th, 2009)
research essay (ca. 2000 words)          35%     (Tuesday April 7th, 2009)

                                                                                                       
Required Texts:

Özdamar, Emine Sevgi. The Bridge of the Golden Horn. Trans. Martin Chalmers.
London: Serpent’s Tail, 2007.
Smith, Zadie. White teeth: a novel. New York: Vintage Books, 2000.
Smail, Paul. Smile. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2000.
Castillo, Ana. Peel my love like an Onion. Anchor, 1999.
Chao, Lien. The Chinese Knot and other stories. Toronto: TSAR Publications, 2008.
DeLillo, Don. Falling Man. New York: Scribner, 2007.

***** Students are also required to purchase a COURSE PACK at InPrint (UCC). 

Films:

Lola and Bilidikid (Germany, 1999)
Dirty Pretty Things (UK, 2002)
Little Jerusalem (France, 2005)
Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity (Canada, 2002)
La Ciudad (USA, 1998)

*** Screenings: Screening times for the films will be arranged. Additionally, the films are available for viewing in UC 1. 

Definition of Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is a major academic offense (see Scholastic Offense Policy in the Western Academic Calendar).  Plagiarism is the inclusion of someone else's verbatim or paraphrased text in one's own written work without immediate reference. Verbatim text must be surrounded by quotation marks or indented if it is longer than four lines.  A reference must follow right after borrowed material (usually the author's name and page number). Without immediate reference to borrowed material, a list of sources at the end of a written assignment does not protect a writer against the possible charge of plagiarism.  The University of Western Ontario uses a plagiarism-checking site called Turnitin.com.

Absenteeism
Students seeking academic accommodation on medical grounds for any missed tests, exams, participation components and/or assignments must apply to the Academic Counselling office of their home Faculty and provide documentation. Academic accommodation cannot be granted by the instructor or department.