FFS 281 - Reading and Writing the Francophone City: Montréal

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

As the second-largest primarily Francophone city in the world and the most populous city in Quebec, Montreal exerts a special fascination on writers and readers alike, both within and beyond its borders. How has the city— and the ways it has been experienced— been recorded? How have these diverse ways of recording the city influenced not just how others experience it, but how the city itself has evolved? Straddling literary, cultural and urban studies, this course draws on a variety of practical, theoretical, literary, historical, sociological, and linguistic approaches to interpreting urban space in order to expand students’ knowledge of how to “read” a city. By analyzing popular fiction, newspapers, caricatures, maps, postcards, advertisements and more, we make connections between text, visual culture, and urban space. We explore the ways the authors’ lived experience and Montreal’s built environment have responded to each other—as reflected in the texts studied—in an enduring fashion, which has nonetheless led to an ever-shifting city, both real and imagined. Adam Cutchin.

Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS