Module description
The cities of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries surged with light, money, ideas and people. New aspects of city life included the arrival of electric modes of mass transit, new technologies of communication, luminous arcades filled with consumer goods, and opulent palaces for commercial entertainment. Successive waves of newcomers sought a better life amidst the bright lights, swelling the cities with restless endeavour. Photographers, artists, poets, journalists and others looked to capture this era of rapid urban change, and make sense of the metropolitan spaces unfolding outwards and upwards before them.
Where there was illumination there was also shadow. Amidst the dazzling opportunities offered by the metropolis could also be found its benighted citizens, those whom fortune did not favour. Outcasts and malcontents shared the city’s public spaces, from time to time terrorising middle-class imaginations. It is this tension of extremes – between the city filled with prospects and the city as the terminus of hope – that this module explores. Focusing on four cities where the possibilities and pitfalls of modernity were felt especially keenly, weekly readings and discussions seek to comprehend what it was like to experience profound transformations in urban living. Rather than try to understand the four case study cities in totality across more than half a century, Electric Cities offers specific excursions into the social and cultural histories of London, Melbourne, New York and Paris. We will explore the pathways carved out by different social groups and bring their experiences in comparative focus.
Assessment details
1 x formative essay, 1 x 3,000 word essay (100%)
Teaching pattern
10 x 2 hour seminar (weekly)