This course examines the literary fascination with urban space as a meeting point of different cultures, as a mythical concept, but also as a place of displacement, suffering and exile. Themes studied may include issues of centrality/marginality, multiculturalism, destruction of cultures, memory and history.

20 x 1-hour sessions over both semesters as scheduled in MyCampus.

This is one of the honours options in SMLC and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

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The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Time-limited assignment (1500 words) completed over a 4-day period - 50%

■ Essay (2000 words) - 50%

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There is no alternative to the Time-limited Assignment, but extra time can be offered as reasonable adjustment.

■ There is no alternative to the Essay, but extensions to the deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (students should follow the usual process for extensions).

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

The course will provide the opportunity to:

■ study various theoretical approaches to representation of urban space;

■ analyse and compare different representations of space in literature and film;

■ develop awareness of topics such as cultural memory, internal exile, urbicide, Holocaust and the city, the city and tourism, which are of cross-cultural interest to students of Modern Languages.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ evaluate and apply spatial concepts, such as cultural centrality/cultural marginality, centre/periphery, inner exile/external exile;

■ analyse spatial practices from the perspective of genre, gender, cultural context(s) and historical period;

■ critically approach and use different theoretical frameworks in the analysis of representations of urban space in literature and film (eg. semiology of space, phenomenological approach, narratological approach);

■ produce sustained and sound arguments drawing from a variety of sources.