Category Archives: Cities

Essay 1 Outline Gabe Rojas

Industrial Genres and The Jungle Outline Introduction State topic: The intermix of the Industrial Gothic and Industrial Epic. State thesis: In order to advocate his socialist motives and critique the turn-of-the-century industrial complexes at the end of his novel, Upton … Continue reading

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Frank O’Hara, Amiri Baraka: “The Day Lady Died”

March 19, 2014 Frank O’Hara and Billie Holiday had probably never met, never exchanged a single word.   There’s no record of the two of them at any gathering. What I found instead is an  image of Amiri Baraka and … Continue reading

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Amiri Baraka’s luck

January 15, 2014 He must have been one of the most photographed – certainly in the 60s, and probably long after that. But the picture that’s most stuck in my head is actually one in USA Today, taken late in … Continue reading

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Not New York

January 8, 2014 I’m about to head off to Chicago, also about to teach my freshman seminar: “Cities.” Chicago again, New York, San Francisco.   The books are the usual suspects, but not all of them (for San Francisco I’m … Continue reading

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Iowa alums: Rita Dove, James McPherson, Ayanna Mathis

October 30, 2013 There would have been no marriage between Rita Dove and Fred Viebahn if it had not been for Iowa City.   She was at the Writers’ Workshop, getting her MFA in 1977; he was from Germany, a Fulbright … Continue reading

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Ilium, Iowa City: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five

October 23, 2013 For someone interested in the twentieth-century epic, Slaughterhouse Five is a no-brainer.  How else would one call a story set in Ilium, talking about war, about death and the counterfactual? But did I ever stop to think about … Continue reading

Posted in Boostores, Cities, Climate change, Contemporary novel, Environmentalism, epic, public universities, Science fiction, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oscar Hijuelos, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O’Brien

October 16, 2013 This week saw the passing of Oscar Hijuelos: guitar-playing, cake-loving (I suspect), also lover of bountiful, sometimes over-stuffed prose. His father was the morning-to-lunch shift cook at the Biltmore Hotel, so he definitely knew a thing or … Continue reading

Posted in Caribbean literature, Cities, Contemporary novel, Cuba, Diaspora, Food in literature, Latin America, Latino/a literature, Music | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Turkish Munich

July 3, 2013 Last time I came by train.   What struck me immediately, getting out of the station, was the city’s Turkish population, out in force, women wearing head scarves and not looking conspicuous, walking comfortably up and down … Continue reading

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Langston Hughes’s Children Literature

May 31, 2013 My class, “Regional, National, Global,” has no special focus on children’s literature, but it does seem to come up a lot. I think it’s because of Langston Hughes — the uncertain borders of his poetry, holding a … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, African-American music, Children's literature, Cities, collaboration, Educational institutions, Ethnicity, Experimental poetry, jazz, Modernist poetry, Music, print medium, Twentieth century literature, World history | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beyond a Boundary: C. L. R. James in Glasgow

May 13, 2013 Scotland and the Caribbean?   The architecture of Glasgow tells a dramatic story.   Here, in the center of town, is  the many-pillared Gallery of Modern Art,  monumental  even for a museum, which used to be the … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, architecture, Atlantic, Caribbean literature, Cities, Colonization, Contemporary Art, film medium, Global South, oceans, Race, scale, slavery, Sports, Twentieth century literature, Universities | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment