Module description
This module begins with two simple premises: that ‘London’ is as much a creation of the imagination as of bricks and mortar; and that how we understand London is closely connected to how we represent it. The labyrinthine city, the obscure city, the city of strollers and wanderers, of disease, of crime, of riot, of illicit and excessive pleasures, of pretence and vulgarity, of ‘quality’ and taste, of aggressive capitalism and poverty, and of endless variety in people and things: these are just some of the tropes that help us interpret and define the sprawling mass that is ‘London’.
Writing London: Literature in Context introduces students to the social, political and cultural contexts out of which its set texts emerge and explores the diverse ways poets, novelists, playwrights and essayists have engaged with their historical moments and written the city. The module is arranged in reverse chronological order, to give a sense of digging down into the strata of London’s accumulated meanings. We start with Zadie Smith's 2012 novel of north-west London, and finish with an extraordinary fourteenth-century poem which is itself an account of digging down into Roman London.
The module also helps lay the foundation for your own writing life in London over the course of your study at King’s. Without a doubt London is one of the most stimulating environments in which to engage with literature, and the first semester of your first year marks the start of an exciting time and a place in which to develop your skills as a reader, as an observer, and as a writer.
Assessment details
1 x 2000 word essay
Teaching pattern
1 hour lecture, and 1 hour seminar weekly
Suggested reading list
Primary/introductory reading:
Many readings for this module will be available via the College’s online learning platform KEATS. You should be able to log onto KEATS as soon as you have a King’s user name and password. There you should see a link to 4AAEA002 Writing London with a series of ‘toggles’ which you can open for each week with links to the relevant readings/viewings. Consult this site closely before each week’s classes.
You will also need to get hold of a number of texts yourself - in new, second hand or library copies, and as hard copies or e-books.
These are (including suggested editions, though any edition is fine):
Zadie Smith, NW [2012] (London: Penguin, 2013)
Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia [2009] (London: Faber and Faber, 2009)
Linton Kwesi Johnson, Selected Poems [2002] (London: Penguin, 2006)
Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, The Roaring Girl [1607-10] (London: New Mermaids, 2003) OR (Oxford: OUP, 2008)