ENGLISH 188 WINTER 2004

"Re-Imagining Los Angeles ”

 Until 1900, Los Angeles was regarded as San Francisco 's embarrassing country cousin, but soon after the discovery of oil and the highjacking of water from the Owens Valley ( c. 1910-1920), the city was marketed as a paradise on earth by real estate hucksters, land developers and chambers of commerce, to explode exponentially in size and population. One hundred years later, for filmmakers and writers--and plate tectonicists, urban geographers and political theorists-- it has become a handy vehicle and convenient metaphor for examination of the postmodern city as a smoggy dystopia and cautionary example of California gone terribly wrong. From Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy to Joan Didion, Carolyn See and D.J. Waldie (on the page) to “Chinatown,” “Zoot Suit,” “Blade Runner” and “L.A. Confidential” (on the big screen), the city has been treated as a sunny landscape of social collapse and psychological nightmare. We take a look at some of the most artful renderings of those bad dreams in this course and consider them as works of art and cultural documents. Enrollment limited to 15.

BOOKS:

The Literature of California , Volume I (Hicks, Houston, Kingston & Young)

The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler)

Zoot Suit (Luis Valdez)

Holy Land (D.J. Waldie)

My Dark Places (James Ellroy)

Golden Days (Carolyn See)

FILMS:

Blade Runner

The Big Sleep

Chinatown

L.A. Confidential

Zoot Suit

Booklist and films (available at http://wwwenglish.ucdavis.edu ) oral reports, short papers.