ENGLISH 265S
Mad Cities/Dark Suburbia
Michael D.'Alessandro
Description from DukeHub
Do you really want to live in a city? Aren't those bright lights too garish, those city streets too squalid? Well, what about the suburbs? But isn't there something deranged about those white picket fences and perfect lawns? Something sad or sinister behind neighbors' smiles? Through post-WWII literature, film, and theatre, this course explores how cities and suburbs both offered hollow versions of the so-called American dream. We examine how each space's pressures led to madness, violence, drug addiction, and sexual voyeurism. Texts: A Streetcar Named Desire, The Stepford Wives, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Virgin Suicides, The Feminine Mystique. Films: Do the Right Thing, Blue Velvet, Gone Girl. Evaluation: 75% writing (response posts, essays), 25% participation. No tech in class
Skills
- writingdepartment: ENGLISH
AI-resilient: 1 of 5
- No: Physical, lab or field work
- No: Live work with people
- No: Judgment someone is accountable for
- No: A craft you practice with your hands or body
- Yes: Small, in-person format · seminar, 15 seats per section
The checks lean on Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025), which found generative AI applies least to physical work and hands-on work with people. A signal, not a promise. How the score works
More in ENGLISH
- Revenge! ENGLISH 90S-02
- Migration Narratives ENGLISH 101S-01
- Introduction to Narrative ENGLISH 101S-02
- Literature and Sound ENGLISH 101S-03
- Introduction to Creative Writing ENGLISH 110S
- Recognition and Enchantment: The Odyssey and Its After Lives ENGLISH 150CC