Representing Global Cities- Venice, London, Mumbai: course description
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Topics considered will include the city as a space of the imagination and representation; the respective multicultural politics and dynamics of migration; the interaction of the local and the global; vernacular cosmopolitanism; the politics of naming and linguistic landscapes; cultural misunderstandings and cross-cultural translations; the impact of tourism; sites of memory and the construction of identity; the gendered city; multicultural neighborhoods and ghettos;
myths and counter-myths of the cities; postmodern and postcolonial representations of Venice, London and Mumbai. Finally, we will ask ourselves whether and to what extent it is possible and helpful to compare the three cities at stakes.
The course will be mainly based on lectures and class discussion of the assigned material. It will also involve some fieldwork in the city of Venice, with trips to relevant locations such as ancient and contemporary ethnic neighborhoods (the Ghetto, Via Piave – Mestre) and interviews.
