Detroit is a city of stark contradictions. On the one hand, as the original home of the universally beloved black-owned music label Motown, it has become one of the most potent symbols of America’s integrated popular culture, while, on the other hand, the Detroit riots of 1943 and 1967 have made it all but synonymous with black-white racial strife. Once heralded as an “arsenal of democracy,” it nonetheless has a long history of antidemocratic policies and social movements. Although a site of tremendous wealth production and class mobility throughout the twentieth century, it filed for bankruptcy in 2013 and currently has the highest poverty rate of any major American city. How can we make sense of such a place? In this course, we will attempt to do so by turning to the writers, filmmakers, musicians, and poets whose works revolve around life in the Motor City. We will pay special attention to how these authors represent class conflict and race.

Assigned texts will likely include Angela Flournoy’s The Turner House; Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex; Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit; Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar; and the documentaries Finally Got the News and Searching for Sugar Man. Students should be prepared to encounter texts that include graphic depictions of violence and racist language.

This course satisfies the following CURRENT English major/minor requirement: American Literature

This course satisfies the following NEW English major/minor requirements: Time: Contemporary/Modern

Course Requirements:

This course will include weekly lectures and class discussions. Students will write weekly reading notes, give one presentation, and complete two take-home exams.

Intended Audience:

This class is intended for upper level students of all majors and is not open to first-year students.