Comparative Literature 242 - WHAT AND WHERE IS MAIN STREET?

Where is Main Street? What times, spaces or places does the expression conjure? Are there equivalent concepts and places in other cultures? What are the aesthetics, the life and livelihoods, the politics that we associate with it? How are images and the concept manipulated to affect us, in the arts, in environmental issues, and in public discourse? When do we treasure this landscape, and when do we flee it? We begin by looking at American Main Streets, and then explore related concepts in British, French, German and Russian texts and other media. Prerequisite: one course in literary studies.