Seminars in Sunshine and Noir
Even local colleges are not exempt from Southern California’s tendency to self-reflect, as a quick introduction to some current course offerings demonstrates:
* Since 1982, Professor Leslie Howard has guided undergraduates from Whittier College around Los Angeles in his “Workshop in Urban Studies.” A typical tour takes students from a fortress-like housing complex at Vermont and 81st to downtown’s imposing county Hall of Administration to Philippe’s for a French dip sandwich.
* In East Los Angeles College’s “The Chicano in California,” Professor Julian Camacho urges his students to make connections between the state’s past and present as he traces the experiences of Mexican Americans. Using Mike Davis’ “City of Quartz,” Camacho says students often draw comparisons between Davis’ depictions of institutional racism and police brutality with their own lives.
* Undergraduates study Nathanael West, Thomas Pynchon and Roman Polanski in USC’s “The Mythical Foundations of the City: Los Angeles in Literature and Film.” Lecturer Tracy McNulty asks whether those who’ve dared go toe to toe with the region’s boosters to depict the city as an urban apocalypse have unwittingly painted a picture of Los Angeles so bleak and dystopian that it appears excitingly hip.
