For the Fall 2021 term, we're offering a mix of virtual and in-person classes. Although we are still primarily virtual, you will find a smaller selection of in-person seminars in the schedule. For more information about the Newberry’s virtual seminars, including a Zoom tutorial, please see our Virtual Seminars FAQ page. Registration opens on September 1st at 9am (Central time). Registration will take place through our online platform, Learning Stream.

Seminar Description

Over the span of a hundred years, Chicago grew from a town of a few thousand people to a quintessentially American metropolis—all thanks to waves of Black migrants from the South and immigrants from all over the world who made the city their own. Whose voices define the city, which 20th-Century Literature narratives have been forgotten in public memory, and how does this tapestry of different histories, origins, and perspectives contribute to the vision of the city in the popular imagination? What is the relationship between past and present, or between the physical space of today’s rapidly gentrifying Chicago neighborhoods and the literary landscapes created by the writers we will read? This seminar will invite you to actively participate in discussions about literature and to think deeply about the multiple narratives that make up this American city, as well as about the role that literature and culture play in shaping a particular place.

Six sessions. Registration – $210

Sara Cerne is visiting assistant professor of English at Northwestern University, focusing on American literature. Originally from Slovenia, she has come to consider herself a Chicagoan after years of neighborhood wanderings and volunteer work at the Chicago History Museum.

Materials List

Required:

• Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (Vintage, 1991). ISBN: 978-0679734772.

First Reading: