By traveling through literature to the world’s great cities over the last 150 years, students will come to understand the essential elements of a city. Breaking down these elements will allow for deep analysis of setting, inspiring larger realizations about the relationship between people and places. From early detective stories to American Modernism to contemporary urban fiction and more, the course will explore how the problems, concerns, and anxieties of city life are expressed through literature, as well as the ways that the great cities reflect our greatest hopes and aspirations and the increasing speed of the mechanisms of modernity. We will use downtown Tucson to engage in psychogeography and dérive and understand how this affects our own backyard. All of this will allow us to work toward a greater understanding of how we are mapped onto the places we live and they are mapped onto us.