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Almost from its very beginnings in 1718 New Orleans has been described as exceptional, different, exotic, insular, unique – in short, as un-American. The city’s early history as a colony of France and Spain, its multicultural and multiracial population, and the latter’s beliefs, customs, and stories have inspired numerous works of art in literature and cinema, and have also fueled a burgeoning tourist industry that, in turn, has sought to push the narrative of the city’s uniqueness even further. In this class we will examine a variety of medial representations of New Orleans from the 19th to the 21st century, including nineteenth-century local-color fiction, New Orleans-themed restaurants in California, Tokyo, and Oberhausen, and American Horror Story: Coven. Not only will we discover surprising intermedial connections between these various depictions of New Orleans (e.g. between George W. Cable’s local color and Coven), we will also continually question the idea of the city’s exceptionality and un-Americanness. Finally, African-American writer Rosalyn Story will join us for a reading from her New Orleans novels Wading Home (2010) and The River Sings (2021). |
