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ARLT 100G: Los Angeles Stories (35210)
Dr. Chris Freeman
Fall 2013/VKC 155
cefreema@usc.edu
T/TH 9:30-10:50
Office Hours: Tuesdays 3:30-4:30 & by appt.
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Office: Taper 410
“Los Angeles is the most beautiful city in the world, as long as it is seen at night
and from a distance.”— Roman Polanski
“Who we are today is entangled with what we were. The past is always slipping away, nowhere more
quickly than in Los Angeles, but the past isn’t always distant.”—D.J. Waldie, Holy Land
“I learned to drive in order to read Los Angeles in the original.”—Reyner Banham
The Course and Its Goals
“Los Angeles Stories” is a course intended to develop your critical thinking and
writing skills as well as your discussion skills. To that end, you will be encouraged to
keep a journal, write several formal papers, and actively participate in our daily
discussions. You will also do some brief presentations during the semester. Your
essays will be mostly from topics you generate, as coming up with good, viable topics
of interest to you is a key to writing good papers. I will provide suggested prompts.
Your project presentations will be important for our broad coverage of the history
and culture of L.A. Of course, we’ll be discussing all these writing matters on an
ongoing basis.
We will be exploring images of Los Angeles in various forms over the past seventyfive or so years. We’ll be reading fiction and nonfiction and will watching several
films to help us understand the many versions of Los Angeles (its history, culture,
mythologies, terrain, etc.) at play in representations of our fair city. LA has a long
and complex genealogy, and as USC student and LA resident, you should consider
yourself in “lab” for this class 24/7.
The Contract
In accepting this syllabus and becoming a member of this class, each student agrees
to complete all assignments in a timely and serious fashion. You also affirm your
commitment to the exploration of ideas in the liberal arts tradition, an exploration
which is intellectual, creative, and respectful of others in the classroom. Your
commitment to the quality and integrity of your work during the semester means
that all work you hand in will be your own; any outside sources will be properly cited; and
your work will be of the highest quality that you can produce. Plagiarism will have
severe ramifications, and I will spot-check anything suspicious to ensure against it. If you have
any questions about using outside sources, please ask me to help you.
As the instructor, my commitment to each student is that I have put considerable
thought into developing this course; that I will work hard to invigorate and challenge
you during the semester; that I will read your work carefully and with an open mind
and will value it accordingly; that I will be prepared for class but that my agenda
Freeman, Los Angeles Stories
won’t get in the way of your input; and that I will be available to help you in your
writing and thinking about the texts and issues we will be exploring.
The Texts

John Fante, Ask the Dust (1939; Ecco, 1980)
 Chester Himes, If He Hollers Let Him Go (1947; Thunder’s Mouth Press,
2002)

D. J. Waldie, Holy Land (Norton, 1996, 2005)

Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man (1964; Minnesota, 2001)

Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays (1970; FSG, 1990)

Dana Johnson, Elsewhere, California (Counterpoint, 2012)
We will also have occasional handouts/posting on Blackboard or via email.
Grading

Essay One and Two (4-6 pp.)
200 points each

Research Presentation/Essay Three (10 mins/5-7 pp.)
300 points

Take Home Final Exam/Essay Four (5-7 pp.)
200 points

Class Participation
100 points*
NOTE: After your THIRD absence, you will forfeit 100 class participation points
A: 930-1000; A-: 929-895; B+: 894-870; B: 869-830; B-: 829-795; C+: 794-770, etc.
Schedule of Assignments (subject to change)
Part One: LA Noir
Week One
T: Introductions; Syllabus; overview of LA history/culture
TH: Handout: Ulin introduction (Blackboard), Fante: Bukowski; 5-39; watch clips from Ask
the Dust (Robert Towne, 2006)
Week Two
T: Finish Fante; begin Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) and discuss Noir
TH: Ulin, LA Times essay (handout); continue Chinatown; Discuss projects and presentations
Week Three
T: Discussion on noir
TH: Thompson, from Beneath Mulholland; discuss essay one topics
Weekend Movies: The Big Sleep; To Have and Have Not; The Long Goodbye; Farewell, My Lovely
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Part TWO: Black LA
Week Four
T: Begin reading Himes, 1-68 and Hilton Als, preface
TH: Continue Himes, 68-111; excerpts from Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns
Week Five
T: Continue Himes; visit California African American History Museum on your own
TH: 9/26: Essay One due (4-6 pp.); finish Himes
Part Three: Mid-Century LA
Week Six
T: midterm conferences; Waldie; begin Isherwood, A Single Man; watch Chris & Don
TH: Waldie and Isherwood; Chris and Don (part one)
Week Seven
T: Finish Waldie; Isherwood, continued; finish Chris & Don
TH: Clips from Chris and Don: A Love Story; possible guest speakers this week
Part Four: Playing LA/Slaying LA/21st Century LA
Week Eight
T: Group one presentations (10-12 minutes each); Begin Didion, Play It As It Lays
TH: Group one presentations finish; continue Didion
Week Nine
T: Didion; discuss essay two topics (field work; urban anthropology)
TH: finish Didion continued; handout: Didion from The Year of Magical Thinking (2005)
Weeks Ten and Eleven
T: watch Boyz N the Hood (John Singleton 1991); watch Twilight: Los Angeles; watch opening of
Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992)
TH: finish Twilight discussion; read excerpts from Twilight: LA; writing workshop on essay
two
Week Twelve
T: Begin Johnson; Group Two Presentations (10-12 minutes)
TH: 11/14: Group two presentations continue; continue Johnson
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Week Thirteen
T: Continue Johnson
Th: Continue Johnson; possible guest speaker this week; Essay Two due (4-6 pp.)
Week Fourteen
T: Finish Johnson
Th: No Class--Thanksgiving
Week Fifteen
T: screen Boys in Peril (Graham Streeter, 2012)
TH: finish film and discuss with Street (guest); discuss final exam topics; course
evaluations
Take Home Final Exam/Essay (5-7 pp.) due Thursday 12/12 at 11 am (Hard copy)
ARLT 100 projects suggestions: 10-12 minute presentation (in pairs) and 5-7 page
paper due ONE WEEK after your presentation. You will pair up for the
presentations; you may write your essay separately or together.
GROUP ONE TOPICS, up
to 1970:
GROUP TWO TOPICS,
post-1970:
1932 Olympics/Coliseum
Gay LA/Jewish LA/Black
LA/Latino LA/Asian
LA/Persian LA, etc.
LAPD corruption
Early/Classic Hollywood
Noir/Chandler
Zoot Suit Riots (1942)
Chavez Ravine/Dodger
Stadium
Skid Row
Surfing/Beach Boy culture
Catalina Island
David Hockney’s Art
Reyner Banham/Greene and
Greene/architecture
Mayor Tom Bradley
Watts Towers/Riots
1984 Olympics
Disney
LA Lakers/Sports
Economy/LA LIVE/Forum
Laurel Canyon/music scene
The Hollywood Sign
Charles Manson
Major Earthquakes
Pacific Standard Time/Getty
Art exhibition/Art in Los
Angeles
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NOTES
 If you need any accommodation due to a learning disability or any other circumstance, please speak to me during week
one of the semester so that appropriate arrangements can be made
 Attendance is required and roll is taken daily. More than three unexcused absences will be reflected in your final
course grade, as you forfeit 100 class participation points
 You MUST come to class having done your reading and prepared to DISCUSS the day’s reading assignment.
BRING your texts to class—Underline and mark your copies with notes and tab passages that seem important to you;
make notes about readings and “LA observations” in your journal
 Late papers will ONLY be accepted by pre-arrangement. Papers must be word-processed in 12-point font
size, with 1-inch margins, double spaced, and stapled. Please don’t put them in folders or binders
 Plagiarism will result in failure—work MUST be your own; it should be original. If you do research
(including Wikipedia, Google, etc.), cite it within your essay and in a works cited/references list
Legal statements for USC syllabi
Student Behavior that persistently or grossly interferes with classroom activities is considered
disruptive behavior and may be subject to disciplinary action. Such behavior inhibits other students’
ability to learn and an instructor’s ability to teach. A student responsible for disruptive behavior may
be required to leave class pending discussion and resolution of the problem and may be reported to
the Office of Student Judicial Affairs for disciplinary action. These strictures may extend to behaviors
outside the classroom that are related to the course.
Students with Disabilities requesting academic accommodations based on a disability are required
to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for
approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as
early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Monday
through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
Academic Integrity. USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of
academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the
expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the
obligations both to protect one's own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using
another's work as one's own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles.
SCampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the
recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/SCAMPUS/gov/.
Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for
further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be
found at: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/.
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