Order 807955: The City As A Metaphor

University of Guelph-Humber

AHSS 2150 City Life Assignment #1 The City as Metaphor

Due Date

February 13th. Submit a paper copy in the lecture, and also an electronic one to the course dropbox

Essay Length

4-6 Pages, Double-Spaced

Group Size

You may write the assignment individually or in a group of 2

We employ metaphors within literature and within daily life to carry over aspects of one thing or idea to another (metaphero literally means ‘to carry-across’). In the process, the original topic under discussion is altered or coloured, enlarged or reimagined by its association with something entirely different.

The first lecture of the course introduced several metaphors that Lewis Mumford used to describe the elementary social processes of cities: the magnet, the container and the transformer.

Choose TWO of the historical cities that we have addressed in the first section of the course (The Ancient City, The Medieval City, The Industrial City, The Suburban City) and apply TWO of these metaphors to each of these cities.

In your essay consider questions such as these: What or who is ‘magnetized”? How does the city exert an influence at a distance? What is drawn into its field of energy? What is contained within the city? What form does the containment take? What ideas as well as what objects are preserved and regulated in this process? Which patterns of everyday city life or types of relationships are transformed in a specific form of a historical city?

Please demonstrate your knowledge of these historical cities in your application of these metaphors. Quote at least TWO of the assigned readings on the topics of those historical cities in doing so. Do not use any outside sources, as the point of the assignment is to demonstrate your ability to connect our assigned readings and course material to these metaphors.