This week in the Imagining Toronto course we'll discuss representations of suburbia, beginning with stereotypical notions of suburbs as middle-class bastions of white-flight and going on to discuss how suburbs have shaped (and been shaped by) shifting experiences of gender, race and class.

Literary works discussed will include Phyllis Brett Young's The Torontonians (1960; 2007), Hugh Garner's Death in Don Mills (1975), M.G. Vassanji's No New Land (1991), Rabindranath Maharaj's Homer in Flight (1997), David Chariandy's Soucouyant (2007) and V.V. Ganeshananthan's Love Marriage (2008), among other works.

Lecture slides for today's class are accessible here: 2011-2012 Week 11 slides Geog 4280 City Limits

Additional links:

Link: "Welcome to the Suburbs" (1950s film; Youtube)

Link: "Sin in the Suburbs" (film, 1964; via Youtube)

Link: "Subdivisions" by Rush (via Youtube)

Link: "Suburbia" by the Pet Shop Boys (via Youtube)

Link: "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" by the Barenaked Ladies (via Youtube)

Link: "Jesus of Suburbia" by Green Day (via Youtube)

Link: "Rockin' the Suburbs" by Ben Folds (via Youtube)

Link: "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire (via Youtube)

Link: "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" by Arcade Fire (via Youtube)

Link: "Shaikhing Up the Hood: Suburban Placemaking in Scarborough" (Aslam Shaikh, via Youtube)

Link: "The Microcosm of Markham" (The Agenda with Steve Paikin, via Youtube)

Link: The Leona Drive Project

Link: Vertical Poverty: Rexdale (United Way, Poverty by Postal Code 2)