This assignment is a bit of an experiment. Choose one of the many references to history, art, literature, philosophy, culture, etc. that Julius makes in the course of Open City. Choose one that you didn’t know anything about before reading the novel. Then, do a little bit of informal online research and document it carefully in a Works Cited list (this research may take the form of Wikipedia or other internet sites—typically, these may not be considered acceptable scholarly sources, but for this assignment it’s fine). In your essay, discuss how knowing something about the reference you’ve chosen can help us better understand the some characters, themes, or ideas presented in Open City.

The focus here should be on how it helps us better understand the novel. Do not spend your essay summarizing the Wikipedia entry on your subject. Instead, introduce the reference you’ve chosen in your first paragraph, describe it there, and then proceed to discuss its role in the novel for the bulk of your paper. Description and summary of the reference shouldn’t take more than a paragraph (2/3 of a page at most).

There are hundreds of references like this in Open City. Sometimes Julius describes them to us—in this case, does your research reveal anything he doesn’t tell us? If he doesn’t describe the thing referenced, what does figuring it out add to our understanding of the novel’s characters, themes, or ideas?

Here are some to get you started, though you may choose another if you like.
Remember to cite the sources you consult in a Works Cited list at the end of your paper.

St. Augustine (5)
Gustav Mahler, his Das Lied von der Erde, or his Ninth Symphony (16, 249)
Idi Amin and/or The Last King of Scotland (29)
John Brewster (36-40)
Baron Empain and/or Heliopolis (91, 249)
Parc du Cinquantenaire (100)
diabolus in musica (138)
Cannonball Adderley (141)
Lehman Brothers (158)
Kwame Anthony Appiah’s Cosmopolitanism (186)
The Negro Burial Ground (219)
Paracelsus (238)