This sweeping literary encounter with the Western idea of the city moves from the early novel in England to the apocalyptic cityscapes of Thomas Pynchon. Along the way, Richard Lehan gathers a rich ...entourage that includes Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, Bram Stoker, Rider Haggard, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Raymond Chandler. The European city is read against the decline of feudalism and the rise of empire and totalitarianism; the American city against the phenomenon of the wilderness, the frontier, and the rise of the megalopolis and the decentered, discontinuous city that followed.
Throughout this book, Lehan pursues a dialectic of order and disorder, of cities seeking to impose their presence on the surrounding chaos. Rooted in Enlightenment yearnings for reason, his journey goes from east to west, from Europe to America. In the United States, the movement is also westward and terminates in Los Angeles, a kind of land's end of the imagination, in Lehan's words. He charts a narrative continuum full of constructs that "represent" a cycle of hope and despair, of historical optimism and pessimism.
Lehan presents sharply etched portrayals of the correlation between rationalism and capitalism; of the rise of the city, the decline of the landed estate, and the formation of the gothic; and of the emergence of the city and the appearance of other genres such as detective narrative and fantasy literature. He also mines disciplines such as urban studies, architecture, economics, and philosophy, uncovering material that makes his study a lively read not only for those interested in literature, but for anyone intrigued by the meanings and mysteries of urban life.
Las ciudades del deseo explores the representations of gender, sexuality, and urban space in contemporary narratives from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. By examining a corpus of ...novels published since 2000, this book shows how the changes in urban landscape create a new image of the city that destroys traditional gender roles and produces different discourses on sexuality. At moments of crisis in political agendas that took place between 1990 and 2000, queer subjects became spokespeople outlining new national projects on each island, while claiming space in the national imaginary. The nation is no longer built on blood ties, patriarchal norms, or biological procreation, but rather starts incorporating previously excluded racial identities and sexual practices. By juxtaposing the narratives of the three countries and putting into dialogue the topics of nationality, sexuality, urban space, and sex tourism, Las ciudades del deseo breaks away from a tradition that tends to study them separately. The book contributes new perspectives on an emerging culture of resistance to heteronormative dynamics and power structures that is developing simultaneously in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. It sheds light on larger connections between literature and LGBTQ activism in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.Las ciudades del deseo explora las representaciones del genero, la sexualidad y el espacio urbano en la narrativa contemporanea de Cuba, la Republica Dominicana y Puerto Rico. Aportando un analisis de varias novelas publicadas despues de 2000, el libro muestra como los cambios del paisaje urbano crean una imagen nueva de la ciudad que destruye roles de genero tradicionales y produce multiples discursos de sexualidad. Durante la crisis de las agendas politicas que sucede en 1990-2000 los sujetos queer esbozan nuevos proyectos nacionales en cada isla. La familia como metafora de la nacion deja de basarse en los lazos de sangre, normas patriarcales y procreacion biologica. En cambio, empieza a incorporar identidades raciales y practicas sexuales. Yuxtaponiendo las narrativas de los tres paises y poniendo en dialogos los temas de la nacion, la sexualidad, el espacio urbano y el turismo sexual, Las ciudades del deseo rompe con una tradicion que tiende a explorarlos por separado. El libro contribuye a una perspectiva nueva de la emergente cultura de resistencia contra las dinamicas heteronormativas y estructuras de poder que se esta desarrollando simultaneamente en los tres paises y establece conexiones extensas entre la literatura y el activismo LGBTQ en el Caribe hispano.
Charting an ‘aesthetic’, post-realist tradition of writing, this book considers the significant role played by John Ruskin’s art criticism in later writing which dealt with the new kinds of spaces ...encountered in the nineteenth-century
Neben geografischen und physischen Aspekten ist die Stadt auch ein poetischer und subjektiver Raum, in dem individuelle Weltbilder aufeinandertreffen, miteinander interagieren und sich sogar ...verwandeln. Fernando Toledo befasst sich mit dem urbanen Raum und seinen Auswirkungen auf die Identität und die narrativen Repräsentationen in einem von Globalisierungsprozessen und der Entwicklung der sogenannten »flüchtigen Moderne« dominierten Kontext. Durch eine innovative theoretische Kontextualisierung in den Literaturwissenschaften bietet seine interdisziplinäre Studie einen neuen Blick auf die deutschsprachige und brasilianische Gegenwartsliteratur sowie ihre Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede.
Reimagining Urban Nature questions some of the underlying imaginaries which have for so long allowed us humans to develop technologically at great cost to the more-than-human world and ourselves. In ...urban places, cultural and more-than-human entities are in frequent contact; however, the non-human is often seen as expendable in these human-centric places. While much important work has been done on improving care for the more rural and wild areas of the globe, to really address environmental damage we must work towards reimagining the city. These are places where the majority of people live and work, and where the majority of decisions are made about the care and protection of many environments within and beyond the city. This book contributes to the still under-developed field of urban ecocriticism by adding a posthumanist perspective, as well as expanding current discussions within urban studies and environmental activism that seek to shift political and cultural imaginaries of urban nature. Importantly, this investigation is grounded in the Australian (and more broadly, the Australasian) context to allow for the analysis of a more diverse set of voices, texts and ecologies in an area still dominated by the northern hemisphere and the Global North.
Only one out of ten early modern Europeans lived in cities. Yet cities were crucial nodes, joining together producers and consumers, rulers and ruled, and believers in diverse faiths and futures. ...They also generated an enormous amount of writing, much of which focused on civic life itself. But despite its obvious importance, historians have paid surprisingly little attention to urban discourse; its forms, themes, emphases and silences all invite further study. This book explores three dimensions of early modern citizens’ writing about their cities: the diverse social backgrounds of the men and women who contributed to urban discourse; their notions of what made for a beautiful city; and their use of dialogue as a literary vehicle particularly apt for expressing city life and culture. Amelang concludes that early modern urban discourse increasingly moves from oral discussion to take the form of writing. And while the dominant tone of those who wrote about cities continued to be one of celebration and glorification, over time a more detached and less judgmental mode developed. More and more they came to see their fundamental task as presenting a description that was objective.
