Reflections of/on the City : literature, space, and postmodernity

Abstract

Reflection of/on the City:

Literature, Space, and Postmodernity is an interdisciplinary study of

literary representations of the postmodern city. While the early 20th

century was characterized by the metropolis, with a high concentration of people and enterprise, the second half of the 20th century is marked by, on the one hand, a different kind of city – sprawling, flexible, to be understood in different frameworks – and on the other hand a changed usage of existing urban space. This study explores aspects of the postmodern city by looking at American literary works from the 1960s to the end of the century. These aspects are represented in literary works, of course, but my usage of these texts is explicitly geared towards looking beyond literary categories. Literary works do not only offer a reflection of, but importantly also a reflection on the city. My aim is to approach urban issues by using literature as a way of thinking about the city, which can therefore be brought together with theoretical of social scientific ways of thinking.