Focusing on the intersection of literature and urban development, this book explores how literary texts serve not only as representations of urban spaces but also as frameworks for envisioning future cityscapes. It delves into the emerging field of literary urban studies, highlighting the dual role of literature in reflecting and shaping urban environments.
In 2003, Norman M. Klein's docufable »Bleeding Through« raised questions of urban aesthetics and memory as part of the multimedia documentary »Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986.« Now, 20 years later, this important text is reissued along with several essays addressing its central themes, such as the aesthetics and politics of urban memory, the development of Los Angeles since the 20th century, the role of urban imaginaries in US politics, or media evolution in the 21st century. The volume also features a long interview with Klein and two docufables from Klein's celebrated study »The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory«, one being the kernel of the novella, the other imagining Walter Benjamin in L. A. Finally, the book contains links to two films featuring much of the multimedia material contained in the first edition.
While a few central Romantic texts representing the city have long been debated, the systematic investigation of the city’s role in British Romanticism has gained traction only recently. To explore Romantic urbanity and its cultural expressions, selected papers from the 14th International Symposium of the German Society for English Romanticism are assembled. The essays delve into various cultural forms, including poetry, novels, drama, essays, religious tracts, travel writing, political commentary, medical literature, caricature, visual arts, architecture, and urban performances. Rather than merely discussing representations of the city, the volume engages with the complex interplay between urban anthropology and poetics, posing questions about how urban conditions shape individuality, society, and cultural production. Contributions include discussions on modernity and estrangement in London, the impact of the city on human form, and the relationship between urbanization and poetry in the works of Shelley and Keats. The essays also examine themes such as hygiene discourse, urban wanderlust, and the representation of cities like Dublin and Istanbul, ultimately enriching the understanding of Romanticism's engagement with urban landscapes.
After an overview of dualistic conceptions of the self in Plato, the Bible, Augustine and further classical, medieval and Renaissance sources, this study discusses key variations of such notions through sustained readings of major texts in chapters on Renaissance sonnets, Royalist Civil War Poetry, Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, Bunyan’s ‘Grace Abounding’, Pilgrim’s ‘Progress and The Holy War’, Richardson’s ‘Pamela’, Sterne’s ‘Sentimental Journey’, Wordsworth’s ‘Prelude’, Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’, Wilde’s ‘Dorian Gray’ and Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’. Among the recurring themes are the mind-body relationship, the body politic analogy, ideologies of love, the evaluation of sense perceptions, and the struggle between the higher and the lower human faculties.