The Cambridge Companion to the City in Literature

This Companion offers readers an accessible survey of the historical and symbolic relationships between literature and the city.

Kevin R. McNamara (Edited by)

9781107028036, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 October 2014

320 pages, 6 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.64 kg

'This volume provides a comprehensive examination of the city and its various meanings and contradictions … The book transcends genre, period boundaries and national divisions, making it an important starting point for those interested in any aspect of the city.' Forum for Modern Language Studies

From the myths and legends that fashioned the identities of ancient city-states to the diversity of literary performance in contemporary cities around the world, literature and the city are inseparably entwined. The international team of scholars in this volume offers a comprehensive, accessible survey of the literary city, exploring the myriad cities that authors create and the genres in which cities appear. Early chapters consider the literary legacies of historical and symbolic cities from antiquity to the early modern period. Subsequent chapters consider the importance of literature to the rise of the urban public sphere; the affective experience of city life; the interplay of the urban landscape and memory; the form of the literary city and its responsiveness to social, cultural and technological change; dystopian, nocturnal, pastoral and sublime cities; cities shaped by colonialism and postcolonialism; and the cities of economic, sexual, cultural and linguistic outsiders.

Introduction Kevin R. McNamara
1. Celestial cities and rationalist utopias Antonis Balasopoulos
2. The city in the literature of antiquity Susan Stephens
3. The medieval and early modern city in literature Karen Newman
4. The spectator and rise of the modern metropole Alison O'Byrne
5. Memory, desire, lyric: the flâneur Catherine Nesci
6. Social science and urban realist narrative Stuart Culver
7. The socio-economic outsider: labor and the poor Bart Keunen and Luc de Droogh
8. The urban nightspace James R. Giles
9. Masses, forces, and the urban sublime Christophe den Tandt
10. Fragment and form in the city of modernism Arnold Weinstein
11. Cities of the avant-garde Malcolm Miles
12. Urban dystopias Rob Latham and Jeff Hicks
13. Postmodern cities Nick Bentley
14. Colonial cities Seth Graebner
15. Postcolonial cities Caroline Herbert
16. The translated city: immigrants, diasporans, and cosmopolitans Azade Seyhan
17. Gay and lesbian urbanity Gregory Woods
18. Some versions of urban pastoral Kevin R. McNamara and Timothy Gray.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]