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The Resource Imagined cities : urban experience and the language of the novel, Robert Alter

Imagined cities : urban experience and the language of the novel, Robert Alter

Creator
Summary
In Imagined Cities, Robert Alter traces the arc of literary development triggered by the runaway growth of urban centers from the early nineteenth century through the first two decades of the twentieth. As new technologies and arrangements of public and private space changed the ways people experienced time and space, the urban panorama became less coherent-a metropolis defying traditional representation and definition, a vast jumble of shifting fragments and glimpses-and writers were compelled to create new methods for conveying the experience of the city. In a series of subtle and convincing interpretations of novels by Flaubert, Dickens, Bely, Woolf, Joyce, and Kafka, Alter reveals the ways the city entered the literary imagination. He shows how writers of diverse imaginative temperaments developed innovative techniques to represent shifts in modern consciousness. Writers sought more than a journalistic representation of city living, he argues, and to convey meaningfully the reality of the metropolis, the city had to be re-created or reimagined. His book probes the literary response to changing realities of the period and contributes significantly to our understanding of the history of the Western imagination.--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xiii, 175 pages
Contents
  • Flaubert
  • the demise of the spectator
  • Flaubert
  • urban poetics
  • Dickens
  • the realism of metaphor
  • Dickens
  • intimations of apocalypse
  • Bely
  • phantasmatic city
  • Woolf
  • urban pastoral
  • Joyce
  • metropolitan shuffle
  • Kafka
  • suspicion and the city
Isbn
9780300108026
Instance
Label
Imagined cities : urban experience and the language of the novel
Title
Imagined cities
Title remainder
urban experience and the language of the novel
Statement of responsibility
Robert Alter
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
In Imagined Cities, Robert Alter traces the arc of literary development triggered by the runaway growth of urban centers from the early nineteenth century through the first two decades of the twentieth. As new technologies and arrangements of public and private space changed the ways people experienced time and space, the urban panorama became less coherent-a metropolis defying traditional representation and definition, a vast jumble of shifting fragments and glimpses-and writers were compelled to create new methods for conveying the experience of the city. In a series of subtle and convincing interpretations of novels by Flaubert, Dickens, Bely, Woolf, Joyce, and Kafka, Alter reveals the ways the city entered the literary imagination. He shows how writers of diverse imaginative temperaments developed innovative techniques to represent shifts in modern consciousness. Writers sought more than a journalistic representation of city living, he argues, and to convey meaningfully the reality of the metropolis, the city had to be re-created or reimagined. His book probes the literary response to changing realities of the period and contributes significantly to our understanding of the history of the Western imagination.--
Assigning source
Provided by Publisher
Cataloging source
U9X
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Alter, Robert
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • European fiction
  • European fiction
  • Cities and towns in literature
Label
Imagined cities : urban experience and the language of the novel, Robert Alter
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
Flaubert -- the demise of the spectator -- Flaubert -- urban poetics -- Dickens -- the realism of metaphor -- Dickens -- intimations of apocalypse -- Bely -- phantasmatic city -- Woolf -- urban pastoral -- Joyce -- metropolitan shuffle -- Kafka -- suspicion and the city
Control code
FIEb17809137
Dimensions
22 cm.
Extent
xiii, 175 pages
Isbn
9780300108026
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)847367153
Label
Imagined cities : urban experience and the language of the novel, Robert Alter
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
Flaubert -- the demise of the spectator -- Flaubert -- urban poetics -- Dickens -- the realism of metaphor -- Dickens -- intimations of apocalypse -- Bely -- phantasmatic city -- Woolf -- urban pastoral -- Joyce -- metropolitan shuffle -- Kafka -- suspicion and the city
Control code
FIEb17809137
Dimensions
22 cm.
Extent
xiii, 175 pages
Isbn
9780300108026
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)847367153

Subject

Library Locations

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      43.803074 11.283055

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