The City in Literature Essay Example for Free

The City in Literature EssayThis sweeping literary encounter with the Western idea of the city moves from the early novel in England to the apocalyptic cityscapes of Thomas Pynchon. on 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 worsen of feudal system 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 nirvana 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 lands end of the imagination, in Lehans words. He charts a narrative continuum full of constructs that represent a pedal 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 assume a lively read not only for those interested in literature, but for anyone intrigued by the meanings and mysteries of urban life.