Memory and the Built Environment in 20th-Century American Literature : A Reading and Analysis of Spatial Forms

From the paving of the Los Angeles River in 1938 and the creation of the G.I. Bill in 1944, to the construction of the Interstate Highway System during the late 1950s and the brownstoning movement of the 1970s, throughout the mid-20th-century the United States saw a wave of changes that had an enduring impact on the development of urban spaces. Focusing on the relationship between processes of demolition and restoration as they have shaped the modern built environment, and the processes by which memory is constructed, hidden, or remade in the literary text, this book explores the ways in which history becomes entangled with the urban space in which it plays out. Alice Levick takes stock of this history, both in the form of its externalised, concretised manifestation and its more symbolic representation, as depicted in the mid-20th-century work of a selection of American writers. Calling upon access to archival material and interviews with New York academics, authors, local historians and urban planners, this book locates Freud's 'Uncanny' in the cracks between the absent and present, invisible and visible, memory and history as they are presented in city narratives, demonstrating both the passage of time and the imposition of 20th-century modernism. With reference to the works of D. J. Waldie, Joan Didion, Hisaye Yamamoto, Raymond Chandler, Marshall Berman, Gil Cuadros, Paule Marshall, L. J. Davis, and Paula Fox, Memory and the Built Environment in 20th-Century American Literature unpacks how time becomes visible in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Lakewood, and New York in the decades just before and after the Second World War, questioning how these spaces provide access to the past, in both narrative and spatial forms, and how, at times, this access is blocked. Special Collections. I also received particularly generous help from Christopher Niedt, Ina Katz, and Laurence Levy at Hofstra and special thanks must go to Susan Opotow and particularly to her son Nate for driving me around Long Island! I am grateful also to Dustin Tamsen and his family. The writing I was able to do because of the archival material, people, and places I had access to, has made an indelible mark on my work. Portions of this book have been published elsewhere in different iterations. A version of Chapter 1 (parts of the Raymond Chandler section only) was published in HARTS & Minds, Spring 2015: 2.2 Crime and Concealment, under the title "The Big Sleep, Uncanny Spaces, and Memory. " Parts of Chapter 3 can be found in "Looking for Moses in NYC, " a short personal essay published in US Studies Online (March 28, 2016). Parts of Chapter 2 appear in the European Journal of American Culture, volume 40, number 1 (Spring 2021), edited by Dr. John Wills, under the title "Damnatio Memoriae in California: Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays and Where I Was From. " An essay which draws from Chapters 1 (the Waldie section) and 3 has been published by Palgrave Macmillan as a chapter, titled "Marshall Berman and D. J. Waldie: Memory and Grief in Urban and Suburban Spaces, " in the collected work, Time, the City, and the Literary Imagination, edited by Dr. Anne-Marie Evans and Dr. Kaley Kramer. I owe a huge debt to the people who shared their experiences with me through interviews and conversations. Their personal histories breathed real human life into this book, and I am so grateful for their patience, honesty, and generosity with their time. They are David Allen, Andrew Berman, the "Brooklyn Transitions" book discussion group at the "From the creation of the G.I. Bill in 1944 to President Nixon's 1973 announcement that direct federal support for building public housing was over, the postwar era in the United States saw a wave of changes that had an enduring impact on the development of cities. Focusing on the relationship between processes of demolition and restoration as they have shaped the modern built environment, and the processes by which memory is constructed, hidden, or remade in the literary text, this book explores the ways in which history becomes entangled with the urban space in which it plays out. Alice Levick takes stock of this history, both in the form of its externalised, concretised manifestation and its more symbolic representation, as depicted in the work of of post-war writers. Calling upon privileged access to archival material and interviews with New York academics, city historians and urban planners, this book locates Freud's 'Uncanny' in the cracks between the absent and present, invisible and the visible, memory and history as they are presented in city narratives, demonstrating both the passage of time and the imposition of 20th-century modernism. With reference to the works of D.J. Waldie, Joan Didion, Raymond Chandler, Marshall Berman, L. J. Davis and Paula Fox, Memory and Built Environment in 20th-Century American Literature unpacks how time becomes visible in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Lakewood and New York in the decades just before and after the Second World War, questioning how they provide access, in narrative and spatial forms, to the past, and how, at times, that access is blocked."-- Provided by publisher Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 7 Introduction 10 Chapter 1: The Garden and the Grid: D. J. Waldie and Raymond Chandler in Lakewood and Los Angeles 26 Chapter 2: The Imago City: Joan Didion, Hisaye Yamamoto, and Alison Lurie in Los Angeles and Sacramento 74 Chapter 3: The Suture: Marshall Berman and Robert Moses in the Bronx 116 Chapter 4: The Palimpsest: Paula Fox and L. J. Davis in Brooklyn 146 Conclusion 182 Notes 200 Bibliography 206 Index 230 Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. The Garden and the Grid: DJ Waldie and Raymond Chandler in Lakewood and Los Angeles -- Chapter 2. The Imago City: Joan Didion, Hisaye Yamamoto and Alison Lurie in Los Angeles and Sacramento -- Chapter 3. The Suture: Marshall Berman and Robert Moses in the Bronx -- Chapter 4. The Palimpsest: Paula Fox and L.J. Davis in Brooklyn -- Conclusion -- References -- Index