The Urban Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century European Literature: City Fissures (Literary Urban Studies)

The Urban Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century European Literature explores transnational perspectives of modern city life in Europe by engaging with the fantastic tropes and metaphors used by writers of short fiction. Focusing on the literary city and literary representations of urban experience throughout the nineteenth century, the works discussed incorporate supernatural occurrences in a European city and the supernatural of these stories stems from and belongs to the city. The argument is structured around three primary themes. "Architectures," "Encounters" and "Rhythms" make reference to three axes of city life: material space, human encounters, and movement. This thematic approach highlights cultural continuities and thus supports the use of the label of "urban fantastic" within and across the European traditions studied here. Patricia Garcia is Ramon y Cajal Researcher at the Universidad de Alcala, Spain. Her research focuses on narrative spaces and their intersection with urban studies, feminisms and with representations of the supernatural. She coordinates the network Fringe Urban Narratives: Peripheries, Identities, Intersections, has directed the project Gender and the Hispanic Fantastic (funded by the British Academy) and has been a fellow of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (2018-2019) with a EURIAS fellowship. She is a member of Executive Committee of the European Society of Comparative Literature, of the Spanish Research Group on the Fantastic (Grupo de Estudios de lo Fantastico) and of the editorial board of BRUMAL: Research Journal on the Fantastic. Her most notable publications include the monograph Space and the Postmodern Fantastic in Contemporary Literature: the Architectural Void (2015). Preface and Acknowledgments Contents About the Author List of Figures Introduction: The Modern Fantastic—A Tale of Two Cities The Modern European City: A Conceptual Framework The Fantastic: A Historical Perspective Approaches to the Supernatural The Modern Spirit The Urban Dominant Not Here, Not Now: The Fantastic Out of Place References Part I: Buildings: Architectural Intruders Introduction: Architecture and Habit(at) Urban Interpolations References Fantastic Antique Shops A Parisian Adventure The City as Terra Incognita Modern Anachronisms: “Le Pied de momie” (Gautier, 1840) Location: Urban Thresholds The Interior The Antique Dealer Restitutions: Subverting of the Enlightenment Project Reading in Reverse: The Antiquarian Scene in La Peau de chagrin (Balzac, 1831) City Ramblings The Interval References The City’s Haunted Houses The Architectural Anomaly Victorian Haunting Formulas “The Truth” About Haunted City Houses Location Is Everything House Hunting: The Urban Jungle “A palace at the cost of a hovel” The Anti-Domestic Hermes and Hestia-Characters A Monotonous Sensation References Part II: Encounters: Urban Revenants and Other Fantastic Acquaintances Introduction: How the (Un)Dead Became Modern References Female Spirits of Place Some Male Referents: Hoffmann’s “Ritter Gluck” (1809) and Thornbury’s Haunted London (1859/1865) The Uncivil Woman: “La mujer alta” (Alarcón, 1882) The Beheaded Returns The Erotica of the Guillotined Character The Shortcomings of Mr. Guillotin The Head: Seat of Reason? References Fantastic Exhibitions of the Self The Urban Production of Identities Behind the Mask: The femme-énigme in Jean Lorrain’s Masquerades Beyond the Mask: An Unwelcome Guest Mirrors: Narcissistic Pathologies Showcases: “La Princesa y el Granuja” (Pérez Galdós, 1877) The Infatuation The Rescue The Sacrifice References Part III: Rhythms: The Fantastic on the Move 1.1 Introduction: A Fantastic of Rhythm References The Ghosts of Public Transportation Pity a Poor Bridge Ghost Vehicles Fellow Travelers Mr. Lost A Maze of Stories: “La novela en el tranvía” (Pérez Galdós, 1871) References Cacophony and Asynchrony The Nightmares of a Regular Man Chronophobia and Phonophobia: Rodenbach’s “L’Heure” (1894) and “Un Inventeur” (1898) Colliding Soundscapes Cacophonies of Modernity Cholera and its Musical Metaphors: “Una industria que vive de la muerte; episodio musical del cólera” (Pérez Galdós, 1865) When Modernity Stops: “La Nuit” (Maupassant, 1887) The City of Light and Its Reverse The City as a State of Mind References Epilogue: Contemporary Revisitations Architectural Bubbles Alien Citizens Entangled Mobility Further Tales of Two Cities References Timeline Index