Urban Space and Late Twentieth-Century New York Literature : Reformed Geographies

Interdisciplinary in nature, this project draws on fiction, non-fiction and archival material to theorize urban space and literary/cultural production in the context of the United States and New York City. Spanning from the mid-1970s fiscal crisis to the 1987 Market Crash, New York writing becomes akin to geographical fieldwork in this rich study. How does literary production respond to processes of urbanization? What do literary and cultural representations tell us about urban practices? Guided by these questions, Urban Space and Late Twentieth-Century New York Literature theorizes literary geography anew by examining writers' responses to the uneven development of New York City. Catalina Neculai offers a rich critique of literature written during the consolidation of the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) industry in the 1970s and 1980s. Whether it is about the culture industries, gentrification, housing movements, or the finance economy, here New York literature becomes akin to urban fieldwork that produces knowledge of space and engages with the politics of place. Interdisciplinary in conception and design, the book draws on fiction, non-fiction, grassroots narratives, archival material, radical Marxist geography, urban politics, and urban history Cover 1 Title 6 Copyright 7 Dedication 8 Contents 10 Acknowledgments 12 Prologue: Urban Hermeneutics and the Problem of the Fetish Space 14 Part I Mappings 31 Chapter 1 The Paradigmatic Exceptionality of New York: Scaffolding a Radical Literary Urbanism 32 Chapter 2 Downtown, Uptown, and the Urbanization of Literary Consciousness 61 Part II A New York Trilogy Inc. 90 Chapter 3 Scale, Culture, and Real Estate: The Reproduction of Lowliness in Great Jones Street 91 Chapter 4 Kill the Poor: Low-Rent Aesthetics and the New Housing Order 120 Chapter 5 Uneven City: Brightness Falls and the Ethnography of Fictitious Finance 158 Epilogue: The Politics of Urban Writing and the Hegemony of FIRE 197 Notes 204 Bibliography 226 Index 237 Front Matter....Pages i-xii Prologue: Urban Hermeneutics and the Problem of the Fetish Space....Pages 1-17 Front Matter....Pages 19-19 The Paradigmatic Exceptionality of New York: Scaffolding a Radical Literary Urbanism....Pages 21-49 Downtown, Uptown, and the Urbanization of Literary Consciousness....Pages 51-79 Front Matter....Pages 81-81 Scale, Culture, and Real Estate: The Reproduction of Lowliness in Great Jones Street....Pages 83-111 Kill the Poor : Low-Rent Aesthetics and the New Housing Order....Pages 113-150 Uneven City: Brightness Falls and the Ethnography of Fictitious Finance....Pages 151-189 Epilogue: The Politics of Urban Writing and the Hegemony of FIRE....Pages 191-197 Back Matter....Pages 199-240