Charting Literary Urban Studies

Guided by the multifaceted relations between city and text, Charting Literary Urban Studies: Texts as Models of and for the City attempts to chart the burgeoning field of literary urban studies by outlining how texts in varying degrees function as both representations of the city and as blueprints for its future development. The study addresses questions such as these: How do literary texts represent urban complexities – and how can they capture the uniqueness of a given city? How do literary texts simulate layers of urban memory – and how can they reinforce or help dissolve path dependencies in urban development? What role can literary studies play in interdisciplinary urban research? Are the blueprints or 'recipes' for urban development that most quickly travel around the globe – such as the 'creative city', the 'green city' or the 'smart city' – really always the ones that best solve a given problem? Or is the global spread of such travelling urban models not least a matter of their narrative packaging? In answering these key questions, this book also advances a literary studies contribution to the general theory of models, tracing a heuristic trajectory from the analysis of literary texts as representations of urban developments to an analysis of literary strategies in planning documents and other pragmatic, non-literary texts

Charting Literary Urban Studies

Guided by the multifaceted relations between city and text, Charting Literary Urban Studies: Texts as Models of and for the City attempts to chart the burgeoning field of literary urban studies by outlining how texts in varying degrees function as both representations of the city and as blueprints for its future development. The study addresses questions such as these: How do literary texts represent urban complexities – and how can they capture the uniqueness of a given city? How do literary texts simulate layers of urban memory – and how can they reinforce or help dissolve path dependencies in urban development? What role can literary studies play in interdisciplinary urban research? Are the blueprints or 'recipes' for urban development that most quickly travel around the globe – such as the 'creative city', the 'green city' or the 'smart city' – really always the ones that best solve a given problem? Or is the global spread of such travelling urban models not least a matter of their narrative packaging? In answering these key questions, this book also advances a literary studies contribution to the general theory of models, tracing a heuristic trajectory from the analysis of literary texts as representations of urban developments to an analysis of literary strategies in planning documents and other pragmatic, non-literary texts

Postmodernism in the eighteenth century? Enlightenment intellectual contexts and the roots of 21st century concerns in Tristram Shandy

This essay argues the case for a reconciliation of two traditions of reading Tristram Shandy : interpretations of Sterne as a postmodernist avant la lettre do justice to his undeniable modernity but ahistorically wrest him from his eighteenth-century contexts, while purely historicizing interpretations which adequately read him in his historical contexts frequently neglect Sterne’s distinctly •modern” appeal. These two traditions, however, can be reconciled if what seems so postmodern about Tristram Shandy is traced to Sterne’s 18th-century intellectual contexts. By locating their origins in 18th-century debates and concerns, the essay explores four areas in which Sterne appears to anticipate 20th-and 21st-century concerns or literary techniques : (1) the critique of science and progress, (2) metafictional narrative techniques and strategies, which can be shown to grow out of a reflection on the limits of tolerance, (3) post-modern narrative games with time, and (4) the problematization of history and historiography.Il s’agit ici de réconcilier deux traditions qui marquent la lecture de Tristram Shandy : les interprétations qui font de Sterne un postmoderne avant la lettre, mais, rendant justice à son indéniable modernité, l’arrachent au contexte du XVIIIe siècle, et les lectures qui historicisent le texte mais tendent à perdre de vue sa modernité. En situant leur origine commune dans les débats qui agitaient le XVIIIe siècle, cette analyse explore quatre domaines où Sterne apparaît comme le précurseur des préoccupations et des techniques littéraires de notre temps : (1) la critique des sciences et du progrès, (2) les stratégies et les techniques narratives métafictionnelles, dont on peut trouver la source dans une réflexion sur les limites de la tolérance, (3) les jeux narratifs postmodernes avec la temporalité, et (4) la problématisation de l’histoire et de l’historiographie.Gurr Jens Martin. Postmodernism in the eighteenth century? Enlightenment intellectual contexts and the roots of 21st century concerns in Tristram Shandy. In: XVII-XVIII. Revue de la société d'études anglo-américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. N°63, 2006. pp. 19-40

EthniCities. Metropolitan Cultures and Ethnic Identities in the Americas.

Martin B, Jens G, Olaf K, eds. EthniCities. Metropolitan Cultures and Ethnic Identities in the Americas. Trier: WVT; 2011

Psychogeography and (In)Sanity: Walking London, New York, and Dubai with Will Self

Hartner M. Psychogeography and (In)Sanity: Walking London, New York, and Dubai with Will Self. In: Gurr JM, Raussert W, eds. Cityscapes in the Americas and Beyond. Representations of Urban Complexity in Literature and Film. Inter-American Studies: Culture - Societies - History. Vol 4. 1st ed. Trier: WVT: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier; 2011: 145-156

Conflicting Constructions of Cross-Border Regional Identities in the Cascadia Region (Seattle/Vancouver)

Kaltmeier O, Gurr JM. Conflicting Constructions of Cross-Border Regional Identities in the Cascadia Region (Seattle/Vancouver). In: Kaltmeier O, ed. Transnational Americas. Envisioning Inter-American Area Studies in Globalization Processes. Trier, Tempe: WVT / Bilingual Press; 2013: 35-54