Writing the city

de Preston, Peter, Paul Simpson-Housley

The human experience, both individual and collective, contained by the city has been largely neglected by studies which have concentrated upon empirical models or Marxist perspectives. The city is an accumulation, not just in demographic, economic or planning terms, but also in terms of feeling and emotion. Writing the City visualizes the city through the eyes of novelists, poets and their characters. International contributors draw upon the works of writers from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, to offer a particular witness to the challenges, opportunities, stresses and frustrations of city life. Writing the City is located at the interface of geography and literature. Cities become more than their built environment, more than a set of class or economic relationships; they are also an experience to be lived, suffered and undergone. Through the literary witness, cities are seen in terms of the innocence of an Eden now lost, a threat of sinful Babylon and the promise of a New Jerusalem. With its focus on the human experience, this book will complement the empirical perspectives of urban geographers, and appeal to students of geography, literature and sociology.