The City by Foot: an analysis of the different paths of literary walkers in New York City
Open Access
Author:
Miller, Laura
Area of Honors:
English
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Benjamin Jared Schreier, Thesis Supervisor Lisa Ruth Sternlieb, Thesis Honors Advisor Jeffrey Nealon, Faculty Reader
Keywords:
urban literature Auster New York City city Kazin Whitehead Foer Crane Roth Carpenter
Abstract:
This thesis discusses how, in contemporary urban literature, New York City serves as a mechanism for self-chronicling, a mechanism for self and community production, and a mechanism for self-dissolution. This paper details these phenomena in three separate chapters, utilizing the theories of Walter Benjamin and Michel de Certeau. This paper further explores each of these mechanisms through six separate works – A Walker in The City by Alfred Kazin, The Collosus of New York by Colson Whitehead, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Saffron Foer, City of Glass by Paul Auster, Maggie: A Girl of The Streets by Stephen Crane, and Call It Sleep by Henry Roth.
