Description
NARRATING CITIES
Book Summary
This collective volume proposes an original approach to the study of cities: reading them through the eyes of those who inhabited, imagined, and narrated them. Far from being limited to an analysis of the built environment, "Narrating Cities" delves into the lived and symbolic dimension of the urban landscape. Through authors and artists for whom a city was fundamental to their life and work, the book explores how the stories, creations, and personal legacies of contemporaries turn public space into a repository of individual and collective memory. A work that invites us to discover the city as a cultural text deciphered through its stories.
What is it about?
The book starts from the premise that urban morphology does not speak for itself. To understand a city in all its depth, it is necessary to heed the experiences of those who have lived it. The work brings together a set of analyses that traverse various cities around the world, examining how writers, artists, and creators have narratively mediated urban space. Each chapter focuses on a city and on the figure of an author or artist whose production is intrinsically linked to it. In this way, it reveals how individual memory merges with social and spatial history, offering a multifaceted reading that transcends urban planning to delve into the vital experience of the city.
Main themes
- The city as a narratively mediated space and repository of memory.
- The relationship between urban morphology and the lived experience of its inhabitants.
- Analysis of cities around the world through the work of key authors and artists.
- Intersection between social and cultural history and urban planning.
- Literature and art as tools for deciphering the collective legacy of cities.
Who is it recommended for?
- An interdisciplinary perspective that connects urbanism with literature and collective memory.
- A deep analysis of how art and narrative shape our understanding of cities.
- Concrete examples of cities around the world analyzed through the gaze of fundamental authors and artists.
- A reflection on the city as a lived space, beyond its physical and planned structure.
- Conceptual tools for reading and interpreting the urban environment from a cultural and humanistic perspective.
- Author: COLOM GONZALEZ, FRANCISCO (ED.)
- Publisher: Anthropos Editorial
- Language: Spanish
- Subject: LANDSCAPING AND URBANISM, LITERARY ESSAYS, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY, URBAN AND MUNICIPAL PLANNING
- Collection: CRITICAL THOUGHT, UTOPIAN THOUGHT
- Publication Date: July 2020
- Number of pages: 272
- Weight: 467 g
This book is aimed at readers interested in the social and cultural history of cities, as well as literary essays and urban landscape studies. It will be of special interest to students and professionals in urban planning, architecture, human geography, and cultural studies. It is also an attractive work for literature lovers who wish to explore how writers have interpreted and transformed urban space in their creations.
What this book contributes
Technical Specifications
Editorial Review
"Narrating Cities" stands as a reference work for those seeking to understand urban space from a humanistic and cultural perspective. Its approach, which combines urban analysis with literary criticism and social history, offers an enriching and unconventional read. By avoiding the coldness of statistical data and focusing on the subjective and narrative experience of cities, the book manages to connect with a broad audience. It is a solid and well-articulated proposal that invites us to rediscover the urban environment as a palimpsest of stories and memories, ideal for readers looking to delve into the cultural significance of the places they inhabit.