Reading the City
Literature Research Essay: Reading the City.
Cities are places which enable the realisation of the self, or conversely cities separate the self from creativity and imagination in spaces of alienation and estrangement’ (Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson). Discuss the city as a site of self-enhancement and/or ‘alienation and estrangement’ in the texts on the unit.
Our surroundings manipulate the way we react and interact with both others and ourselves. We are like putty waiting to be moulded by the various landscapes that create our existence, and the city conducts so many elements with which our character is altered and reformed. Literature sources have explored the shadowed side of the city, with which sin and anonymity lead to ones estrangement and desertification from the culture that creates their surroundings. Contrarily, literature has crystallized the element of personal development where the city has enabled one to discover meaning, clarity, direction and beauty. Charles Dickens ‘great expectations’ indulges in the aspiration that a city and its infinite possibilities can instil within a young working class boy. This sense of realising oneself is elaborated through John Morrisons ‘The compound’ where a sense of belonging creates purpose and direction within a man once in a state of nothingness. Finding beauty and meaning within the city can allow one to realise themselves with that place, exemplified in Virginia Woolf’s ‘Street haunting’. However the city does not always provide a platform for self worth and purpose, but rather alienation and hostility, as explored by William Blake’s bleak depiction of London.
The limitless boundaries and mystifying nature of the city allows one to discover meaning and direction through a cloud of uncertainty and previous hopelessness. Charles Dickens ‘Great expectations’ embodies the notion of foreseeing a vision of a better way and perusing this with a newfound passion and aggression. We are positioned to witness Pip’s
Cities are places which enable the realisation of the self, or conversely cities separate the self from creativity and imagination in spaces of alienation and estrangement’ (Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson). Discuss the city as a site of self-enhancement and/or ‘alienation and estrangement’ in the texts on the unit.
Our surroundings manipulate the way we react and interact with both others and ourselves. We are like putty waiting to be moulded by the various landscapes that create our existence, and the city conducts so many elements with which our character is altered and reformed. Literature sources have explored the shadowed side of the city, with which sin and anonymity lead to ones estrangement and desertification from the culture that creates their surroundings. Contrarily, literature has crystallized the element of personal development where the city has enabled one to discover meaning, clarity, direction and beauty. Charles Dickens ‘great expectations’ indulges in the aspiration that a city and its infinite possibilities can instil within a young working class boy. This sense of realising oneself is elaborated through John Morrisons ‘The compound’ where a sense of belonging creates purpose and direction within a man once in a state of nothingness. Finding beauty and meaning within the city can allow one to realise themselves with that place, exemplified in Virginia Woolf’s ‘Street haunting’. However the city does not always provide a platform for self worth and purpose, but rather alienation and hostility, as explored by William Blake’s bleak depiction of London.
The limitless boundaries and mystifying nature of the city allows one to discover meaning and direction through a cloud of uncertainty and previous hopelessness. Charles Dickens ‘Great expectations’ embodies the notion of foreseeing a vision of a better way and perusing this with a newfound passion and aggression. We are positioned to witness Pip’s