Space Oddities

Approaches a space (and place) central to the American imagination the city

Description
Space Oddities: Difference and Identity in the American City approaches a space (and place) central to the American imagination the city. In particular, this volume discusses the paradoxes of American cities and American urban life. In this way, Space Oddities critically engages with the paradoxes of the American identity, embodied by cultural practices in, and cultural representations of, urban life in the United States.

Review
“[The] essays [collected in this volume] offer important snapshots of the manifold facets of the American city with a strong focus on its cultural imaginary.” (AAA: Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik 47, no. 1, 2022)

Table of Contents

Space Oddities and American Cities (Stefan L. Brandt & Michael Fuchs)

Of Other American Spaces: The Alterity of the Urban in the U.S. National Imaginary (Robert T. Tally, Jr.)

“In this part of town?” Peripheral Locations and American Literary Urbanism (Markku Salmela)

The White Space of the Metropolitan Battlefield in The Avengers (Johan Höglund)

The Last of the Skyscrapers: Urban Myths and Dystopian Realism in Indian Killer’s Seattle (Fiorenzo Iuliano)

Mapping the Ephemeral Community in Larry Kramer’s Faggots and Andrew Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance (Linda Hess)

“The ghetto is coming out”: Charles Rice-Gonzáles’ Chulito and the Emergence of Queer Puerto Rican Fiction in The Bronx (Sina A. Nitzsche)

Post-Gay San Francisco? The Queering of Urban Space in the TV Series Looking (Eric C. Erbacher)

Yas Queen: Postfeminism and Urban Space Oddities in Broad City (Sarah Lahm)

Of Roaches, Rats, and Man: Pest Species and Naturecultures in New York Horror Movies (Michael Fuchs)

Invading Amerika: Why Not? (William Tate)

The Virtual Reality of America (Peter Chanthanakone)