Description
Book Synopsis In recent decades, the insight that narration shapes our perception of reality has inspired and influenced the most innovative historical accounts. Focusing on new research, this volume explores the history of non-elite populations in cities from Caracas to Vienna, and Paris to Belgrade. Narration is central to the theme of each contribution, whether as a means of description, a methodological approach, or basic story telling. This book brings together research that both asks classical socio-historical questions and takes narration seriously, engaging with novels, films, local history accounts, petitions to municipal authorities, and interviews with alternative cinema activists.
Trade Review “This is an extremely solid and well-informed collection that brings together pertinent and timely case studies that all shed light on the interconnections between the everyday and urban narratives. The scope is expansive and interdisciplinary, and the framework is explained well and in detail.” · Markus Reisenleitner, York University
Table of Contents List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Space, Narration, and the Everyday
Wladimir Fischer-Nebmaier
PART I: NARRATIVES AND IMAGES OF THE CITY
Chapter 1. The Case of Ossification: Contemporary Narratives about Everyday Life in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Lviv
Andriy Zayarnyuk
Chapter 2. The Masa’s Odysseys through Bourgeois Caracas: The Testimony of Novels, 1920s-1970s
Arturo Almandoz
Chapter 3. Re-imagining Nieuwland: Narrative Mapping and the Mental Geography of Urban Space in a Dutch Multi-Ethnic Neighborhood
Leeke Reinders
PART II: CLAIMING URBAN SPACE
Chapter 4. City and Cinema as Spaces for (trans-national) Grassroots Mobilization: Perspectives from Southeastern and Central Europe
Anna Schober
Chapter 5. Adjudicating Lodging: Denazification, Housing Requisition, and Identity in “Red Vienna,” 1945-1948
Matthew P. Berg
PART III: LIVING AND WORKING IN THE CITY
Chapter 6. Urban Information Flows: Workers’ and Employers’ Knowledge of the Asbestos Hazard in Clydeside, ca. 1950-1970s
Ronnie Johnston and Arthur McIvor
Chapter 7. Creating a Familiar Space: Childcare, Kinship, and Community in Post-Socialist New Zagreb
Tihana Rubić and Carolin Leutloff-Grandits
Notes on Contributors
Index
