Race and Urban Space in Contemporary American Culture

by Liam Kennedy

This innovative book looks at representations of ethnic and racial identities in relation to the development of urban culture in postindustrialised American cities. The concept of "urban space" organizes a series of themes that structure chapters on white paranoia and urban decline; memories of urban passage; the racialized underclass; urban crime and justice; and globalisation and citizenship. The book focuses on a range of literary and visual forms including novels, journalism, films (narrative and documentary), and photography to examine the relationship between race and representation in the production of urban space. Texts analyzed include writings by Tom Wolfe ( The Bonfire of the Vanities ), Toni Morrison ( Jazz ), John Edgar Wildeman ( Philadelphia Fire ), and Walter Mosely ( Devil in a Blue Dress ). Films covered include Falling Down, Strange Days, Hoop Dreams and Clockers. Provocative and absorbing, this interdisciplinary treatment of urban representations engages contemporary theoretical and sociological debates about race and the city.

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2000

About the author

Professor Liam Kennedy is Director of the Clinton Institute for American Studies at University College Dublin. He has diverse research interests and teaching experiences, spanning the fields of American urban studies, visual culture, globalisation and transatlantic relations.

He is the author of Susan Sontag: Mind as Passion (1995) and Race and Urban Space in American Culture (2000). He is co-editor of Urban Space and Representation (1999) and City Sites: An Electronic Book (2000), and editor of Remaking Birmingham: The Visual Culture of Urban Regeneration (2004).

Professor Kennedy's work is interdisciplinary, blending cultural and political modes of scholarly analysis, and represents American Studies as a valuable framework to study both American domestic and international affairs.

He is currently researching a monograph on photography and international conflict, and preparing two edited books - on urban photography and on cultural diplomacy and US foreign policy.