From a Distance — the Remote Cityscape as Dream and Nightmare
The relationship between the individual and the city changes significantly when the city is contemplated from a distance rather than encountered from within. The remote cityscape or urban skyline induces a vision or an alternative reality that sometimes conflicts with and sometimes is an intensifica...
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Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2016-06-01
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| Series: | E-REA |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/4889 |
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| author | John EDMONDSON |
| author_facet | John EDMONDSON |
| author_sort | John EDMONDSON |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The relationship between the individual and the city changes significantly when the city is contemplated from a distance rather than encountered from within. The remote cityscape or urban skyline induces a vision or an alternative reality that sometimes conflicts with and sometimes is an intensification of the reality of engagement with the city at close quarters. The remote cityscape thus enables and becomes a re-imagining of the city and, in so doing, bears some affinity to Baudrillard’s notion of the simulacrum and to the “true simulacrum” of the panorama as described in the “Panoramas” Convolute of Benjamin’s Arcades Project. In its remote perspective, the cityscape, like Jasper’s drug-induced vision of Cloisterham at the beginning of Edwin Drood, variously stimulates and simulates the fears, hopes, desires and ambitions of the onlooker. In the alternative or intensified reality it evokes, it may threaten or quiet, it may be bewildering or controllable. It becomes in this way a dream of the city—divorced from the physical reality from which it is constructed. The discussion focuses on Dickens’s novels, but reference is also made to work by Kingsley Amis, Chagall, Isaac Cruikshank, Grandville, Laisné, Gaskell and Hardy, and to the film The Third Man. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b22d19a1b3764a2faf0a94810fb1710e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1638-1718 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2016-06-01 |
| publisher | Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | E-REA |
| spelling | doaj-art-b22d19a1b3764a2faf0a94810fb1710e2025-01-09T12:54:52ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182016-06-0113210.4000/erea.4889From a Distance — the Remote Cityscape as Dream and NightmareJohn EDMONDSONThe relationship between the individual and the city changes significantly when the city is contemplated from a distance rather than encountered from within. The remote cityscape or urban skyline induces a vision or an alternative reality that sometimes conflicts with and sometimes is an intensification of the reality of engagement with the city at close quarters. The remote cityscape thus enables and becomes a re-imagining of the city and, in so doing, bears some affinity to Baudrillard’s notion of the simulacrum and to the “true simulacrum” of the panorama as described in the “Panoramas” Convolute of Benjamin’s Arcades Project. In its remote perspective, the cityscape, like Jasper’s drug-induced vision of Cloisterham at the beginning of Edwin Drood, variously stimulates and simulates the fears, hopes, desires and ambitions of the onlooker. In the alternative or intensified reality it evokes, it may threaten or quiet, it may be bewildering or controllable. It becomes in this way a dream of the city—divorced from the physical reality from which it is constructed. The discussion focuses on Dickens’s novels, but reference is also made to work by Kingsley Amis, Chagall, Isaac Cruikshank, Grandville, Laisné, Gaskell and Hardy, and to the film The Third Man.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/4889panoramacityscapeurban experiencesimulacraalternative realitiesurban shock |
| spellingShingle | John EDMONDSON From a Distance — the Remote Cityscape as Dream and Nightmare E-REA panorama cityscape urban experience simulacra alternative realities urban shock |
| title | From a Distance — the Remote Cityscape as Dream and Nightmare |
| title_full | From a Distance — the Remote Cityscape as Dream and Nightmare |
| title_fullStr | From a Distance — the Remote Cityscape as Dream and Nightmare |
| title_full_unstemmed | From a Distance — the Remote Cityscape as Dream and Nightmare |
| title_short | From a Distance — the Remote Cityscape as Dream and Nightmare |
| title_sort | from a distance the remote cityscape as dream and nightmare |
| topic | panorama cityscape urban experience simulacra alternative realities urban shock |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/4889 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT johnedmondson fromadistancetheremotecityscapeasdreamandnightmare |