The Cambridge Companion to American Modernism
11 Social representations within American modernism
The modern city, as astute critic and vast walker of European cities Walter Benjamin noted, seems at once to epitomize and refute Marx's famous description of Capitalism: All that is solid melts into air. A location understood at its roots to be solidly constructed of bricks and mortar, of concrete and steel, it is full of the ephemera of paper handbills flying down a windy alley, discarded trash left on a street corner, myriad faces glimpsed momentarily in the flow of the crowd: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough.” The city as site of modern life is a cliché by now. In America, modernism was always an afterthought.
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Bookmark this entryDigital Object Identifier: 10.1017/CCOL052182995X.012
How to cite (Modern Language Association style):
Rabinowitz, Paula. "Social representations within American modernism." The Cambridge Companion to American Modernism. Ed. Walter Kalaidjian. Cambridge University Press, 2005. Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge University Press. 22 November 2009 DOI:10.1017/CCOL052182995X.012