Full Description
There are novels that portray cities as magical places, others as stifling, imposing environments, and others still as a gritty but beautiful, living landscape. Cities can be the center of culture, business, arts, and are the meeting places for diversities of all kinds. Examining Images of Urban Life gathers contributions from scholars and young adult authors who consider how living in a city affects character identity and growth, and the ways authors world-build the urban setting. The book discusses what the urban landscape means, most especially to those who live in cities—and dispels the media-driven, anecdotally propagated preconceptions about city living.
This book also serves as a resource in urban settings, wherein teachers can select books that mirror and advocate for the very students sitting in their classes. The centerpiece of this collection revolves around a reconsideration of what the city represents, to its readers and to its inhabitants. Urban life is varied and rich, just as its literature is.
Contents
Introduction: Celebrating the City
Laura M. Nicosia and James F. Nicosia
Chapter One: An Author's Perspective: Finding Your Place in the Landscape
e.E. Charlton-Trujillo
Chapter Two: Storifying the City: Examining Representations of Urban Areas in Sherri L. Smith's Orleans
Sean P. Connors
Chapter Three: Genre and Gentrification in the Young Adult Novel
Karen Coats
Chapter Four: Tears on Concrete: Shaping Youth Identities in the Shadows of Gentrification in Daniel José Older's Shadowshaper
Tricia M. Kress and Patricia Patrissy
Chapter Five: An Author's Perspective: Where I Can Plant the Seeds
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Chapter Six: "Somewhere away from the Lights of the City": Unsettling the Normative Frameworks of Urban Space in Queer Young Adult Literature
Angel Daniel Matos
Chapter Seven: Anti-Urbanism in Willa Cather's Mythical West
Melinda Knight
Chapter Eight: The Poetic City: The Importance of the City Setting in The Poet X
Katie Sluiter
Chapter Nine: An Author's Perspective: An Undocumented Girl Finds a Sense of Belonging
Maria Andreu
Chapter Ten: The Urban and the Urbane: Girls and New York City in Cecily von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl and Rita Williams-Garcia's Jumped
Emma K. McNamara
Chapter Eleven: The Sensual City: Jason Reynolds's When I Was the Greatest and The Boy in the Black Suit
James F. Nicosia and Laura M. Nicosia
Chapter Twelve: An Author's Perspective: Music Lives in the City
Mary Rand Hess
Chapter Thirteen: Visions of the City: Examining Urban Landscapes in Shaun Tan's Visual Narratives
Wendy R. Williams and Kristina D. ByBee
Editor Bios
Contributor Bios
Index
Note: Table of Contents subject to change up until book is published.
