Marcin Mazurek
Institute of English Cultures and Literatures
Faculty of Philology
University of Silesia in Katowice
Poland
(Im)Perfect Cities. Utopia and Dystopia
in Selected Representations of Modern Urban Space
Abstract: The article’s departure point is an assumption of a close relationship between the construction of urban space and the projected identity of its inhabitants. Within the context of late-modern architecture this relationship opens up a discursive space for ideologically-motivated and often utopian visions inspired by the modernist desire to produce a new subject liberated from the socio-historical bias and hierarchical entanglements. Yet upon closer analysis utopian architectural projects – including those represented by literature and the arts – reveal their totalizing aspirations thus blurring the boundary between utopia and dystopia. In the article, the latter is illustrated through a historical analysis of selected literary texts and by particular postulates of modernist architecture included in the Athens Charter and in practical terms represented by large-scale urban housing projects, such as Katowice’s Millennial Housing Estate whose critical evaluation takes place against the background of broader cultural operations reflected in the concept of cognitive capitalism. The last part of the paper is devoted to the phenomenon of virtualization of urban space and its translocation to the virtual sphere, which – following both postmodern critics and virtual culture theorists – becomes a new model of individualized urban existence.
Keywords: architecture, appartment block, utopia, dystopia, ideal city, literature, industrial revolution, Victorian era, spectacle, simulacrum, cognitive capitalism, virtual city, identity
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No. 36 (2018)
Published: 2018-09-28
10.31261/errgo
English
Język Polski