Invisible Cities Essay (1500 words) Essay Title: How does Calvino’s description of the city of Clarice connect with contemporary issues of urban decay and regeneration in the city of today? (NEW YORK) Section 1: Intro (150/200 words) Contextualise Calvino’s indivisible cities. when was it written? Overall structure and meaning? Cities are given women’s names General themes of city space explored: Eg. Reference to Venice p.53-4 give examples of themes such as consumerism. memory, death etc All stories perhaps reveal aspects of single city or cities in general? Some cities are described as existing in 2 halves — dialectical condition or in mirror images Use quotations ‘cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the threat go their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.’ (Calivino, Invisible Cities, London: Vintage, p.38) Marco Polo: ‘Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice.’ (Calvino, invisible Cities, London Vintage, p.86) Section 2: (1000 words) City of Clarice — closer analyse, drawing on theory. observe — how do places and spaces feature in the narrative? Discuss — what are the issues raised by the description in the narrative? Evaluate — what are you views on these issues and how the story discusses them? A key theme in the story of Clarice is a decay and decadence, its grandeur and former glorious condition run to neglect and ruin. In their decay, objects are gathered up and used for other purposes, for example, an old railing used as a cooking grill. Pest populations of rats and birds invade the basements and attics… Issues raised in the story focus on processes of decay and renewal. Clarice is described as a ‘sumptuous butterfly’ (ref) in order to describe the metamorphosis of cities from failure to grandeur. With a lack of maintenance cities rapidly decay … Calvino describes the influx of new wealth, new buildings and new populations after the period of poverty and decay. This. Could be said to describe the process of gentrification in New York and in other cities like London. Give example … eg Bankside in London or Trump in New York (Trumo Tower and luxury real estate). In this section — refer to ideas raised through the lecture series Useful texts Chris Crouch, Urban Renewal: Theory and Practice, Macmillan Press, London:1990 The Gentrification Reader, Eds. Loretta Lees, Tom Slater & Elvin Wyly, Routledge, London: 2010. Sharon. Zukin, ‘Gentrification: Culture and Capital in the urban Core’, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 13, pp. 129-147. Section 3: Conclusion Try to focus on the key issues and draw out the main points of your essay in terms of urban decay and regeneration. What questions has your exploration both in the film (group film we made) and the essay answered in terms of city and space and place? Is Calvino’s description of Clarice as both a butterfly and a dead chrysalis a useful metaphor for cities and their cycles of decay and renewal? how is this relevant to your example?

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