Diefendorf, Jeffry “I Love That City, But Which City?”
Harris, Dianne “Little White Houses”
< Stieber Abstract
“Autobiographies and Self-Portraits of the City: Comparative Sites of Urban Representation”
ABSTRACT: How do a city’s inhabitants narrate and depict the city’s built environment? What do their stories and pictures of the city reveal about the way they invest the urban fabric with meaning? The life of a building, street, or square continues after its construction is complete; it becomes part of personal and collective geographies often revealed in textual and visual descriptions. This presentation investigates the significance of urban self-images, suggesting comparative research strategies drawn from an on-going study of Amsterdam around 1900.
Session III: Thinking Comparatively about the American Built Environment