New York, York!

This volume examines the role of New York City in and for: globalization, modernist painting, flaneurism, the postmodern city novel, the poetry of Mina Loy, Klaus Nomi’s music performances, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, post-9/11 American cinema, the experimental films of Jem Cohen, the Magnum Photos portfolio, and daily city photo blogs. Once a center of transatlantic cultural exchange and the avant-garde arts, New York City has transformed into a global metropolis. This book traces a shift that took shape as cultural practices and media underwent dramatic changes: it takes us from modernist visions of urban sublimity to postmodernist cityscapes; from Hart Crane’s Brooklyn Bridge to the Flushing Meadows fairgrounds; from Mina Loy’s poetics to Klaus Nomi’s transgressive musical performances and Jem Cohen’s multimedia experiments; from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and the Magnum Photos portfolio to post-9/11 cinema and the photo blogs of the internet age. As we visit these urban spaces and dreamscapes, we enter territories that remain contested, dynamic locales in a city that keeps unfolding its transformative force.