The Colossus of New York, de Colson Whitehead, petite topographie poétique

The Colossus of New York, by Colson Whitehead, refuses categorization: neither a novel nor a documentary text, it provides the reader with a poetic experience of New York, opening windows onto a myriad fragments of lives in a somewhat enchanted place, both extremely familiar and made uncanny through...

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Main Author: Sylvie Bauer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires du Midi 2009-12-01
Series:Anglophonia
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/acs/1584
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author Sylvie Bauer
author_facet Sylvie Bauer
author_sort Sylvie Bauer
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description The Colossus of New York, by Colson Whitehead, refuses categorization: neither a novel nor a documentary text, it provides the reader with a poetic experience of New York, opening windows onto a myriad fragments of lives in a somewhat enchanted place, both extremely familiar and made uncanny through language. The well-known, mythical places of the city and its clichés are re-worked by the collisions of words and sounds which transform both city and text into chimeras, thus raising the question of meaning. In the end, if meaning does escape the grips of the reader, it nonetheless prompts an attempt at recapturing a supposedly blissful past through the workings of memory and the rehabilitation of cliché as the trace of the lost event.
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spelling doaj-art-48e985b226054b92a86e2812d57d38392025-01-30T12:34:07ZengPresses Universitaires du MidiAnglophonia1278-33312427-04662009-12-012523924810.4000/caliban.1584The Colossus of New York, de Colson Whitehead, petite topographie poétiqueSylvie BauerThe Colossus of New York, by Colson Whitehead, refuses categorization: neither a novel nor a documentary text, it provides the reader with a poetic experience of New York, opening windows onto a myriad fragments of lives in a somewhat enchanted place, both extremely familiar and made uncanny through language. The well-known, mythical places of the city and its clichés are re-worked by the collisions of words and sounds which transform both city and text into chimeras, thus raising the question of meaning. In the end, if meaning does escape the grips of the reader, it nonetheless prompts an attempt at recapturing a supposedly blissful past through the workings of memory and the rehabilitation of cliché as the trace of the lost event.https://journals.openedition.org/acs/1584New YorkColson Whiteheadchimèresclichéspertemémoire
spellingShingle Sylvie Bauer
The Colossus of New York, de Colson Whitehead, petite topographie poétique
Anglophonia
New York
Colson Whitehead
chimères
clichés
perte
mémoire
title The Colossus of New York, de Colson Whitehead, petite topographie poétique
title_full The Colossus of New York, de Colson Whitehead, petite topographie poétique
title_fullStr The Colossus of New York, de Colson Whitehead, petite topographie poétique
title_full_unstemmed The Colossus of New York, de Colson Whitehead, petite topographie poétique
title_short The Colossus of New York, de Colson Whitehead, petite topographie poétique
title_sort colossus of new york de colson whitehead petite topographie poetique
topic New York
Colson Whitehead
chimères
clichés
perte
mémoire
url https://journals.openedition.org/acs/1584
work_keys_str_mv AT sylviebauer thecolossusofnewyorkdecolsonwhiteheadpetitetopographiepoetique
AT sylviebauer colossusofnewyorkdecolsonwhiteheadpetitetopographiepoetique