Ornaments of the metropolis : Siegfried Kracauer and modern urban culture / Henrik Reeh ; translated by John Irons.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reeh, Henrik.

Standardized Title:

Storbyens ornamenter. English

Language:

Danish

English

Subjects (All):

Urban beautification.

Architecture and society--History--20th century.

Architecture and society.

Kracauer, Siegfried, 1889-1966--Criticism and interpretation.

Kracauer, Siegfried.

Urban beautification--History--20th century.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (248 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. ; London : MIT Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"For Siegfried Kracauer the urban ornament was not just an aspect of design, it was the medium through which city dwellers interpreted the metropolis itself. In Ornaments of the Metropolis, Henrik Reeh traces variations on the theme of the ornament in Kracauer's writings on urbanism, from his early journalism in Germany between the wars to his "sociobiography" of Jacques Offenbach in Paris. Reeh argues that Kracauer's novel, essays, and historiography all suggest ways in which the subjective can reappropriate urban life. The book also includes a series of photographs by the author that reflect the ornamental experience of the metropolis in Paris, Frankfurt, and other cities."--Jacket.

Contents:

From everyday life as an architect to urban consciousness

From individual city cognition to the encounter with the metropolitan crisis of memory

The city-A sphere for collective memory.

Notes:

"This work originally appeared in Danish under the title 'Storbyens ornamenter: Siegfried Krasauer og den moderne bykultur', published 1991 by Odense University Press [now University Press of Southern Denmark], Odense, Denmark"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-242) and index.

ISBN:

0-262-28222-4

1-4237-2946-3