Toward an Urban Cultural Studies

Benjamin Fraser is Professor and Chair of Foreign Languages and Literatures at East Carolina University, USA.

"With convincing arguments and useful detail, Benjamin Fraser's important new book maps out the terrain of an urban cultural studies. Engaging with core questions of cultural value, textuality, and the role of the humanities, Toward an Urban Cultural Studies skillfully moves in and out of the work of Henri Lefebvre, situating this work in relation to other key currents in cultural theory and analysis. While the theoretical arguments here are effective, Fraser also delivers the analytic goods, in effective case studies that show us how an urban cultural studies might renew the study of literature, cinema and music. I expect the influence of this book to be enduring and far-reaching." - Will Straw, Professor, Art History and Communications Studies, McGill University, Canada "Benjamin Fraser's book is the most accessible, inspiring, and convincing point of entry to date into why an urban cultural studies method is necessary and important. Building upon Lefebvre's notion of Marxian totality, Fraser skillfully makes the case that collaboration between social scientists and humanists holds the key to understanding our increasingly complex urban society." - Stephen Vilaseca, Associate Professor, Hispanic Studies, Northern Illinois University, USA

• Introduction PART I: THEORETICAL GROUND 1. Why Urban Cultural Studies? Why Henri Lefebvre? 2. Henri Lefebvre's Recalibrated Marxism: Urban Alienation and Cultural Studies 3. The Work (of Art): Putting Art at the Service of the Urban Part II: TEXTUAL VARIATIONS 4. The Urban Dominant: Everyday Life and the City in Textual Criticism 5. The Iconic-Indexical City:Visions of Place in Urban Films 6. Listening to Urban Rhythms:Soundscapes in Popular Music 7. Representing Digital Spaces: Videogames and the Digital Humanities Conclusion