Urbanism Typifying the Turn-of-the-Century American Way of Life in Franzen's 'Strong Motion'

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (FTSK, Abteilung Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Anglophonie ), course: Graduate Seminar American Cities: The Urban Experience in Literary Texts and Translations, language: English, abstract: The present work is about urbanism and about how it is typifying the turn-of-the-century American way of life. The first chapter of this term paper contains a plot synopsis on the novel Strong Motion by Jonathan Franzen depicting the main characters. The second chapter is about Post-modernism. It describes what the term means in fact. A main feature of our post-modern times are cities or urban regions. In the second chapter you will find an interpretation of their meaning and importance in relation to Post-modernism. After this rather general insight in the present urban spirit of the age I will proceed by pointing out passages from the novel Strong Motion that document facts about urbanism and Post-modernism, about certain features of Boston, the Boston area and about the way people live in these places. The topics are going to be gentrification, the quaternary sector, the widening gap between rich and poor, fast occurring changes, heterogeneity and cars. The conclusion will give an outlook on what we may have to expect in the future from urban regions in a globalized world.