The Dead City: The Decay of the Urban Organism

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Dead City: The Decay of the Urban Organism

AU - Woolley, Elena

PY - 2012/6

Y1 - 2012/6

N2 - This article examines a number of representations of abandoned cities in film, and contemplates these as images and depictions of dead and decaying urban spaces. Using Richard Sennett’s assertions regarding circulation within the city streets as a starting point, the article builds upon the concept of the anthropomorphised, urban organism as one which decays in the absence of human movement (Sennett, 2002: 255-281). The lack of social circulation through the city’s veins necessitates discourse regarding Walter Benjamin’s flâneur, and indeed the role of consumerism in a forsaken landscape (Benjamin, 1973). Themes such as the natural and the unnatural, which seemingly permeate the cinema of empty space with unremitting consistency, are thoroughly explored, and textually scrutinised. The dead organism is left to feed the natural environment which surrounds and encroaches upon it, while remaining, in essence, a synthetic form. The natural state of the city is an unnatural state for nature, and so the converse is equally true. The use of indoor and outdoor space within the decaying metropolis is also considered, and the potential for an inversion between public and private spaces is observed. This article is concerned with the aesthetic communication of these thematic considerations.

AB - This article examines a number of representations of abandoned cities in film, and contemplates these as images and depictions of dead and decaying urban spaces. Using Richard Sennett’s assertions regarding circulation within the city streets as a starting point, the article builds upon the concept of the anthropomorphised, urban organism as one which decays in the absence of human movement (Sennett, 2002: 255-281). The lack of social circulation through the city’s veins necessitates discourse regarding Walter Benjamin’s flâneur, and indeed the role of consumerism in a forsaken landscape (Benjamin, 1973). Themes such as the natural and the unnatural, which seemingly permeate the cinema of empty space with unremitting consistency, are thoroughly explored, and textually scrutinised. The dead organism is left to feed the natural environment which surrounds and encroaches upon it, while remaining, in essence, a synthetic form. The natural state of the city is an unnatural state for nature, and so the converse is equally true. The use of indoor and outdoor space within the decaying metropolis is also considered, and the potential for an inversion between public and private spaces is observed. This article is concerned with the aesthetic communication of these thematic considerations.

KW - The cinematic city

KW - Urban decay

KW - Post-apocalypse

KW - Richard Sennett

KW - Flâneur

KW - Walter Benjamin

M3 - Article

SP - 1

EP - 12

JO - SCOPE: A Journal of Film and Television Studies

JF - SCOPE: A Journal of Film and Television Studies

IS - 23

ER -