Given our seminar questions – what makes a city? What makes New York, New York? – I wanted to offer students different representations of the city. In addition to the video playlist (New York represented with interviews, the moving image, etc.) below are some more representations of the city. Through a mix of serious and humorous articles, each author’s New York is represented, with text, by way of their experiences and perceptions:
- Dave Barry, “Can New York Save Itself?” (August 30, 1987)
- Susanna Wolff, “No, I’m From New York,” The New Yorker (September 20, 2016)
- Jeet Herr, “Trump, ‘Mooch,’ and the Rise of the New York Douchebag,” The New Republic (July 28, 2017)
- Mark Landler, “You Talkin’ To Me? Trump’s White House Gets Some New York Attitude,” The New York Times (July 28, 2017)
What do the articles have in common re: New York? What consistent or recurring words, images, or experiences make up the representations of New York? How do these differ? Are these forward-looking or backward-looking visions of New York?
