"There is Chicago that lives in the minds of young people all through the Middle West...A Chicago that exists by virtue of their aspiration and their need, that begins to die with their first sight of the town" - Floyd Dell (1913) , as per Spears (2005).
Timothy B. Spears (2005) in Chicago Dreaming, explores the influence of "Midwestern" immigration on Chicago. Through the eyes of novelists, poets, journalists and cartoonists of the time. Taking the road less traveled, Spears highlights, the allure of the city by the lake to Midwestern/American dreamers, and the influence of provincialism on the formation of the "multiethnic metropolis", of Chicago, an it's literary culture.
"...They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys...", Chicago, Carl Sandberg, 1916.
No comments:
Post a Comment