Beautiful terrible ruins : Detroit and the anxiety of decline
(Book)
Author
Published
New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2015].
ISBN
9780813574073, 0813574072, 9780813574066, 0813574064
Status
Description
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Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Bensenville Community Public Library District - Nonfiction | 704.944 APE | On Shelf |
Prairie State College - Stacks | NX653.D48 A64 2015 | On Shelf |
More Details
Published
New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2015].
Format
Book
Physical Desc
xiv, 210 pages ; 23 cm
Language
English
ISBN
9780813574073, 0813574072, 9780813574066, 0813574064
UPC
40025046301
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description
"Apel shows how Detroit has become pivotal to an expanding network of ruin imagery that speaks to the overarching anxieties of our era: increasing poverty, declining wages and social services, inadequate health care, unemployment, homelessness, and ecological disaster - in short, the failure of capitalism."
Description
Once the manufacturing powerhouse of the nation, Detroit has become emblematic of failing cities everywhere--the paradigmatic city of ruins--and the epicenter of an explosive growth in images of urban decay. In Beautiful Terrible Ruins, art historian Dora Apel explores a wide array of these images, ranging from photography, advertising, and television, to documentaries, video games, and zombie and disaster films. Apel shows how Detroit has become pivotal to an expanding network of ruin imagery, imagery ultimately driven by a pervasive and growing cultural pessimism, a loss of faith in progress, and a deepening fear that worse times are coming. The images of Detroit's decay speak to the overarching anxieties of our era: increasing poverty, declining wages and social services, inadequate health care, unemployment, homelessness, and ecological disaster--in short, the failure of capitalism. Apel reveals how, through the aesthetic distancing of representation, the haunted beauty and fascination of ruin imagery, embodied by Detroit's abandoned downtown skyscrapers, empty urban spaces, decaying factories, and derelict neighborhoods help us to cope with our fears. But Apel warns that these images, while pleasurable, have little explanatory power, lulling us into seeing Detroit's deterioration as either inevitable or the city's own fault, and absolving the real agents of decline--corporate disinvestment and globalization. Beautiful Terrible Ruins helps us understand the ways that the pleasure and the horror of urban decay hold us in thrall.--Publisher website.
Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Apel, D. (2015). Beautiful terrible ruins: Detroit and the anxiety of decline . Rutgers University Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Apel, Dora, 1952-. 2015. Beautiful Terrible Ruins: Detroit and the Anxiety of Decline. Rutgers University Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Apel, Dora, 1952-. Beautiful Terrible Ruins: Detroit and the Anxiety of Decline Rutgers University Press, 2015.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Apel, Dora. Beautiful Terrible Ruins: Detroit and the Anxiety of Decline Rutgers University Press, 2015.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
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