The Urban Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century European Literature

The Urban Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century European Literature explores transnational perspectives of modern city life in Europe by engaging with the fantastic tropes and metaphors used by writers of short fiction. Focusing on the literary city and literary representations of urban experience throughout the nineteenth century, the works discussed incorporate supernatural occurrences in a European city and the supernatural of these stories stems from and belongs to the city. The argument is structured around three primary themes. “Architectures”, “Encounters” and “Rhythms” make reference to three axes of city life: material space, human encounters, and movement. This thematic approach highlights cultural continuities and thus supports the use of the label of “urban fantastic” within and across the European traditions studied here. 

Patricia García is Ramón y Cajal Researcher at the Universidad de Alcalá, Spain. Her research focuses on narrative spaces and their intersection with urban studies, feminisms and with representations of the supernatural. She coordinates the network Fringe Urban Narratives: Peripheries, Identities, Intersections, has directed the project Gender and the Hispanic Fantastic (funded by the British Academy) and has been a fellow of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (2018-2019) with a EURIAS fellowship. She is a member of Executive Committee of the European Society of Comparative Literature, of the Spanish Research Group on the Fantastic (Grupo de Estudios de lo Fantástico) and of the editorial board of BRUMAL: Research Journal on the Fantastic. Her most notable publications include the monograph Space and the Postmodern Fantastic in Contemporary Literature: the Architectural Void (2015).