Cross-cultural interaction and representation of communities in the novel “Open City” by Teju Cole

Abstract

The modern humanities increasingly tend towards interdisciplinarity, developing various methods and optics of analysis within the framework of the general main topic. Such, for example, is the study of the urban text, begun by academician V. Toporov, which gained popularity only in the 21st century. Rapid changes in the way and pace of life, technologies, science and social structure over the past 150 years require a new understanding of the process of urbanization and modern trends in urban structure and urban life. However, not only the social and applied anthropology of the city itself can be interesting, but also its representation in literary texts. The object of this research is the novel “Open City” by the modern American writer of Nigerian descent Teju Cole, in which New York, as the title itself suggests, becomes the main character and the center of the narrative. The following topics investigated by the author are distinguished in the work: the search for national and cultural identity, the existence of society in multiculturalism, the possibility of building communities that provide the individual with primary, i.e. close connections. The article concludes that the modern state of society within urban locality is best characterized by the term “anomie”, marking the social entropy and disintegration of the axiological system.