Psychogeography and the Victims of the City in McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City

Pouria Torkamaneh,Pedram Lalbakhsh

doi:10.21533/epiphany.v10i1.252

Abstract

The present article approaches Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City (1984) in light of Merlin Coverley’s concept of psychogeography to demonstrate the direct authority of the city as an integral part of the protagonist’s persona. The idea is to emphasize that urbanity, in its postmodern sense, can function as a culpable agent in shaping up the protagonist’s behavior and determining his fate. Therefore, this research studies McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City to reveal how the life of the leading character – with his unstable state of mind – takes root primarily in his chaotic living environment. A psychogeographic evaluation of this novel allows us to see that urbanity influences the protagonist’s psyche who evinces this deep impact through wandering in the metropolitan Manhattan. Further, this research demonstrates how the city remains triumphant as the protagonist falls into disease and alienation, or is left with an aporetic moment of decision: to unify with the force of urbanity or lose everything to its power.

Highlights

Some literary works open up with a hint of their cultural context through which their narrative unfolds
To sum up, we can see that the narrator, in this novel, initially goes through troubling consequences of his direct contact with urbanity
His walking is an act of subversion since he becomes resistant after moving to slums and forgotten areas of Manhattan

Summary

Introduction

Some literary works open up with a hint of their cultural context through which their narrative unfolds. It is easier to understand the first few lines of the novel that desperately invites ‘you’ to walk with him with vigilant eyes in the streets of New York, quite possibly, to narrate how he lost everything over the dark nights of his city. The present article deals with McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City and its protagonist’s psychogeographic journey through New York.

Results

Conclusion