Urban Legends: The South Bronx in Representation and Ruin

The South Bronx has a rich cultural history that goes beyond its stereotypes of urban decay and renaissance. Peter LOfficial's book explores this history, highlighting the contributions of artists, writers, and residents and challenging the dominant narratives of the Bronx.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 31 July 2020
Publisher: Harvard University Press

A comprehensive cultural history of the South Bronx that goes beyond the common narratives of urban decline and rebirth, transcending the "inner city" stereotype, and shedding light on the hidden place and people obscured by its myths.

For decades, the South Bronx has been America's "inner city," synonymous with civic neglect, crime, and metropolitan decay. The Bronx became the prime symbol used to proclaim the failures of urban places and the communities of color that inhabited them. Images of its ruins, most notably the one broadcast live during the 1977 World Series, portrayed the failures of urbanism.

Yet, this same South Bronx gave birth to hip-hop, arguably the most powerful artistic and cultural innovation of the past fifty years. Two narratives—urban crisis and cultural renaissance—have dominated our understanding of the Bronx and other urban environments. Today, as gentrification transforms American cities economically and demographically, these twin narratives shape our thinking about urban life.

A Bronx native, Peter LOfficial, draws on literature and the visual arts to reclaim the history, people, and place beyond its myths and legends. The Bronx was not a decades-long funeral pyre, nor was hip-hop its sole cultural contribution. LOfficial juxtaposes the artist Gordon Matta-Clark's carvings of abandoned buildings with the city's trompe l'oeil decals program; examines the centrality of the Bronxs infamous Charlotte Street to two Hollywood films; offers original readings of novels by Don DeLillo and Tom Wolfe; and charts the emergence of a "global Bronx" as graffiti was brought into galleries and exhibited internationally, promoting a symbolic Bronx abroad.

Urban Legends presents a new cultural history of what it meant to live, work, and play in the South Bronx, challenging prevailing narratives and revealing the hidden stories and vibrant communities that have shaped this iconic urban landscape.

Weight: 644g
Dimension: 165 x 241 x 34 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780674238077