1st Edition
Writing the City Square On the History and the Histories of City Squares
Introduction PART I: GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 1: Words on the square; 2: The mediated square; 3: Shapes and forms; 4: Doves and dances PART II: HISTORICAL TYPES 5: The Agora; 6: Forum Romanum; 7: Medieval Marketplace; 8: The piazza; 9: The plaza; 10: The Place Royale; 11: The residential square; 12: The Crescent in Bath PART III: REPRESENTING MODERN SQUARES 13: Place de la Concorde; 14: Between demonization and domestication; 15: Squares in European literature; 16: Squares in Latin American literature; 17: The American Corner PART IV: PLANNERS AND MODERNIZATION 18: Ildefonso Cerdà and Barcelona; 19: Charles Buls and Brussels; 20: Camillo Sitte and Vienna PART V: TRENDS IN THE 20th CENTURY 21: Modernism; 22: Communism; 23: Consumerism PART VI: THE POLITICAL SQUARE 24: The Arab square; 25: Maidan and Maidanistas; Concluding Words
Biography
Martin Zerlang is a full professor of literature and modern culture at the University of Copenhagen. During the last 15 years, he – together with architects and other urbanists – has participated in a number of architectural competitions and taken first prize in three of these. He has edited a collection of essays on Representing London, and has published articles in English on the Tivoli Gardens, the New York World Exposition 1853, and Israels Plads, a city square in Copenhagen. He has published several books on urban culture and urban literature, among these Zoom København (2017) and books on the bicycle (2018), the car (2021), and the train (2023) in Danish culture.
