Academic literature on the topic 'Los Angeles literature'

<p> &ldquo;A Discrete Hollow&rdquo; is a collection of work that spans the past three years of my life. This project involves itself with the discussion of isolation, and our resulting growth as sentient humans; this is painted upon the Los Angeles cityscape. Within my project&rsquo;s boundaries isolation resides in the banter of the cosmos as origin or expiry; in the anomaly of vagrancy; within a disjointed paternal and struggle for a permanent memory. These poems are shaped around the identity that is developed through separateness, and the reason discovered in uncertainty. This body of work is conjoined to Los Angeles as an inescapable coercion and background, and my poetry attempts to link identity through experience. This project is focused on the location of a unique self in a city that is founded upon facelessness.</p>

In this dissertation I study three novels written by Latin American and Chicana female authors: Arrancame la vida by Mexican writer Angeles Mastretta; Hija de la fortuna by Chilean writer Isabel Allende; and Delia's Song by Chicana writer Lucha Corpi. These novels have been chosen because of one common characteristic they share: the development of the female protagonist and her quest for a non-patriarchal conscribed identity and her ultimate emancipation. In other words, these novels portray protagonists in search of autonomy and create fictional women who escape entrapment in the traditional female plot expectations. These three novels deal with the development of the protagonist. Though these novels do not fit nicely into the classic male model of the Bildungsroman, they are representative of a feminist version of the Bildungsroman, which is said to begin to emerge in the decade of the seventies among American, Latin American and Latina women writers. In the novels analyzed, the authors have attempted to subvert patriarchal power in an effort to liberate the repressed protagonist and also to deconstruct male constructed female myths. Thus, these contemporary feminist Bildungsromans aggressively challenge the falsely imposed dichotomies of gender codes while simultaneously creating alternative definitions of female identity, ones that are more ample and multi-faceted. The Bildungsroman becomes an apt genre for contemporary Latin American and Chicana women writers because it allows them to explore the complexity and multiple subjectivity of female identity. These three contemporary Bildungsromans subvert the traditional female and male genre because these protagonists are not halted in their development, rather they attain their goals and are able to construct their own identities. These novels present alternative destinies for the Latin American and Chicana protagonist.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2004.<br>Thesis research directed by: English Language and Literature. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

Participation in the rhythms and processes of twentieth-century capitalism depended upon physical mobility, particularly in a city as geographically dispersed as Los Angeles. This fluid individual mobility also served to justify the introduction of new law enforcement practices that increasingly sought to rationalize urban space. How did the literature and cinema of Los Angeles represent the experiences of citizens for whom mobility was both vital and potentially incriminating? Within such an environment, I propose, successful orientation became particularly crucial. I develop an original but historically grounded theorization of disorientation as a concept through which to interpret the unease and vulnerability of individual protagonists as they navigate the city. Whilst drawing on a wide body of theoretical sources, my research remains rooted in the close analysis of cinematic and literary texts, and the specific historical and geographical context with which they engage. The automobility of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe allows him to navigate the dispersed topography of 1940s LA, but his investigations are often ineffectual and leave him weary and jaded. The protagonist of Chester Himes’s If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) struggles to orientate himself within a wartime Los Angeles in which racism is manifested spatially. Himes’s novel provides a lens through which to view the experience of 1970s South LA depicted in the films of Charles Burnett and Haile Gerima, in which the city’s African-American community confronts disorientating conditions of circumscribed movement and arbitrary incrimination. Lawenforcement officials exert spatial control in the novels of Joseph Wambaugh and James Ellroy, but they also find themselves compromised by jurisdictional conflicts. Pursuing careful analyses of character, form and setting, this project explicates some of the compelling and troubling visions of urban experience that Los Angeles has prompted, and challenges a critical tendency to elide aspects of the city’s racial past.

In Los Angeles, the influence of Hollywood and the film industry, combined with a non-stop barrage of media images, has blurred the line between the real and imaged. The literature reveals a city exploding with cultural, racial and social differences, making Los Angeles a confusing and alienating place. The literature of Los Angeles reflects the changing face of the city. Los Angeles was always a city with a promising future, economic booms and optimism seemed to suggest that here was a place where the American Dream really could come true. Thousands travelled west in search of sunshine, oranges and a life that formerly, they could only dream of having. Yet, the literature of Los Angeles has highlighted the city's actual history together with a realization of undercurrents of violence, prejudice, depression and shattered dreams. The past, present and future is used to reveal a city that is in stark opposition to the Los Angeles, waves of immigrants came to find. This thesis explores the idea of the dreamer coming west to Los Angeles within the literature and the variety of ways in the travellers' romantic notions of Los Angeles as a city of promise, is betrayed, leaving a desperate people in its wake. The literature shows that beneath the shiny surface of a city founded on sunshine and prosperity, corruption reached all levels of society and the 'mean streets' abound. Later, influenced by an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness caused by Post-war nuclear depression, McCarthyism, loss of identity, and living in a city fragmented by racial tension and an ever growing gap between the very rich and the very poor, the literature of Los Angeles reflects not only the fears of that city, but of American society as a whole. The collision of technology, rapid progression and population explosion turned Los Angeles into a disconnected city, where the real and imagined merge in a cityscape that demonstrates a conflicting combination of historical replication, original design and movie-set inspiration. Nothing is ever what it appears to be in Los Angeles.

This thesis examines the rich and layered intertextual relationship between five artisticrepresentations of the razed neighborhoods of Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles, and its former residents. These works include Seattle-based photographer Don Normark’s 1999 photography collection Chávez Ravine, 1949: A Los Angeles Story; the full-length dramatic play Chavez Ravine, written and first performed by Los Angeles-based Chicano comedy troupe Culture Clash in 2003; Jordan Mechner’s 2004 short documentary film Chávez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story; Ry Cooder’s musical album Chávez Ravine: A Record by Ry Cooder; and lastly, high school history teacher Ken Aven’s 2006 debut novel, Chavez Ravine Echoes. Together, these five productions make up a case study that engages with the theoretical debate about privileged groups speaking for, or on behalf of, underrepresented groups. This analysis emphasizes a process of representation that is shared and driven by dialogue between the artists of these productions and the place and people they represent. Through the inclusion of resident involvement in the production process and the weaving of narrative elements from both Mexican American and dominant cultural traditions, these projects promote the Ravine’s cultural wealth and visibility within a popular culture dominated by the symbol of Dodger Stadium. This study, through close readings and textual analysis, demonstrates how these works, considered together, open up spaces for cross-cultural discussions about Chavez Ravine and the various roles it plays within U.S. cultural history. More importantly, these five representations of Chavez Ravine figuratively practice and promote a “speaking to and with” model of intercultural communication between dominant and minority cultures.