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Author(s):
Medium: journal article
Language(s): English
Published in: arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, , n. 2, v. 18
Page(s): 135-144
DOI: 10.1017/s135913551400044x
Abstract:

Created by David Simon in 2002, the HBO seriesThe Wirepresents the established moral code of a society that lies outside mainstream America and depicts institutions designed to maintain the status quo. Terry Eagleton suggests of Dickens, that his ‘grotesque realism is a stylistic distortion in the service of truth, a kind of astigmatism which allows us to see more accurately.’ The content of Simon's programme operates in a similar way. It proposes an alternative to academic narratives able to disseminate knowledge beyond the closed-off world of peer review.

The richness, uniqueness and intricacy ofThe Wirehas made it difficult to trace its thematic and stylistic heritage. The programme has been referred to as a ‘lyrical sociology’, ‘a type of urban sociology’, ‘a rendering of urban theory’, a ‘fontless social science’, a ‘theoretical archetype’, a ‘Dickensian show’, and more. At an aesthetic level,The Wirehas been qualified as a work of ‘psychological realism’, ‘social realism’, as something aspiring to Fredric Jameson's aesthetics of ‘cognitive mapping’, or even a ‘rich counterpart to actor-network-theory’.

Structurae cannot make the full text of this publication available at this time. The full text can be accessed through the publisher via the DOI: 10.1017/s135913551400044x.
  • About this
    data sheet
  • Reference-ID
    10355129
  • Published on:
    13/08/2019
  • Last updated on:
    13/08/2019
 
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