Volunteers, Priests and Community Work in Overpopulated New York City. (Literary Representations of Pre- and Post- 9/11 NYC)
Journal Title: Dialogo - Year 2018, Vol 4, Issue 2
Abstract
Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin (2009), considered a New York, Irish- American, immigrant, 1970s and post 9/11 novel, starts with Philippe Petit’s walk on a tightrope between the World Trade Center towers in New York in 1974. This historical event is used as a symbol which links space (Park Avenue and the Bronx at the extremes), time (1974 and 2006, the post 9/11 period) and characters’ stories. An overpopulated city in permanent change, New York is constructed in the novel vertically, horizontally as networks. The article will explore the relation between the real and fictional spaces of New York in its three dimensions, or as “thirdspace”, superimposing pre- and post- 9/11 cartographies. The most relvant dimension of the overcrowded city, the horizontal connection, is achieved through the hard work and dedication of an Irish Jesuite priest (in 1974) and two community volunteers (in 2006), each of them part of dedicated networks.
Authors and Affiliations
Nicoleta Stanca
Dobrogea – A European Model of Multiethnic Coexistence
Multiculturalism is a contemporary reality. The labour market has become dynamic and people can move, especially in the area of a united Europe, without hitting too many obstacles. However, the experience requires an und...
Systemic Approach of the Evolution in the History and Unexplained Gaps within. A provocation to theological thinking
The paper is presenting the main stages in the history of mankind using the concept of system and how a certain system of a certain stage is evolving out of the previous stage into another new one using also the mathemat...
Diabetus Mellitus and urbanization
Diabetes Mellitus is one of the most common diseases, causing significant mortality and morbidity worldwide (1). Type 2 diabetes, obesity and hyperlipidemia have been traditionally considered as diseases of affluence. Th...
The Self-Knowledge and the Phenomenon of Estrangement/Alienation of the Human in Gnosticism
In the dawns of the new millennium, in a world of ideas continuously moving, dominated by the super-eminence of producing material goods, in a context of a new postmodern globalising society, which presents a hedonist me...
The Phenomenon of Overpopulation within the Jewish People
Overpopulation is a theory that states that the total number of the inhabitants of the world, which is continuously growing, is very high while the resources of the earth are not enough to sustain and feed so many human...