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Manhattan Transference: Reader Itineraries In Modernist New York, Sophia Bamert
Manhattan Transference: Reader Itineraries In Modernist New York, Sophia Bamert
Honors Papers
John Dos Passos' Manhattan Transfer (1925) follows dozens of characters through modern New York City. The novel is organized as a fragmented montage and, in this paper, I argue that transit functions as both a central theme and the structuring principle of the text. I compare Manhattan Transfer to works by Walt Whitman and William Dean Howells and draw upon spatial form theory to examine how experiences of urban transportation influence literary forms. Ultimately, I suggest that Manhattan Transfer's modernist form offers readers itinerant ways of perceiving the complicated networks of which cities are made.