A Study Of The Writing Of New York City In E.L.Doctorow’s Novels

E. L. Doctorow, an important American writer of the late20th century, wrote brilliantly about New York City. In his works Doctorow reproduces New York City’s cultures at different stages and reflects on urban livings and customs, survival crisis, social problems, etc. These works span over100years from the1870s to the present, covering different periods in New York City including the Civil War, the Progressive Era, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and the present-day New York. Using the urban historical view of Mumford and new urban sociology theories of Gottdiener and Hutchison, this dissertation focuses on the writing of New York City in nine of Doctorow’s works:Big as Life (1966), The Book of Daniel (1971), Ragtime (1975), Lives of the Poets (1984), World’s Fair (1985), Billy Bathgate (1989), The Waterworks (1994), City of God (2000), Homer and Langley (2009). The dissertation explores the historical cultures of New York City, its social problems and Doctorow’s solution for a way out, and uncovers Doctorow’s unique way of urban writing.New York City in Doctorow’s novels is the postmodern reconstruction or representation for urban history and memory of urban space loaded with time. Growing up and living in the City he has first-hand experiences about it, and he cherishes a deep emotion toward the City, which inspired his literary imagination. From a postmodernist angle, Doctorow recalls New York, a city highly modernized while keeping its profound cultural and historical roots, from its modernization and industrialization after the Civil War to its post-industrial times. As a third-generation Russian immigrant born and grown in New York City, Doctorow is not only familiar with the City’s geography, history and landscapes, but also deeply affected by Jewish culture, so his works produce the memory of his personal urban experiences and Jewish culture.New York City in Doctorow"s novels not just provides background and location for social activities as a static space, but also has various signifiers with signified meanings, and the writer’s thoughts and feelings toward New York City are thus revealed. The urban signs in Doctorow’s works are written on the basis of the reality in New York City, including cultural landscapes, living conditions, urban heterotopia and transportation signs. These urban signs records the history of New York City and the writer’s experiences and feelings, and reflects the writer’s concern for the marginalized characters and laboring people at the bottom of society. Doctorow gives great attention to social crises in the development of New York City, including urban crimes and evils, racial conflicts, urban residents’life difficulties, and their spiritual and ethical dilemmas. Crises emerge in different forms at different stages of the history, and the entropy goes on increasing inside the City. The characters in Doctorow’s works are faced with a series of problems regardless of their social classes, races or cultural backgrounds. However, through various means they long for salvation and extrication from the pains, chaos and dangers of this world. Doctorow always thinks about New York City’s fate and endeavors to find ways out:rational religious faith, co-existence and tolerance of different cultures, construction of urban justice, struggle for human dignity, and return of the traditional ethics, etc. In the process of development, the City has plenty of conflicts and the society is in disorder, but the future of New York City is ultimately determined by human endeavors. Doctorow states his new understanding of the Divine in his works, trying to resolve the conflicts between Christianity and Judaism, in order to enrich the citizen’s life and save their souls, for only through religious reforms and reconciliation could we achieve the peace on earth and rebuild the "City of God". Doctorow’s urban novels are abundant in Jewish humanistic ideas which contain not only the ideas of redemption, but also a deep sense of justice, responsibility and family values.Doctorow not only puts profound thoughts into his works, but also uses multiple literary forms to strengthen artistic effect and make the works more impressive, such as movie technique, collage skill, detective novel, Bildungsroman, polyphonic narration, etc. Montage and collage skills disrupt the plot development, fully showing New York City’s modernity, complication and disorder. The detectives’rational viewpoint contrasts sharply with the children’s perceptual viewpoint, and from different levels these two perspectives reveal the dark side once neglected or forgotten in history and the citizen’s troubles in life in New York City and their resistance. Polyphonic narration and memory narration are used to catch the pluralistic feature of New York City and various conflicts, enlarge the time and space dimension of the narration, and endow authenticity to the narration about urban history and memory.All in all, Doctorow’s New York City has a deep foundation of reality, and it is not the list and stack of historical facts and phenomena, but the writer’s interpretation, imagination and reconstruction. In his works, Doctorow criticizes a series of problems under capitalism, such as darkness of society, loss of human nature, ethical dilemma, etc. And he also shows his sympathy toward the lower-middle class people, publicizes the ideas of social justice and affirms traditional ethics. Doctorow’s works embody the unity of artistic forms and ideas expressed, and show the author’s great concern for the urban culture, the urban inhabitants’living status and the urban problems, and to Doctorow New York City is the city of soul.