Article by Ginta Pērle-Sīle on the image of the city in 19th-century realist short prose
An article by Ginta Pērle-Sīle, a researcher at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia (ILFA UL), titled Seeing the City: Realist Techniques for Depicting Cities and Unfamiliar Places in the Mid- and Late 19th Century, has been published in the online journal Punctum.
The article was written as part of the Latvian Council of Science research project Reclaiming Latvian Realism: Literary Innovation as Identity Quest (REALT), implemented by the ILFA UL.
From imagined places around the world to the ominous city of Riga, the article explores how unfamiliar urban environments were portrayed in Latvian realist short prose in the mid- and late 19th century, particularly from the perspective of rural readers for whom these settings were unfamiliar.
This publication continues the series of essays on the issues of realism launched by Punctum magazine.