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Apocalyptic urban surrealism in the city at the end of the world

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  • Japhy Wilson

Abstract

This paper responds to calls for radical experimentation in urban theory in the context of the material and psychological upheavals of Anthropocene. It does so through the development of an apocalyptic urban surrealism , based on a set of principles drawn from surrealist attempts to simulate the experience of reality characteristic of psychotic breakdown. These principles are put to work in the psychogeographical exploration of an urban resettlement scheme on the outskirts of Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon, and the flooded informal settlement that this scheme seeks to replace. Through the relinquishment of established modes of academic sense-making, and their replacement with a surrealist interpretive delirium, alternative meanings emerge within the entrails of cannibal capitalism and the wreckage of state-regulated reality.

Suggested Citation

  • Japhy Wilson, 2023. "Apocalyptic urban surrealism in the city at the end of the world," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(4), pages 718-733, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:4:p:718-733
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980221118817
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, 2015. "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10581.
    2. Hillary Angelo & David Wachsmuth, 2020. "Why does everyone think cities can save the planet?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(11), pages 2201-2221, August.
    3. David Cunningham & Alexandra Warwick, 2013. "Unnoticed apocalypse," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 433-448, August.
    4. Roger Keil, 2020. "An urban political ecology for a world of cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(11), pages 2357-2370, August.
    5. Stephanie Wakefield, 2022. "Critical urban theory in the Anthropocene," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(5), pages 917-936, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tauri Tuvikene & Wladimir Sgibnev & Wojciech Kȩbłowski & Jason Finch, 2023. "Public transport as public space: Introduction," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(15), pages 2963-2978, November.

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