The Monster and the Atom: Representation of London in James and Conrad
1 annadesp{at}tee.gr University of Athens
This paper draws on the urban theory of the German sociologist Georg Simmel as well as texts by Baudelaire and Benjamin on modernity to argue that the representation of London in Jamess The Princess Casamassima and Conrads The Secret Agent functions as a bleak critique of the urban culture of the time. The city imposes on individuals its own objective culture, as Simmel termed it four years before the publication of The Secret Agent, thus threatening the autonomy of the individual and the ability of the flâneur to read the city subjectively.