Re-reading Cities of Affluence and Anger. A Literary Geography of Modern Englishness (2006), by Peter J. Kalliney. Not only very convincing readings of a number of still highly relevant novels, but also convincing links between literary expressions of the city, and prevalent discourse in urban planning and development.

Source: University of Virginia Press

The 4th chapter, on the Angry Young Men, for example, ‘’reads the Angry reliance on domesticity in the context of England’s postwar reconstruction and alongside contemporary accounts of home” and draws on “vernacular architecture of the period and the welfare state’s urban planning initiatives to sketch the parameters of class and masculinity in literary accounts of family life.” (Kalliney 116)

Kalliney presents here an eloquent illustration of what literary studies can bring to our understanding of city development (and vice verse).