Over the course of the past decades, the relationship between literary and artistic production and city life has been researched extensively. Yet overall, the notion of city life often remains associated with relatively general conceptions of dynamism and abundance, social diversity and density, even though public life in cities is not evenly distributed across the various urban spaces. It is concentrated in a variety of smaller locations that are connected in a number of ways.

The aim of this conference is to focus on those smaller locations which, in their interconnectedness, constitute urban life – even though some of them may not be situated within the boundaries of cities. With the magnifying glass of their respective fields, scholars will investigate the history, or “etymology” (Henri Lefebvre) of these microcosms and examine their representation in literature, film, fine art, the media and historical documents. The aim of the conference is to gain insights into their nature, their imaginary potential and their potential to inspire narratives. By conceptualising a differentiated typology of the city, we also hope to gain more detailed insights into city life as a whole. Over the course of the three days, we will attempt to devise a comparative phenomenology of these urban microcosms for the period between 1789 and 1940.

This document consolidates key themes, concerns and questions that are to an extent based on the abstracts submitted by conference participants, and shall serve as guidance for your preparations and our discussions. We appreciate that your replies to the CFP already constitute the result of research and thank you for your willingness to share them with the other conference participants in this format.

The significance of location

Key microcosms are located at the core of the cities and are often seen as representative, symbolic places holding key functions within the city’s infrastructure: Railway stations and harbours have the purpose of transport and trade, and like markets and warehouses, have an economic, and arguably, cultural function. Other key microcosms can be seen as representative of the city’s intellectual life, such as libraries and universities, or of its social life, such as cafés and public parks.

In what way do these key central places themselves embody (the characteristics of) the ‘true city’? The warehouse has been linked to an ocean liner (Paul Göhre) and been seen as a metaphor for the era of high capitalism (Werner Sombart). In how far are urban microcosms such as the warehouse, the harbour and the railway station self-contained, enclosed spaces, as the word microcosm suggests – even though they are designed to be spaces of transit? To what extent do they depend on the interaction with their urban surroundings, on the interconnectedness of the small places with one another?

Located within the city or in suburban areas, the park is, on the other hand, designed to provide an escape from typical experiences of urban life: from the noise of traffic and the velocity of transport. Yet the well-ordered layout or architecture of the park and its functionality as the city’s ‘lung’ already indicate its artificiality, and so does the presence of the cityscape in its periphery. How are the natural world and the cultural world bridged in this environment? In how far is the park bound to the rhythm of the city as a whole?

Other public spaces feature urban manners and mechanisms even though they are located entirely outside the city, such as spas and weekend destinations on the seaside: coastal villages and beaches. They are comparable to parks in their purpose of providing an escape from city life. Yet as transport possibilities increase towards the end of the 19^th century, seaside resorts become – at least temporarily, on the weekends and in the summer – extensions of urban life rather than refuges from it. Nevertheless they remain “heterotopias” (Michel Foucault) in urban society. In what way do the rules and the dynamics that inhere them differ to those in the cities themselves?

Smaller, less accessible and publicly less visible microcosms outside the big cities are the road conferences in Belgium at which les hommes de la route gathered to urbanise rural spaces by planning the country’s road networks; in the boudoir, they exchanged their expertise. These conferences constitute a microcosm that is comparable to the salons of the early 19^th century in many ways, though their purpose is economic. At the same time, in their role as cultural agents the participants of the road conferences had decision-making power in urbanising large areas, and it may be justifiable to ask: What role do they assign to the microcosms that are located within these areas, as can be inferred from programmes and reports? Which implications on city life and on the microcosms’ interconnectedness does the structuring of the road network have?

More generally, institutions, such as the Belgian road conference can function as microcosm. The French Garde Nationale was a non-military armed body composed by local citizens. It became a space of self-administration, thereby contributed to the identity of Paris and is in that sense, again of particular relevance to the city’s interconnectedness.

Keywords: artificiality, cosmopolitanism, embeddedness, escape, heterotopia, infrastructure, interconnectedness, location within/outside the city, nature, salon, suburban areas, trade, transit, transport, weekend destinations

New social spheres

The size and with it, the social structures of cities changed dramatically over the course of the 19^th century. How did that change become evident on a small scale? Based on the definition of the city as a scene of sociability in which “strangers are likely to meet” 
(Richard Sennett), in what way do urban microcosms serve as forum for encounters, or facilitate the emergence of milieus? Arno Schmidt described the “Großhauswelten” (big house worlds) of the early 20^th century, and emphasised that in the process of socialisation everyone is inevitably exposed to them in one way or another: schools, universities, cinemas or warehouses.

Public meeting places for consumption are often open to an audience from across all social classes. Brana’s Orpheum, a tavern in Belgrade, seems to be an exemplary case in that it attracted guests from the intellectual scene; workers; different ethnic groups. It is a microcosm thatreflects Serbian society on the borders of the Ottoman empire and Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the 20^th century. The theatrica and political life of the city blended there, and the Orpheum served as a hub for negotiating political and social issues (on the stage), and thereby had a significant impact on the creation of public opinion.

Cafés, on the other hand, are more associated with being a marker of class: they are exclusive places that represent the intellectual debate and artistic freedom of an elite. The function of cafés is similar across big European cites, such as Paris, Vienna and Prague. Which rituals, behaviours and views of life emerged there? In what way did these urban microcosms facilitate the emergence of new social relations and became catalysts of modernity? At the beginning of the 19^th century, the Italian poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardicriticised thewealthy people that gathered together in these forums as he saw in them a symbol of modern frivolity. While the Russian poet Alexander Blok and the Russian journalist Mikhail Menshikov welcomed the new restaurants of St Petersburg as “new temples” (novji khramy), conservative commentators criticised that the “temples” would promote moral corruption and decay.

An open-air equivalent to these interior spaces are parks and beaches. They may seem more accessible, as they are less spatially structured (e.g. by glass windows) and do not require the consumption of goods. Nevertheless, they can be seen as an outdoor salon idyll. It is a microcosm where issues of class, gender and self-definition are negotiated as well as boundaries between the public and the private.

Urban microcosms also serve as a generator of modernity by providing the proverbial anonymity of the city, where escapism and loneliness are possible. Stefan George’s poem “Stadtufer” (“City Bank”, 1907) explores the relationship of the individual to its urban surroundings through observation and reflection. The withdrawal into privacy is one of the characteristics of 19^th century social history, as has been observed by Richard Sennett and Alain Corbin: a phenomenon that becomes perceptible particularly in those spaces where the public and the private are constantly negotiated. The staircases oftenement buildings, their inner courtyards and hallways are spaces of transit, enabling the interaction for tenants – and making it unavoidable. In the staircase, the threshold between street and flat is expanded vertically. With which practices and norms are the boundaries between the public and the private defined or secured? How is access regulated?

A less accessible microcosm is the psychiatric surgery, though the private and the public can also be considered as being negotiated in such a space. What relevance does the emergence of such spaces have for the production of cultural practices? Patients reveal the most private, comfortably leaned against the couch, far away from lively settings such as the tavern or the café. Psychiatric surgeries, such as Sigmund Freud’s, stand for the withdrawal into the private sphere – Richard Sennett sees in them an embodiment of modern life and has remarked that “modern culture suffers from a divide between the inside and the outside” (The Conscience of the Eye, 1990). A microcosm that is related to the psychiatric surgery is the ‘lunatic asylum’, which has served as a principal example for Foucault’s concept of “heterotopias”. It is shielded from the outside world in order to protect the public from the patients – and the patients from the public’s curiosity. Once patients were admitted to the ‘lunatic asylum’, it was difficult for them to get out again: patients’ autobiographical letters are often narratives of either failed or successful attempts to escape this microcosm.

Keywords: accessibility, anonymity, behaviour, comfort, consumption, émigration intérieure, encounter, exposure, intellectual debate, interaction, milieu, observation, public opinion, press, “rite of passage”, ritual, “social formations”, socialisation, stranger, threshold

Imagined and literary microcosms

The subtle differences in the relationship between social stability and fluidity have also contributed to the imaginative quality of these places, and have subsequently inspired paintings, films and literature. What changes in the aesthetics of writing and modalities of visualisation have the dynamics of these spaces brought about? How is that manifested in the different media (journal, painting, literature, theatre, film)?

Which socio-cultural types emerged in these microcosms (e.g. the dandy, the doppelgänger, the flaneur)? How are they portrayed – again, by the different media –, and how is their experience captured? In the first half of the 19^th century, Giacomo Leopardi depicted a new literary type in Italy, the so-called nuovo credente (new believer). Less than a century later, the consumer becomes a literary type. The figure is linked to – usually female – seduction and is closely related to the flaneur: a type of the sophisticated urbanite who is at home at the department store. How can the topos of the consumer’s seduction be turned into a positive appreciation of the aesthetics of consumption?

A different place of amusement that is characteristic for urban life and has been prominent in literature is the brothel. Home to phantasies of transgression, it can be considered as a threshold itself. It is a hermetically sealed microcosm that is all the more surrounded by an atmosphere of secrecy and forbiddenness. In his novel Nana, Émile Zola has famously depicted the courtesan – another literary type.

Restaurants and cafés are much more commonly depicted in literature and the arts. Around 1900, the aforementioned restaurants of St Petersburg and Moscow – “new temples” – have aroused curiosity and inspired narratives. Prague’s cafés of the early twentieth century are in turn of particular relevance to memory studies. How has the symbolic power of the Prague café shaped portrayals of Franz Kafka and his generation? How have descriptions of cafés played a part in the shaping of Prague German literature in cultural memory? – An extraordinary example of how urban microcosms can be textually (re)constructed are the town directories of England that listed inhabitants and tradespeople and included descriptions of buildings and institutions. How does such a medium disseminate modern ideas of urbanity? What concepts of the public and the private sphere do they convey?

Walter Benjamin has famously attempted a textual (re)construction of the since most prominent urban microcosm of the 19^th century: the arcade, which has become a symbol of modernity and modernism in literature and architecture. New insights can be gained from Benjamin’s recently published radio contributions which explore places such as Berlin’s rental ‘barracks’ and toy shops.

Institutions with “cultural capital” (Pierre Bourdieu) can themselves be considered to have a microcosmic function – such as, for example, the aforementioned radio programmes themselves which contribute to the (local) identity by disseminating information. They have a unifying function, and somewhat resemble the function of church bells in the cities: as a visual and auditory centre of the village, church bells indicate much more than the hour alone. They have helped to establish hierarchies and boundaries, and have shaped memories – though their sound has been increasingly challenged by other noises in the cities.

In what way do the media influence the composition of “social formations” (Simmel) and their representation? An exceptional case is the German language press in the Bukovina (1848–1940). Without being bound to a public location it is an example of how the local press can contribute to the formation of a ‘microcosmic’ local identity by allowing an exchange between centre and peripheries through communication, where physical meeting up is not possible.