Toward an Urban Cultural Studies Henri Lefebvre and the Humanities

Toward an Urban Cultural Studies is a call for a new interdisciplinary area of research and teaching. Blending Urban Studies and Cultural Studies, this book grounds readers in the extensive theory of the prolific French philosopher Henri Lefebvre. Appropriate for both beginners and specialists, the first half of this book builds from a general introduction to Lefebvre and his methodological contribution toward a focus on the concept of urban alienation and his underexplored theory of the work of art. The second half merges Lefebvrian urban thought with literary studies, film studies and popular music studies, successively, before turning to the videogame and the digital humanities. Benjamin Fraser's approach consistently emphasizes the interrelationship between cities, culture, and capital.

Benjamin Fraser is Professor and Chair of Foreign Languages and Literatures at East Carolina University, USA. The founding editor of the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, he has published thirteen books including Henri Lefebvre and the Spanish Urban Experience (2011) and Antonio López García's Everyday Urban Worlds (2014).

Introduction
PART I: THEORETICAL GROUND
1. Why Urban Cultural Studies? Why Henri Lefebvre?
2. Henri Lefebvre's Recalibrated Marxism: Urban Alienation and Cultural Studies
3. The Work (of Art): Putting Art at the Service of the Urban
Part II: TEXTUAL VARIATIONS
4. The Urban Dominant: Everyday Life and the City in Textual Criticism
5. The Iconic-Indexical City:Visions of Place in Urban Films
6. Listening to Urban Rhythms:Soundscapes in Popular Music
7. Representing Digital Spaces: Videogames and the Digital Humanities
Conclusion