Visual arts, urban space, and social process in The Flamethrowers, by Rachel Kushner

Abstract

This essay presents a series of critical comments on the novel The Flamethrowers (2013), by American writer Rachel Kushner, with the aim of exploring the way the plot articulates the convergence between the renovation of New York City beginning in the mid-seventies and the role played by visual artists in the development of this process. Our interpretative hypothesis is that this choice of themes is far from fortuitous, but incorporates important question related to the contemporary debate. In order to do this, we will turn to the writings of theoreticians who wrote about the visual arts and their relationship with social issues, such as Peter Bürger’s and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s reflections on the neovanguards at the end of the sixties as well as David Harvey’s and Sharon Zukin’s texts about recent trends in urbanism.