Urban Loneliness and the Aesthetics of Isolation in Twenty-First Century English Writing

Abstract

The city loneliness has come to be a feature of the twenty first century as an emotional and cultural state. Lately, the experience of community and belonging has changed due to the rapid urbanization, hyperconnectivity with digital technology, neoliberal individualism, and changing social structures. Modern English writing is a response and challenge to these transformations and portrays cities as physical landscapes of alienation, as well as psychological ones. In this paper, the author will explore the twenty-first century English writers to reveal how they represent the theme of urban loneliness, and how they are able to construct such aesthetic of isolation by using narrative form, imagery, fragmentation, interior monologue, and the use of space as a symbolism. The analysis of the chosen modern novels and short stories addresses the ways in which authors describe solitude as a crisis and a state of perception and demonstrate how urban settings enhance emotional disconnection, as well as develop a new set of self-perception. Finally, the paper concludes that, in modern literature, urban loneliness is a thematic issue and a formal and aesthetic technique.