earticle

영어

This study examines the crisis and resistance confronting contemporary urban spaces through N. K. Jemisin's Great Cities Duology: The City We Became (2020) and The World We Make (2022). While it is clear that urban space has functioned as a core backdrop for society throughout history, contemporary cities, in particular, have emerged as hubs of globalization and economic growth. Given this, the study of urban space serves not only as a yardstick for gauging societal change but also as a stage that intensively reveals the patterns of global transformation. Jemisin captures the problematic situations facing modern society through the city of New York, and, through the speculative vision, proposes a means of resistance and overcoming. In the novel, the metropolis becomes a living, sentient being; in this world, New York is represented by one primary avatar and five secondary avatars, each of which represents New York's five boroughs. Using the “Woman in White” to personify crises like gentrification and xenophobia, Jemisin argues that a city's true greatness does not stem from homogeneity, but from the encounter and interference of heterogeneous forces represented by the city avatars, diverse in race, sexual orientation, and class. Jemisin demonstrates that the heterogeneity and multiplicity of the city do not lead to disorder and fear, but rather add color to monotony and uniformity.