American and European cities transformed by a literary vision.

Abstract

The aim of this research is to observe the metamorphosis that poets subject the urban environment to with their gaze and transform it. Each poetic contemplation added a new and different value even to the cities themselves. The vision of the past and that of the present are so different not because of the urban transformations they were subjected to but because of the way the creators saw them. To the point that an emblematic city, which was immersed in its permanent ruin for centuries, was also transformed thanks to that magical and dazzling gaze, which culminated in a reflection by contemporary creators, who, among one another, offer different cities, according to the mood of each creative gaze. Among others, Medina Azahara is addressed, a palatine city from the 10th century, erected during the caliphate of Abderramán III, in the full splendor of the Umayyads. The book also addresses lyrical visions of cities such as Córdoba, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Prague, New York, Madrid, Granada, Lisbon, Havana, and Mexico, among others. In short, it shows how, through these privileged views that shine through the past, they can be preserved in the present and energized for the imaginary future.