Letteratura e politiche urbane: le contro-narrative di Hackney

The article examines some literary representations of reactions and resistance to urban policies and development programs which have been put in place in London, especially in view of the Olympics Game of 2012. It focuses on the area of Hackney (East London), moving from the analysis of Acquired for Development by…A Hackney Anthology, a collection of short stories and poems, edited by Gary Budden and Kit Caless which has become a literary case and the cornerstone of newly founded Influx Press. Through a variety of fiction, poems, non-fiction pieces, mostly in a non-realistic, postmodern mood, twenty-five authors, who live or used to live in the borough, respond imaginatively to the changes going on in this multicultural area and, implicitly, claim the right to have a word on the policies meant to transform Hackey in a ‘cool’ neighbourhood. These voices take some distance from the most celebrated counter-narrator of London and Hackney, Iain Sinclair. The choral narrative of Acquired for Development by…A Hackney Anthology, includes also provocative, unexpected citizens: youth subcultures and squatters speak their sense of place, as also the ‘crevices and the gaps’ of Hackney are inhabited and gentrification is going to swallow the anarchic energy hidden in disrupted areas.
What role literature may play in constructing multiple (counter-)narratives of place? What is the possible output of encouraging awareness that urban policies are steered by narratives that are not as inclusive as claim to be? These are some of the question addressed by the paper.