Postcards And Radiographies In The Essays Of Marius De Zayas: New York And The Trip

Abstract

The present reading of the essays of Marius de Zayas about the United States and its culture, seeks to characterize the presence of kitsch and inmigration, as two of the main notions that cross the texts included under the title "Life in New York". We find these texts compiled in the book Chronicles and essays: New York and Paris, 1909-1911 published in 2008. The purpose of this analysis is highlight the critical view of the Mexican about the trip, which focus in the tourist's fascination and the constant sense of estrangement: the feeling of being out of place and suffer the disenchantment of migration. A second element to consider is the tension between the admiration that these essays reflect around the industrial portent and the architecture of the northern country, in the face of the problems De Zayas witnesses in a pragmatic, utilitarian and mercantile culture. Finally, it is interpreted that Marius de Zayas exposes through his texts a modern vision that anticipates a society of the spectacle, full of simulacra of success and evasive entertainment.