Lagos and the uncertain new modernism of Teju Cole

Thacker, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7962-8391, 2025. Lagos and the uncertain new modernism of Teju Cole. Modernist Cultures, 20 (1), pp. 78-99. ISSN 2041-1022

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Abstract

This article offers an innovative account of the work of the Nigerian American writer, Teju Cole, and argues that his fiction demonstrates an ‘uncertain new’ modernism of the city. In particular, the article analyses how Every Day is for the Thief (2007/14) and Open City (2011) draw upon the techniques and categories of earlier forms of modernist writing in order to depict the complexities of the urban experience. It focuses upon the representation of the Nigerian city of Lagos in Every Day is for the Thief, and argues that Cole's spatial stories of this city demonstrate a fascinating new development in the history of modernism and the city.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Modernist Cultures
Creators:	Thacker, A.
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Date:	February 2025
Volume:	20
Number:	1
ISSN:	2041-1022
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.3366/mod.2025.0448 DOI 2469549 Other
Rights:	© the author(s). The online version of this article is published as Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Licence (https://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	17 Jul 2025 08:15
Last Modified:	17 Jul 2025 08:15
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53970

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