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| Hotel Life: The Story of a Place Where Anything Can Happen
ISBN: 9781469623290
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / University of North Carolina Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Hospitality industry; Hotels; Travelers;
Taking a strictly academic approach that will deter most casual readers, this book examines the cultural, social, and political implications of one of society's most ubiquitous establishments. Indeed, hotels have served the desires of the wealthy and needs of the downtrodden for centuries. Levander and Guterl, respectively a professor of English at Rice University and professor of Africana and American studies at Brown University, divide their analysis into four core concepts-space, time, scale, and affect-and describe (in unnecessarily complicated terms) the hotel as public space, private getaway, and "purveyor of both fortune and failure." Other chapters focus on hotel-related murders, suicides, and sexual escapades, as well as low-end SROs (single-room occupancy hotels) and "the worst hotels on earth." Pop culture references abound, from Charlie Sheen's arrest at New York's Plaza Hotel to Whitney Houston's death in Room 434 of the Beverly Hilton. These passages effectively illustrate the darker side of "hotel life," but also remind readers that it can be depicted far more colorfully than has been done here. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Caroline Field Levander is the Carlson Professor in the Humanities and professor of English at Rice University, and Matthew Pratt Guterl is professor of Africana Studies and American Studies at Brown University. |
