The trope of "The Dying City"

[LeNoirFaineant]

Hello all,

I am reading Camus' The Plague (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plague), and wonder, this trope, about civilisational decay,
where else do we find it in literature?

So, we have Lord of the Flies, most prominently, and then The Last Days of Pompeii,
as well as the Lovecraft story The Doom that came to Sarmath (and a few more I think).

But apart from that, can you think of other stories where we basically have a city/civilisatory institution's decline or fall into corruption
as their topic?

The genre doesn't really matter - I was thinking even along the lines of American Beauty or 7even.

Sorry if the question sounds rather weird, or if I am not precise enough!

Many thanks in advance,

Rafe

[kelby_lake]

Some of Shakespeare's plays: Measure for Measure,Hamlet, Julius Caesar.

[PoeticPassions]

Movies: Children of Men, The Road come to mind... I think both were based on books.

also you can explore some of Kurt Vonnegut's works (short stories and novels)

[LeNoirFaineant]

Ah, thank you very much!

Now, I hadn't at all thought of Shakespeare in that way, but now that you say...

So, more stuff for me to watch and read, in this gloomy autumn. :)

Anyway, in case the trope reminds you of something more, please share. :)

[kelby_lake]

watch Cabaret as well

[Stewed]

If we're going to bring in movies, there are lots. I recommend the, uh, script of a French movie called The Time of the Wolf. But it's not in a city. Ok, I'm stretching this too far.

Oh! Oh! Troy!

Yeats used it a few times. "Hector is dead and there's a light in Troy." Everybody did; it's almost the archetypal done-for city in western lit. I even think with it, here in 2011.

Hugh MacLennan used something like a dying city trope in Voices in Time, which, it's been argued, should have a bigger rep than it does. I heard that MacLennan, when he was young, wrote his dissertation on the fate of a small city after the withdrawal of Roman power. Taking a bit more leeway, Philip Roth plays with the idea in The Plot Against America, and in American Pastoral. VS Naipaul is fairly well obsessed with the concept. Off the top of my head, he uses it in one of the stories in In a Free State.

[Stewed]

Oh, I know: Will Self's The Book of Dave.

[LeNoirFaineant]

Thank you very much, again!

For that little project I am working on, I also take into consideration:

- "The Fog" & "The Mist" horror movies & related short stories.
- "The Black Death", another movie.
- "Valhalla Rising".

Now, the best book for me personally has proven to be the German "Menschheitsdämmerung", by Kurt Pinthus, in case anybody is interested in some further reading as well. :)

[LeNoirFaineant]

Oh, by the way, another rather weird media article where the trope of the dying city is the main theme:

The Silent Hill video game series!


http://www.celluloid-dreams.de/content/images/kritiken-filmbilder/silent-hill/silent-hill-2.jpg