City as Character

An written and visual investigation into the TV series Atlanta

I wrote and designed this book as part of my masters thesis at the Sandberg Instituut. Following my long time interest in cities, literature and film, I chose the work of American actor, rapper, and director Donald Glover to analyze, starting with the idea that the city itself could play the role of protagonist in a work of art.

In the case of the work of Glover, that city would be Atlanta, Georgia. I started with a quote from Italian journalist and writer Italo Calvino, in which he described the role that the city played in his work in the following way:

“To represent the streets and the various districts as dramatis personae, each one with a character in conflict with every other, to give life to human figures and situations as if they were spontaneous growths from the cobbles of the streets, or else protagonists in such dramatic contrast with them as to cause a whole string of disasters to work in such a way that at every changing moment the true protagonist was the living city.” 

With Calvino’s approach in mind, this book investigates how Atlanta plays the part of muse, protagonist, antagonist, and foil in the life of Earn (one of the show’s main characters, also played by Donald Glover himself), as well as the lives of the rest of the cast. To conduct this investigation, I build on Calvino’s conviction that the “living city” can be the “protagonist” in artworks. Moreover, viewed through a multi-disciplinary lens, the work of other writers, artists, philosophers, and architects throughout history is connected to this central point.

The influence that the city of Atlanta on Donald Glover’s real-life creative processes is also be the subject of analysis. Are there connections to his lived experience? Does the lived experience of the people he has known influence particular scenes or decisions? What is the specific role of the city and how does it affect choices and decisions made by the other characters in the series? What connections or references are being made to broader social or cultural events that had occurred in Atlanta and in other cities around the world?

In the book I looked at two specific episodes of Atlanta. Using the methodology of semiotic analysis, primarily in the style of Italian novelist, literary critic and philosopher Umberto Eco, I made connections and parallels in meaning between the dialogue, visual direction, and theme of each episode. These points of analysis were then related to the hypothesis that the city is a character in the TV series.