Detroit. Pittsburgh. St. Louis. Flint. Those major cities of what has come to be known as the Rust Belt were our initial inspiration for the 2014 Midwest MLA conference theme, “The Lives of Cities.” Living in the Midwest, one is surrounded by the decaying powerhouses of the industrial age, testaments both to the cyclical nature of urban growth and decline and to the very specific economic crises that have befallen manufacturing centers in the United States. Those struggles are often expressed in numbers—disproportionately high unemployment rates, sobering crime statistics, Introduction: Cities and the Narratives That Build Them Andrea Kaston Tange

中文翻译：

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导言：城市和构建它们的叙事

底特律。匹兹堡。圣路易斯。燧石。那些后来被称为锈带的主要城市是我们 2014 年中西部 MLA 会议主题“城市生活”的最初灵感。居住在中西部，一个被工业时代衰败的动力所包围，证明了城市增长和衰退的周期性以及降临在美国制造中心的非常具体的经济危机。这些斗争通常用数字来表达——不成比例的高失业率、发人深省的犯罪统计数据、导言：城市和构建它们的叙事安德里亚·卡斯顿·坦格 (Andrea Kaston Tange)