Un’endiadi impossibile. Parlare di città degli Stati Uniti oggi

This article analyzes several texts, published over the last two decades, which focus on postmodern space and the city in the United States. In particular, it tries to deconstruct the very phrase “American city”, which has been addressed by postmodern theorists as a cultural construct and, consequently, as a primarily theoretical notion. Reading works written by Rem Koolhaas, Michel de Certeau, Marc Augé and Jean Baudrillard vis-à-vis the works of sociologists and urban scientists, like Marshall Berman and Sharon Zukin, the article tries to figure out a new perspective to describe and narrate American cities today, halfway between the abstract postmodern theoretical speculations and the strictly materialist and sociological approach.