Abstract
Cities are translocal. This might sound simple – because it is. By merely existing, cities create
connections across, through and beyond local spaces and places. A layering of distant local environments, or of experiences of places, is therefore at the heart of every definition of citiness. Whether that be in literature or in the lived environment, close connections between locations
that are seemingly unlike, as well as dense layers of multilocal, international and global histories,
shape the urban experience. From the urban palimpsest (see Kronshage et al.; Gurr, Charting
Literary Urban Studies) to the global city (see Sassen, Deciphering the Global and The Global City),
immediate links between and through various locales suffuse urban theory and city literature as
much as the actual cityscapes.