‘Post-Los Angeles’ : the conceptual city in Steve Erickson’s Amnesiascope

Abstract

Within Steve Erickson’s texts, we often find setting functioning as a conceptual vehicle, the result of which is the creation of works identifiable by a number of disorienting and tangential qualities. Emanating from such employment is the presence of a symbiotic relationship existent between protagonists and their environment. Not only does this manifest in terms of interpersonal relationships, with topography fluctuating in accordance with the state of these, but we also find it apparent internally, often reflective of individual character. It is worth considering, however, the various elements and influences that inform Erickson’s conceptual settings. The writer’s fifth novel, Amnesiascope (1996), arguably depicts the most arresting of these conceptual settings. Featuring an author surrogate as the text’s central character, we find notable associations with his home city that create a ‘post-Los Angeles’. My essay aims to explore the extent to which Erickson’s own biographic details and personal interests shape this particular setting, detailing its place in the wider context of his work, whilst also analysing how a range of themes manifest within the confines of such a carefully crafted milieu.