Spatiality and Symbolic Expression: On the Links between Place and Culture

257 Pages·2015·4.276 MB·English

by  Bill Richardson (eds.)

GeocriticismandSpatialLiteraryStudies
SeriesEditor:
ROBERTT.TALLYJR.,TexasStateUniversity
Seriesdescription:
GeocriticismandSpatialLiteraryStudies is a new book series focusing on
the dynamic relations among space, place, and literature. The spatial turn in
the humanities and social sciences has occasioned an explosion of innova-
tive, multidisciplinary scholarship in recent years, and geocriticism, broadly
conceived,hasbeenamongthemorepromisingdevelopmentsinspatiallyori-
ented literary studies. Whether focused on literary geography, cartography,
geopoetics, or the spatial humanities more generally, geocritical approaches
enablereaderstoreflectupontherepresentationofspaceandplace,bothin
imaginary universes and in those zones where fiction meets reality. Titles in
the series include both monographs and collections of essays devoted to lit-
erary criticism, theory, and history, often in association with other arts and
sciences. Drawing on diverse critical and theoretical traditions, books in the
GeocriticismandSpatialLiteraryStudies seriesdisclose,analyze,andexplore
thesignificanceofspace,place,andmappinginliteratureandintheworld.
Robert T. Tally Jr. is Associate Professor of English at Texas State Univer-
sity, USA. His work explores the relations among narrative, representation,
and social space in American and world literature, criticism, and theory.
Tally has been recognized as a leading figure in the emerging fields of
geocriticism, spatiality studies, and the spatial humanities. Tally’s books
includeFredricJameson:TheProjectofDialecticalCriticism;PoeandtheSub-
versionofAmericanLiterature:Satire,Fantasy,Critique;UtopiaintheAgeof
Globalization: Space, Representation, and the World System; Spatiality; Kurt
Vonnegut and the American Novel: A Postmodern Iconography; and Melville,
Mapping and Globalization: Literary Cartography in the American Baroque
Writer.ThetranslatorofBertrandWestphal’sGeocriticism:RealandFictional
Spacesss, Tally is the editor of GeocriticalExplorations:Space,Place,andMap-
pinginLiteraryandCulturalStudies;KurtVonnegut:CriticalInsights;and
LiteraryCartographies:Spatiality,Representation,andNarrative.
Titlestodate:
CosmopolitanismandPlace:SpatialFormsinContemporaryAnglophone
Literature
ByEmilyJohansen
LiteraryCartographies:Spatiality,Representation,andNarrative
EditedbyRobertT.TallyJr.
The Geocritical Legacies of Edward W. Said: Spatiality, Critical Humanism,
andComparativeLiterature
EditedbyRobertT.TallyJr.
SpatialEngagementwithPoetry
ByHeatherH.Yeung
Literature’sSensuousGeographies:PostcolonialMattersofPlace
ByStenPultzMoslund
GeoparsingEarlyModernEnglishDrama
ByMonicaMatei-Chesnoiu
Africa’sNarrativeGeographies:ChartingtheIntersectionsofGeocriticismand
PostcolonialStudies
ByDustinCrowley
WomenandDomesticSpaceinContemporaryGothicNarratives:TheHouseas
Subject
ByAndrewHockSoonNg
SpatialityandSymbolicExpression:OntheLinksbetweenPlaceandCulture
EditedbyBillRichardson
Spatiality and Symbolic Expression
On the Links between Place
and Culture
Edited by Bill Richardson
SPATIALITYANDSYMBOLICEXPRESSION
Copyright©BillRichardson,2015.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-50289-6
Allrightsreserved.
Firstpublishedin2015by
PALGRAVEMACMILLAN®
intheUnitedStates—adivisionofSt.Martin’sPressLLC,
175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010.
WherethisbookisdistributedintheUK,Europeandtherestofthe
World,thisisbyPalgraveMacmillan,adivisionofMacmillanPublishers
Limited,registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,of
Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS.
PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabove
companiesandhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld.
Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnited
States,theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries.
ISBN 978-1-349-57308-0 ISBN 978-1-137-48851-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137488510
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Spatialityandsymbolicexpression:onthelinksbetweenplaceand
culture/editedbyBillRichardson.
pages cm.—(Geocriticismandspatialliterarystudies(GSLS)
Summary:“Thisbookexploresthelinksbetweenconceptsofspace
andplaceandsomeofthewaysinwhichculturalexpression
occurs,focusinginparticularonlanguage,literature,translation,
pedagogy,film,music,artandtheuseoficonicimageryin
nation-buildingprojects.Itpresentsatheoreticalframeworkfor
suchadiscussion,andexaminesfourkeyfacetsofthat
framework,relatingeachonetotheabove-mentionedmodesof
symbolicexpression”—Providedbypublisher.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1. Place(Philosophy)inliterature. 2. Geocriticism. 3. Space
perception. 4. Symbolism. 5. Spaceandtimeinlanguage.
6. Geographicalperceptioninliterature. 7. Place(Philosophy)
inmotionpictures. 8. Place(Philosophy)inart. I. Richardson,
Bill,1953–editor.
PN56.P49S632015
809(cid:2).93358—dc23 2015005449
AcataloguerecordofthebookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
DesignbyIntegraSoftwareServices
Firstedition:July2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
ListofFigures vii
SeriesEditor’sPreface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The “Spatio-Cultural Dimension”: Overview
andaProposedFramework 1
BillRichardson
1 Space,Time,andtheArticulationofaPlaceinthe
World:ThePhilosophicalContext 21
FelixÓMurchadha
2 Symbol,Situatedness,andtheIndividualityofLiterary
Space 41
BillRichardson
3 BridgingGaps;BuildingBridges:FiguresofSpeech,
SymbolicExpression,andPedagogy 59
ChristianeSchönfeldandUlfStrohmayer
4 Spatiality,Place,andDisplacementinTwoGaelic
Songs 87
LillisÓLaoire
5 LipsinLanguageandSpace:ImaginaryPlacesinJames
Dawson’sAustralianAborigines (1881) 105
PaulCarter
6 TheSpaceofLanguageandthePlaceofLiterature 129
PaoloBartoloni
7 DreamingWell-beingintoBeing:Dualitiesof
Virtual-ActualCommunities 155
KarenLeRossignol
vi Contents
8 BetweenaRockandNoPlace:UrsulaMeier’s
Home (2008) 177
ConnHolohan
9 OpWegnaarBroxeele:TheProductionofShared
Spaces 191
CatherineEmerson
10 ThePoliticsofSpace:PoeticalDwellingandthe
OccupationofPoetry 209
MilesKennedy
Conclusion:Mapping,NottheMap 229
BillRichardson
NotesonContributors 241
Index 245
Figures
I.1 Twointersectingaxes:Abstract/Concreteand
Individual/Collective 4
I.2 Fourspatio-culturalzonesresultingfromthetwo
intersectingaxes 5
3.1 TimDavies,SevernBridge,fromtheseriesBridgesss,
2009 75
3.2 GustavDeutsch,stillfromtheshortfilmNon,jene
regretterien(DerHimmelüberParisss,1988),short
film,1988 76
9.1 TheMannekenPis statuelocatedatthecornerofrue
duChêneandruedel’ÉtuveinBrussels
(photo©C.Emerson) 192
C.1 FacialcastsofNiasislanders 237

Series Editor’s Preface
The spatial turn in the humanities and social sciences has occasioned
an explosion of innovative, multidisciplinary scholarship. Spatially
oriented literary studies, whether operating under the banner of
literary geography, literary cartography, geophilosophy, geopoetics,
geocriticism, or the spatial humanities more generally, have helped
to reframe or to transform contemporary criticism by focusing atten-
tion, in various ways, on the dynamic relations among space, place,
and literature. Reflecting upon the representation of space and place,
whether in the real world, in imaginary universes, or in those hybrid
zones where fiction meets reality, scholars and critics working in spa-
tial literary studies are helping to reorient literary criticism, history,
and theory. Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies is a book series
presentingnewresearchinthisburgeoningfieldofinquiry.
In exploring such matters as the representation of place in literary
works, the relations between literature and geography, the histor-
ical transformation of literary and cartographic practices, and the
role of space in critical theory, among many others, geocriticism
and spatial literary studies have also developed interdisciplinary or
transdisciplinarymethodsandpractices,frequentlymakingproductive
connections to architecture, art history, geography, history, philos-
ophy, politics, social theory, and urban studies, to name but a few.
Spatialcriticismisnotlimitedtothespacesoftheso-calledrealworld,
anditsometimescallsintoquestionanytoofaciledistinctionbetween
real and imaginary places, as it frequently investigates what Edward
Sojahasreferredtoasthe“real-and-imagined”placesweexperiencein
literatureasinlife.Indeed,althoughagreatdealofimportantresearch
has been devoted to the literary representation of certain identifiable
and well-known places (e.g., Dickens’s London, Baudelaire’s Paris,
or Joyce’s Dublin), spatial critics have also explored the otherworldly
spacesofliterature,suchasthosetobefoundinmyth,fantasy,science
fiction,videogames,andcyberspace.Similarly,suchcriticismisinter-
ested in the relationship between spatiality and such different media
orgenresasfilmortelevision,music,comics,computerprograms,and