Joshua Armstrong
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781786942012
- eISBN:
- 9781789629897
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786942012.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The rapidity of postwar globalization and the structural changes it has brought to both social and spatial aspects of everyday life have meant, in France as elsewhere, the destabilizing of senses of ...
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The rapidity of postwar globalization and the structural changes it has brought to both social and spatial aspects of everyday life have meant, in France as elsewhere, the destabilizing of senses of place, identity, and belonging, as once familiar, local environments are increasingly de-localized and made porous to global trends and planetary preoccupations. Maps and Territories identifies such preoccupations as a fundamental underlying impetus for the contemporary French novel. Indeed, like France itself, the protagonists of its best fiction are constantly called upon to renegotiate their identity in order to maintain any sense of belonging within the troubled territories they call home. Maps and Territories reads today’s French novel for how it re-maps such territories, and for how it positions its protagonists vis-à-vis the spatial crisis of globalized capitalism. It uncovers previously unseen affinities amongst—and offers original perspectives on—a diverse set of authors: namely, Michel Houellebecq, Chloé Delaume, Lydie Salvayre, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Virginie Despentes, Philippe Vasset, Jean Rolin, and Marie Darrieussecq. In the process, it sets the literary works into dialogue with a range of influential theorists of postmodernity and globalization, including Paul Virilio, Marc Augé, Peter Sloterdijk, Bruno Latour, Fredric Jameson, Edward Casey, David Harvey, and Ursula K. Heise.Less
The rapidity of postwar globalization and the structural changes it has brought to both social and spatial aspects of everyday life have meant, in France as elsewhere, the destabilizing of senses of place, identity, and belonging, as once familiar, local environments are increasingly de-localized and made porous to global trends and planetary preoccupations. Maps and Territories identifies such preoccupations as a fundamental underlying impetus for the contemporary French novel. Indeed, like France itself, the protagonists of its best fiction are constantly called upon to renegotiate their identity in order to maintain any sense of belonging within the troubled territories they call home. Maps and Territories reads today’s French novel for how it re-maps such territories, and for how it positions its protagonists vis-à-vis the spatial crisis of globalized capitalism. It uncovers previously unseen affinities amongst—and offers original perspectives on—a diverse set of authors: namely, Michel Houellebecq, Chloé Delaume, Lydie Salvayre, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Virginie Despentes, Philippe Vasset, Jean Rolin, and Marie Darrieussecq. In the process, it sets the literary works into dialogue with a range of influential theorists of postmodernity and globalization, including Paul Virilio, Marc Augé, Peter Sloterdijk, Bruno Latour, Fredric Jameson, Edward Casey, David Harvey, and Ursula K. Heise.
Johannes Riquet
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198832409
- eISBN:
- 9780191886324
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198832409.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The Aesthetics of Island Space discusses islands as central figures in the modern experience of space. It examines the spatial poetics of islands in literary texts (from The Tempest to The Hungry ...
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The Aesthetics of Island Space discusses islands as central figures in the modern experience of space. It examines the spatial poetics of islands in literary texts (from The Tempest to The Hungry Tide), journals of explorers and scientists (such as Cook and Darwin), and Hollywood cinema (e.g. The Hurricane and King Kong), tracing how islands have offered vivid perceptual experiences as well as a geopoetic oscillation between the poetic energies of words and images and the material energies of the physical world. Its chapters focus on America’s island gateways (e.g. Roanoke and Ellis Island), tropical islands (e.g. Tahiti and imagined South Sea islands), the islands of the Pacific Northwest, and mutable islands (e.g. the volcanic and coral islands in Wells’s fiction). The book argues that the modern voyages of discovery posed considerable perceptual challenges to spatial experience, and that these challenges were negotiated via the poetic engagement with islands. Postcolonial theorists maintain that islands have been imagined as geometrical abstractions subjected to the colonial gaze. There is, however, a second story of islands in the Western imagination which runs parallel to this colonial story: the experience of islands in the age of discovery also went hand in hand with a disintegration of received models of global space. Rethinking (post-)phenomenological, geocritical, and geopoetic theories, The Aesthetics of Island Space suggests that the modern encounters with islands as mobile and shifting territories implied a diversification of spatial experience, and explores how this disruption is registered and negotiated by non-fictional and fictional responses.Less
The Aesthetics of Island Space discusses islands as central figures in the modern experience of space. It examines the spatial poetics of islands in literary texts (from The Tempest to The Hungry Tide), journals of explorers and scientists (such as Cook and Darwin), and Hollywood cinema (e.g. The Hurricane and King Kong), tracing how islands have offered vivid perceptual experiences as well as a geopoetic oscillation between the poetic energies of words and images and the material energies of the physical world. Its chapters focus on America’s island gateways (e.g. Roanoke and Ellis Island), tropical islands (e.g. Tahiti and imagined South Sea islands), the islands of the Pacific Northwest, and mutable islands (e.g. the volcanic and coral islands in Wells’s fiction). The book argues that the modern voyages of discovery posed considerable perceptual challenges to spatial experience, and that these challenges were negotiated via the poetic engagement with islands. Postcolonial theorists maintain that islands have been imagined as geometrical abstractions subjected to the colonial gaze. There is, however, a second story of islands in the Western imagination which runs parallel to this colonial story: the experience of islands in the age of discovery also went hand in hand with a disintegration of received models of global space. Rethinking (post-)phenomenological, geocritical, and geopoetic theories, The Aesthetics of Island Space suggests that the modern encounters with islands as mobile and shifting territories implied a diversification of spatial experience, and explores how this disruption is registered and negotiated by non-fictional and fictional responses.
Joshua Armstrong
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781786942012
- eISBN:
- 9781789629897
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786942012.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The Introduction sets out the terrain of the book by signifying a key historical turning point in postwar France (and the West more generally): the spatial crisis of globalized capitalism. The ...
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The Introduction sets out the terrain of the book by signifying a key historical turning point in postwar France (and the West more generally): the spatial crisis of globalized capitalism. The effects of this crisis are felt as once familiar, local environments are increasingly de-localized and made porous to global trends and planetary preoccupations. The chapter proposes an initial synthesis of key notions from important thinkers of postmodernity and globalization—including Paul Virilio, Marc Augé, Peter Sloterdijk, and Bruno Latour —in order to develop the parameters of this crisis, which notably entails the destabilizing of senses of place, identity, and belonging. It makes the claim that such preoccupations constitute a fundamental underlying impetus for the contemporary French novel, illustrating this with a brief reading of Jean Rolin’s Les événements [The Events] (2015). Finally, it presents overviews of each chapter, introducing the corpus of eight novels that will be the subject of the book: novels by Michel Houellebecq, Chloé Delaume, Lydie Salvayre, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Virginie Despentes, Philippe Vasset, Jean Rolin, and Marie Darrieussecq.Less
The Introduction sets out the terrain of the book by signifying a key historical turning point in postwar France (and the West more generally): the spatial crisis of globalized capitalism. The effects of this crisis are felt as once familiar, local environments are increasingly de-localized and made porous to global trends and planetary preoccupations. The chapter proposes an initial synthesis of key notions from important thinkers of postmodernity and globalization—including Paul Virilio, Marc Augé, Peter Sloterdijk, and Bruno Latour —in order to develop the parameters of this crisis, which notably entails the destabilizing of senses of place, identity, and belonging. It makes the claim that such preoccupations constitute a fundamental underlying impetus for the contemporary French novel, illustrating this with a brief reading of Jean Rolin’s Les événements [The Events] (2015). Finally, it presents overviews of each chapter, introducing the corpus of eight novels that will be the subject of the book: novels by Michel Houellebecq, Chloé Delaume, Lydie Salvayre, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Virginie Despentes, Philippe Vasset, Jean Rolin, and Marie Darrieussecq.
Joshua Armstrong
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781786942012
- eISBN:
- 9781789629897
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786942012.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The Conclusion summarizes the most prominent aspects of the spatial crisis of globalized capitalism, as these have been encountered in the corpus. It draws parallels between these and current ...
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The Conclusion summarizes the most prominent aspects of the spatial crisis of globalized capitalism, as these have been encountered in the corpus. It draws parallels between these and current events—including U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate, and his creation of a Space Force. It draws the conclusion that French novels written in the second decade of the new millennium—post-2008-recession, perhaps—become increasingly dystopian, as they move away from the personal existential crises of protagonists finding themselves awkwardly lost in translation toward portraits of societies at large facing more palpably existential threats (financial collapse, war). Indeed, a host of more recent novels depict the near-future demise of the Fifth Republic, if not of France (as a nation) itself. However, these near-future dystopian versions of France also become the occasion for social awakenings and revolution. This is demonstrated by a brief reading of Marie Darriuessecq’s Notre vie dans les forêts (2017).Less
The Conclusion summarizes the most prominent aspects of the spatial crisis of globalized capitalism, as these have been encountered in the corpus. It draws parallels between these and current events—including U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate, and his creation of a Space Force. It draws the conclusion that French novels written in the second decade of the new millennium—post-2008-recession, perhaps—become increasingly dystopian, as they move away from the personal existential crises of protagonists finding themselves awkwardly lost in translation toward portraits of societies at large facing more palpably existential threats (financial collapse, war). Indeed, a host of more recent novels depict the near-future demise of the Fifth Republic, if not of France (as a nation) itself. However, these near-future dystopian versions of France also become the occasion for social awakenings and revolution. This is demonstrated by a brief reading of Marie Darriuessecq’s Notre vie dans les forêts (2017).
Johannes Riquet
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198832409
- eISBN:
- 9780191886324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198832409.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Drawing on (post-)phenomenological and geopoetic perspectives, the introduction explains the book’s interest in considering islands at the intersection of material and poetic production on the one ...
More
Drawing on (post-)phenomenological and geopoetic perspectives, the introduction explains the book’s interest in considering islands at the intersection of material and poetic production on the one hand, and aesthetic experience of the phenomenal world on the other. It suggests that the modern experience of islands in the age of discovery went hand in hand with a disintegration of received models of understanding global space, and that fictional and non-fictional representations of islands negotiate these perceptual challenges. It thereby explains how The Aesthetic of Island Space complicates the common account of islands as discrete shapes, geometrical abstractions, and easily understandable images. Instead, it foregrounds the importance of water, mobility, and a range of dynamic geo(morpho)logical and poetic processes in the figuration of islands. The introduction ends by discussing the significance of considering islands in relation to an ‘aesthetics of the earth’ (DeLoughrey and Handley) and a poetics of the material world.Less
Drawing on (post-)phenomenological and geopoetic perspectives, the introduction explains the book’s interest in considering islands at the intersection of material and poetic production on the one hand, and aesthetic experience of the phenomenal world on the other. It suggests that the modern experience of islands in the age of discovery went hand in hand with a disintegration of received models of understanding global space, and that fictional and non-fictional representations of islands negotiate these perceptual challenges. It thereby explains how The Aesthetic of Island Space complicates the common account of islands as discrete shapes, geometrical abstractions, and easily understandable images. Instead, it foregrounds the importance of water, mobility, and a range of dynamic geo(morpho)logical and poetic processes in the figuration of islands. The introduction ends by discussing the significance of considering islands in relation to an ‘aesthetics of the earth’ (DeLoughrey and Handley) and a poetics of the material world.
Johannes Riquet
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198832409
- eISBN:
- 9780191886324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198832409.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Chapter 3 draws on (post-)phenomenology, ecocriticism, and Benoît Mandelbrot’s fractal geometry to examine a set of diaries and memoirs from the US–Canadian border region in the Pacific Northwest ...
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Chapter 3 draws on (post-)phenomenology, ecocriticism, and Benoît Mandelbrot’s fractal geometry to examine a set of diaries and memoirs from the US–Canadian border region in the Pacific Northwest that express a permeable conception of islands and the islanded self. It argues that memoirs like Helene Glidden’s The Light on the Island (1951), Muriel Wylie Blanchet’s The Curve of Time (1961), and David Conover’s Once Upon an Island (1967) imagine islands as spaces inserted within larger ecological and geological continuities. Their reimagination of islands in multiple interconnectedness disrupts arbitrarily drawn political borders, yet they also have a tendency to construct a unified ecological landscape with its own exclusions. Conversely, George Vancouver’s North Pacific journal—the foundational text for this chapter—and the geological diary of George Gibbs inadvertently offer a more radical island poetics: in these texts, the unfamiliar islandscapes aesthetically resist the cartographic drive to fix them.Less
Chapter 3 draws on (post-)phenomenology, ecocriticism, and Benoît Mandelbrot’s fractal geometry to examine a set of diaries and memoirs from the US–Canadian border region in the Pacific Northwest that express a permeable conception of islands and the islanded self. It argues that memoirs like Helene Glidden’s The Light on the Island (1951), Muriel Wylie Blanchet’s The Curve of Time (1961), and David Conover’s Once Upon an Island (1967) imagine islands as spaces inserted within larger ecological and geological continuities. Their reimagination of islands in multiple interconnectedness disrupts arbitrarily drawn political borders, yet they also have a tendency to construct a unified ecological landscape with its own exclusions. Conversely, George Vancouver’s North Pacific journal—the foundational text for this chapter—and the geological diary of George Gibbs inadvertently offer a more radical island poetics: in these texts, the unfamiliar islandscapes aesthetically resist the cartographic drive to fix them.
Johannes Riquet
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198832409
- eISBN:
- 9780191886324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198832409.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The texts examined in Chapter 4 explore islands in geo(morpho)logical space-time. The chapter begins by discussing how the relational poetics of Darwin’s and Wallace’s writings ask readers to ...
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The texts examined in Chapter 4 explore islands in geo(morpho)logical space-time. The chapter begins by discussing how the relational poetics of Darwin’s and Wallace’s writings ask readers to reimagine planetary space as a discontinuous multiplicity of shifting islands. The notion of a geopoetic resonance between the material energies of the physical world and the poetic energies of language guides the analyses of three literary responses to Darwin, Wallace, and their successors. H. G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) and ‘Aepyornis Island’ (1894) figure islands as beleaguered territories haunted by the spectre of human extinction. However, their geopoetic descriptions of volcanism and coral suspend these evolutionary narratives. A century later, Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide explores the radical poetic implications of Darwin and Wallace’s archipelagic thinking. In the novel, the human element intersects with other living forms, physical geography, and textual spaces to form a mutable landscape shaped by conflicts.Less
The texts examined in Chapter 4 explore islands in geo(morpho)logical space-time. The chapter begins by discussing how the relational poetics of Darwin’s and Wallace’s writings ask readers to reimagine planetary space as a discontinuous multiplicity of shifting islands. The notion of a geopoetic resonance between the material energies of the physical world and the poetic energies of language guides the analyses of three literary responses to Darwin, Wallace, and their successors. H. G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) and ‘Aepyornis Island’ (1894) figure islands as beleaguered territories haunted by the spectre of human extinction. However, their geopoetic descriptions of volcanism and coral suspend these evolutionary narratives. A century later, Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide explores the radical poetic implications of Darwin and Wallace’s archipelagic thinking. In the novel, the human element intersects with other living forms, physical geography, and textual spaces to form a mutable landscape shaped by conflicts.
