Reading through London: Urban space and ontology in Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Bandosz
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Psychological Realism ◽  
Ontological Dimension ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Secret Agent

Drawing from urban and ontological perspectives on Joseph Conrad’s prose and schizoanalysis, this article examines the entanglement of urban spaces and unstable subjectivities in The Secret Agent. Conrad’s psychological realism and impressionistic depiction of London generate a sense of place, topophilia, which imbues the novel with an extratextual dimension that oscillates between textuality and spatiality. The novel foregrounds characters in the cityscape as they permeate setting and narrative with their subjectivities and vice versa; the unstable subjectivities and spaces generate affective resonances that fracture the narrative and implicate the reader. An accompanying narratological analysis demonstrates how Conrad’s narrative techniques facilitate the reader’s interpolation into the liminal, ontological dimension of text and place.

scholarly journals Urban Space, Singularity and Networks in Laura Del-Rivo’s The Furnished Room (1961)

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48
Author(s):  
Nicolas Tredell
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Young Male ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The Novel ◽  
City Life ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
The Church ◽  
Space Singularity

AbstractThis essay explores the representation of interior and exterior urban space in Laura Del-Rivo’s novel The Furnished Room (1961) through the lenses of singularity and networking, which are proposed as preferable alternatives to notions such as individuality and community, especially in the analysis of city life and literature. The essay examines portrayals of four kinds of urban space in the novel – the furnished room, the office, the café and the street – which seem to offer escapes from the perceived constrictions of the family home, the suburb and the Church. It analyses the novel’s sensory evocations of such urban spaces, especially through smell and sight. The essay also considers how the narrative conveys the enticements of the abstract and impersonal network of money. It relates these elements to its young male protagonist, an existentialist (anti-)hero who suffers from a recurrent sense of unreality and who seeks a more sustained version of the greater intensity glimpsed in epiphanies, privileged moments in which the world seems temporarily transfigured into a visionary space. The essay suggests that the novel respects but questions his quest by dramatizing his wrong choices and by ending with a view of urban space given over to women and children.

scholarly journals Språk i rörelse

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Tidigs
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The Other ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The Novel ◽  
City Center ◽  
Small Space ◽  
Swedish Woman ◽  
Local Language

Languages in Motion. Multilingualism and Urban Spaces in Sara Razai’s Jag har letat efter dig and Johanna Holmström’s Asfaltsänglar e article is a study of multilingualism, urban space and mobility/immobility in two Finland- Swedish novels, Sara Razai’s Jag har letat efter dig (”I Have Been Searching for You”, 2012) and Johanna Holmström’s Asfaltsänglar (”Asphalt Angels”, 2013) through perspectives of post-mono- lingualism (Yildiz) and literary urban studies. In Razai’s novel, a Finland-Swedish woman and a refugee forge a relationship in broken Finnish, disrupting the link between mother tongue and language of a ections. In an analogous relationship to the depiction of movement (cold) and keeping still in con ned spaces (warmth, safety), Finnish becomes a small space for the lovers to connect. In Holmström’s novel, room for manoeuvre is restricted by gender and ethnicity, although the main characters manage the tension between suburb and city center in di erent ways. In Asfaltsänglar, Arabic is a sign of parental power and rules, but the language is also associated with a white Finland-Swedish woman, a convert, the girls’ mother. ere is a discrepancy between Arabic’s function in the novel – as a local language – and how it is marked for the reader – as foreign. Trilingual Helsinki slang, on the other hand, becomes a hybrid marker of the Suburb as Heimat. Both novels renew the Finland-Swedish urban prose tradition by bringing in new languages and new kinds of language, and by associating these varieties with di erent kinds of characters.

Cultura Panamericana

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Macías
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Sense Of Place ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Mixed Race ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Expressive Culture ◽  
Culture Industries ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Pan American

I am writing this analytical appreciation of cultura panamericana, or pan-American culture, to propose a wider recognition of how its historical linkages and contemporary manifestations confront colonialism, honor indigenous roots, and reflect multiple, mixed-race identities. Although often mediated by transnational pop-culture industries, expressive cultural forms such as art and music articulate resonant themes that connect US Latinos and Latinas to Latin Americans, pointing the way toward a hemispheric imaginary. In US murals, for example, whether in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen or the Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park, pan-American expressive culture offers alternative representations by embracing indigeneity, and it creates a sense of place by tropicalizing urban spaces.

A Compact Embodiment of Pluralities and Denial of Origins: Atwood’s The Year of The Flood

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Rana Sağıroğlu
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Why Questions ◽  
Near Future

Margaret Atwood, one of the most spectacular authors of postmodern movement, achieved to unite debatable and in demand critical points of 21st century such as science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism in the novel The Year of The Flood written in 2009. The novel could be regarded as an ecocritical manifesto and a dystopic mirror against today’s degenerated world, tending to a superficial base to keep the already order in use, by moving away from the fundamental solution of all humanity: nature. Although Atwood does not want her works to be called science fiction, it is obvious that science fiction plays an introductory role and gives the novel a ground explaining all ‘why’ questions of the novel. However, Atwood is not unjust while claiming that her works are not science fiction because of the inevitable rapid change of 21st century world becoming addicted to technology, especially Internet. It is easily observed by the reader that what she fictionalises throughout the novel is quite close to possibility, and the world may witness in the near future what she creates in the novel as science fiction. Additionally, postmodernism serves to the novel as the answerer of ‘how’ questions: How the world embraces pluralities, how heterogeneous social order is needed, and how impossible to run the world by dichotomies of patriarchal social order anymore. And lastly, ecocriticism gives the answers of ‘why’ questions of the novel: Why humanity is in chaos, why humanity has organized the world according to its own needs as if there were no living creatures apart from humanity. Therefore, The Year of The Flood meets the reader as a compact embodiment of science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism not only with its theme, but also with its narrative techniques.

scholarly journals Impact of Different Types of Physical Activity in Green Urban Space on Adult Health and Behaviors: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-275
Author(s):  
Alessia Grigoletto ◽  
Mario Mauro ◽  
Pasqualino Maietta Latessa ◽  
Vincenzo Iannuzzi ◽  
Davide Gori ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
Time Restrictions ◽  
Walking Activity

This systematic review aimed to investigate the type of physical activity carried out in green urban spaces by the adult population and to value its impact on the population’s health. Additionally, another purpose was to examine if the presence of outdoor gyms in green urban spaces can promote participation in physical activity among adults. Searches of electronic databases, with no time restrictions and up to June 2020, resulted in 10 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. A quantitative assessment is reported as effect size. Many people practiced walking activity as a workout, which showed improvements in health. Walking is the most popular type of training due to its easy accessibility and it not requiring equipment or special skills. Outdoor fitness equipment has been installed in an increasing number of parks and has become very popular worldwide. Further, outdoor fitness equipment provides free access to fitness training and seems to promote physical activity in healthy adults. However, other studies about outdoor fitness equipment efficiency are needed. People living near to equipped areas are more likely to perform outdoor fitness than those who live further away. The most common training programs performed in green urban spaces included exercises with free and easy access, able to promote physical health and perception.

scholarly journals The northern world of the Anglo-Saxon mappa mundi

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 275-305
Author(s):  
Helen Appleton
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
British Library ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The Mediterranean

AbstractThe Anglo-Saxon mappa mundi, sometimes known as the Cotton map or Cottoniana, is found on folio 56v of London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius B. v, which dates from the first half of the eleventh century. This unique survivor from the period presents a detailed image of the inhabited world, centred on the Mediterranean. The map’s distinctive cartography, with its emphasis on islands, seas and urban spaces, reflects an Insular, West Saxon geographic imagination. As Evelyn Edson has observed, the mappa mundi appears to be copy of an earlier, larger map. This article argues that the mappa mundi’s focus on urban space, translatio imperii and Scandinavia is reminiscent of the Old English Orosius, and that it originates from a similar milieu. The mappa mundi’s northern perspective, together with its obvious dependence on and emulation of Carolingian cartography, suggest that its lost exemplar originated in the assertive England of the earlier tenth century.

Collaging atmosphere: Exploring the architectural touch of the eye

2021 ◽  
pp. 239980832098655
Author(s):  
Anette Stenslund
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Work In Progress ◽  
Constructive Dialogue ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Computer Generated Imagery ◽  
Aesthetic Characteristics

In recent decades, research has paid attention to the atmospheric ways computer-generated imagery (CGI) marks the experience of future urban design. What has been addressed in the generic abbreviation CGI has, however, exclusively concerned visualisations that communicate with stakeholders beyond designers and architects. Based on fieldwork within an urban design lab, the paper differentiates among the range of CGI used by urban designers. Focusing on collage, which forms one kind of CGI that has received scant attention in scholarly literature, I demonstrate its key function as an epistemological in-house work-in-progress tool that helps designers to refine their vision and to identify the atmosphere of future urban spaces. Based on New Aesthetics, collaging atmosphere is characterised by a physiognomic approach to urban space that selectively addresses aesthetic characteristics. Hence, the paper tackles a discussion that points towards cautious handling of the communicative scope of collages that can be well complemented by other types of CGI before entering a constructive dialogue with clients.

THE FREEDOM OF THE AESTHETIC: MONTSERRAT ROIG’S USE OF THE CITY IN RAMONA, ADÉU

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-99
Author(s):  
Caragh Wells
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
The Social ◽  
Catalan Literature ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The City

This article suggests that over recent decades Catalan literary criticism has paid too little attention to the aesthetic attributes of Catalan literature and emphasised the social, political and cultural at the expense of discussions of narrative poetics. Through an analysis of Montserrat Roig’s metaphorical use of the city in her first novel Ramona, adéu, I put forward the view that the aesthetic features of Catalan literature need to be re-claimed. This article provides a critical analysis of the aesthetic importance of Roig’s representation of the city in her first novel and argues that she uses Barcelona as a critical tool through which to explore questions of both female emancipation and aesthetic freedom. Following a detailed discussion of Roig’s descriptions of how her female characters interact with particular urban spaces, I examine how Roig makes subtle shifts in her semantic register during these narrative accounts when her prose moves into the realm of the poetic. I conclude that this technique enables us to read her accounts of urban space as metaphors for aesthetic freedom and are inextricably linked to her wider concerns on the importance of liberating Catalan literature from the discourse of political nationalism.

scholarly journals Produção do espaço urbano pelos homens ordinários: antropologia de dois micro-espaços na cidade de Salvador

ILUMINURAS ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (36) ◽  
Author(s):  
Urpi Montoya Uriarte
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Differential Spaces ◽  
The City

Este trabalho se insere no que se chama hoje de antropologia da cidade, que se preocupa com a forma como os citadinos – em sua condição alternada de usuários, moradores, transeuntes ou consumidores – fazem a cidade (Agier, 2011). Nossa compreensão de cidade está marcada pela recente teoria do espaço no interior da Geografia (Massey, 2012) e nossa compreensão da produção do espaço se baseia na teoria de Henri Lefebvre, especialmente em seu La production de l´espace (1974). Com esta bagagem teórica, propomos uma antropologia dos espaços urbanos preocupada com a forma como os espaços na cidade são produzidos por pessoas comuns ou homens ordinários. Os dados empíricos analisados provêm de uma etnografia de dois micro-espaços na cidade de Salvador. As leituras teóricas destes micro-espaços nos levam a afirmar a atualidade e força dos espaços diferenciais que emergem no espaço abstrato, a significação política dos espaços apropriados e a vigência do valor de uso e as relações costumeiras na cidade contemporânea.Palavras-chave: Espaços urbanos. Produção do espaço. Espaços diferenciais. Apropriação de espaços. Valor de uso.Production of urban space by ordinary men: anthropology of two micro-spaces in the city of SalvadorAbstractThis work is part of what is today called anthropology of the city, that is concerned with how the townspeople – in their alternating condition of users, residents, bystanders or consumers – make the city (Agier, 2011). Our understanding of the city is marked by the recent theory of space inside the geography (Massey, 2012) and our understanding of the production of space is based on the theory of Henri Lefebvre, especially in its The production of the space (1974). With this theoretical background, we propose an anthropology of urban spaces concerned with how the spaces in the city are made by ordinary people or ordinary men . The data analyzed come from an ethnographic study of two micro-spaces in the city of Salvador. The theoretical interpretations of these micro-spaces lead us to affirm the relevance and strength of differential spaces that emerge in the abstract space, the political significance of the appropriate spaces and the duration of use value and customary relations in the contemporary city.Keywords: Urban spaces. Production of space. Differential spaces. Appropriation of spaces. Use value.  

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