Cirrus

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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'I am interested in the questions of how contemporary artists address concepts of space and whether spatial theories developed in geography provide a useful approach to this question. With this work in progress I am following my ongoing interest in merging the academic fields of geography and literature. And in my view, a linking occurs in the notion of 'space' as space is a core concept in both fields. Firstly, I will try to explain why it is worthwhile to think about space followed by an attempt to define the terms space and place. I will propose a certain understanding of space which is best represented by narrative. As an example for my analysis, I have chosen Tim Winton's novel Dirt Music.' (Author's abstract p. 55)

Notes

Epigraph:

What happens if we begin from the premise not that we know reality because we are separate from it (traditional objectivity), but that we can know the world because we are connected with it? (Hayles 1996, 48)

Narrative is the place where our material history, our social relations and our subjectivity as Australians are produced. (Schaffer 1988, 61)

If two different authors use the words 'red', 'hard', or disappointed', no one doubts that they mean approximately the same thing [...]
But in the case of words such as 'place' or 'space', whose relationship with psychological experience is less direct, there exists a far-reaching uncertainty of interpretation. (Albert Einstein, Foreword in Jammer 1994)

The meaning of an actual physical place is the result of a historical and social process, built up over time by large and small happenings. (Tuan 1991, 692)