Spatial Poetics

What is the relationship between the spaces we inhabit and the spaces we create? Does living in a messy downtown New York City apartment automatically translate to writing a messy New York School poem? This volume addresses the 'environment' of the urban apartment, illuminating the relationship between the structures of New York City apartments and that of New York School poems. It utilizes the lens of urban and spatial theory to widen the possibilities afforded by New Critical and reader-response readings of this postmodern American poetry. In drawing this connection between consciousness and form, it draws on various senses of the environment as informing influence, inviting avant-garde American poetry to be reconsidered as uniquely organic in its responsiveness to its surroundings. Focusing exclusively and comprehensively on Second Generation New York School poetry, this is the first book-length study to attend to the poetry of this postmodern American movement, encouraging American poetry scholars to resituate New York School poetry within larger critical narratives of postmodern innovation.

The classic book on how we experience intimate spaces. "A magical book. . . . A prism through which all worlds from literary creation to housework to aesthetics to carpentry take on enhanced-and enchanted-significances. Every reader of it will never see ordinary spaces in ordinary ways. Instead the reader will see with the soul of the eye, the glint of Gaston Bachelard." -from the foreword by John R. Stilgoe 6473-4 / $15.00tx / paperback

Drawing from a broad range of contemporary British poets, including Thomas Kinsella, Kathleen Jamie, and Alice Oswald, this study examines the inherently spatial and affective nature of our engagement with poetry. Adding to the expanding field of geocritical studies, Yeung specifically discusses ideas of space and constructions of voice in poetry.

What is the relationship between the spaces we inhabit and the spaces we create? Does living in a messy downtown New York City apartment automatically translate to writing a messy New York School poem? This volume addresses the 'environment' of the urban apartment, illuminating the relationship between the structures of New York City apartments and that of New York School poems. It utilizes the lens of urban and spatial theory to widen the possibilities afforded by New Critical and reader-response readings of this postmodern American poetry. In drawing this connection between consciousness and form, it draws on various senses of the environment as informing influence, inviting avant-garde American poetry to be reconsidered as uniquely organic in its responsiveness to its surroundings. Focusing exclusively and comprehensively on Second Generation New York School poetry, this is the first book-length study to attend to the poetry of this postmodern American movement, encouraging American poetry scholars to resituate New York School poetry within larger critical narratives of postmodern innovation.

An ambitious analysis of the Roman literary obsession with retreat and closed spaces, in the context of expanding empire.

This book analyzes theatre scene design through the powers and characteristics of physical space. Physical space is central to creative composition in the theatre, but the author extends the reach of the book to individuals concerned with spatial design--architects, interior designers, industrial designers, artists and other performers. A theory is presented on how design, and its creative process, echo the process of human awareness and action. The book covers an array of considerations for the theatre designer--the observable features of given physical spaces, their layout, detailing and atmosphere--and presents these features from the points of view of various disciplines. There are chapters on the "physics" of space, the "geography" of space and the "music" of space. The author also speaks to the less tangible qualities sensed more personally, such as the "spirituality" or the "psyche" of space. A discussion of the collaborative process of creating space is included. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

A beloved multidisciplinary treatise comes to Penguin Classics Since its initial publication in 1958, The Poetics of Space has been a muse to philosophers, architects, writers, psychologists, critics, and readers alike. The rare work of irresistibly inviting philosophy, Bachelard’s seminal work brims with quiet revelations and stirring, mysterious imagery. This lyrical journey takes as its premise the emergence of the poetic image and finds an ideal metaphor in the intimate spaces of our homes. Guiding us through a stream of meditations on poetry, art, and the blooming of consciousness itself, Bachelard examines the domestic places that shape and hold our dreams and memories. Houses and rooms; cellars and attics; drawers, chests, and wardrobes; nests and shells; nooks and corners: No space is too vast or too small to be filled by our thoughts and our reveries. In Bachelard’s enchanting spaces, “We are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.” This new edition features a foreword by Mark Z. Danielewski, whose bestselling novel House of Leaves drew inspiration from Bachelard’s writings, and an introduction by internationally renowned philosopher Richard Kearney who explains the book’s enduring importance and its role within Bachelard’s remarkable career. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

This volume begins with the early modern period when avant-garde artists were challenging the traditional aesthetic with Constructivism and Futurism in Russia, Dadaism and Surrealism in Germany and France, and new forms of photography - collage, photomontage, photograms, and so on - were emerging throughout the Western art world. Included also are influential mid-century essays by Gaston Bachelard, Leo Steinberg, and William M. Ivins, as well as essays on contemporary art issues by L. Lippard, F. Sommer, and J. Snider.