Description
Book SynopsisThis collection explores the various forms of narrative, semiotic, and technological mediation that shape the experience of place. From the East End of London to Navajo lands to Ground Zero, Lived Topographies examines the great effect of language, mass media, surveillance, and other incursions of the contemporary world on topographical experience and description. Gary Backhaus and John Murungi have assembled a wide array of scholars to provide an interdisciplinary approach to this subject, giving this rich, focused collection a unique perspective on the phenomenology of place.
Trade ReviewThese essays, in investigation of the vitality embedded in lived space, are a must read for all those interested in the phenomenology of embodiment. If the body in the world inhabits zones of sacredness, deadness, memory, violence, political contestation, oppression and technological oversight, we need to find principles that this book seeks of care and cultivation that can be located in the spaces we share. Time, empathy, vision, language, love, community and other core phenomena of being human are kinetic experiences and not to be found primarily "within," but must be blazed topographically. -- Glen A. Mazis, Author of Earthbodies
A collection of fine essays, this book addresses a variety of issues concerning the human experience of place....Recommended. * CHOICE *
Lived Topographies cuts across the disciplines in its theoretical approach to "topoi." It would be a great addition to an upper-level seminar on theoretical concepts involving sense of place, biases, and how we become committed to place through events. -- Artimus Keiffer, Wittenberg University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Part 2 Section I: Narrative or Semiotic Mediation Chapter 3 Exploration in Dead Space: The East End of London, England Chapter 4 "The Whole Land is Sacred"-Story and the Navajo Sense of Place Chapter 5 Terra Incognita/Terra Nullius: Modern Imperialism, Maps, and Deception Chapter 6 Land Makes the Man: Topography and National Character in German Schoolbooks Part 7 Section II: Technological Mediation Chapter 8 Totalitarian Topographies: Ground Zero of Embargo Zones Chapter 9 Between Battlefield and Battlescape: Info-Age Technology and the Topography of War Chapter 10 Daniel Libeskind: From the End of Architecture to the Space of Memory Part 11 Section III: Mediation by Surveillance Chapter 12 Utilitarian Topographies of the Public Sphere: State Surveillance and the Case for Public Anonymity Chapter 13 Categorial Imperatives for Future Slaves: Some Topographical Axioms of Deontology
