Document Type
Article
Abstract
[First paragraph]
In the article I will outline some of the methodological and theoretical development in late twentieth-century criticism that led to the spatial turn in the humanities. In particular, I will concentrate my attention on the concepts of space in the works of Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari, and I will pursue how they influenced literary theory, causing the emergence of "geocriticism" (e.g., in the work of Robert Tally, Bertrand Westphal, Eric Prieto) or, using another term, "literary geography" (e.g., in Franco Moretti). I will argue that the postmodern condition generated an alertness to space rather than time in different fields of scholarship, as historicism has undergone decline under postmodernism. My conclusion is that incorporating geographical thought into a variety of domains of research offers a better understanding of human experience, social relations, and cultural production. Even though the concept of space as well as a geographical framework in general have been revised and injected into recent theoretical inquiries, they have not been fully applied to literary criticism. We can witness the beginning of the process of formation of a coherent spatial paradigm within literary theory.
Repository Citation
Shymchyshyn, Mariya. "Geocriticism at a Crossroads: An Overview." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 14, no. 3, 2014, pp. 1–18. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol14/iss3/5