Cultural and aesthetic space in the encyclopedic novel
Date
2017
Authors
Rankin, James, author
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Abstract
In this presentation, I seek to examine ideas about how notions of space and place are formed within the genre of the encyclopedic novel. I will investigate the various definitions and types of space, focusing my attention on the interplay between cultural and aesthetic space. To this end, I will examine the encyclopedic novels The Recognitions by William Gaddis and Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko. I hope to illustrate the contingency of cultural and aesthetic space as determined by socio-historical forces. These hegemonic forces determine how we occupy, interact with, and think about spaces.