Philosophy and Literature

Abstract:

How should we theorize the connections between literary expression and space/place? Literary texts are replete with spatiality, but the "spatial turn" has yielded little in the way of systematic thought about the relationship between literature and space, its advocates eschewing the notion of a "spatio-cultural" map. Here, I outline parameters we could use for reflecting on that relationship. I present two intersecting axes—the "abstract-concrete" one and the "individual-collective" one—along which spatio-cultural phenomena can be located. These range from sociopolitical concerns to identity, to awareness of the nature of space and time themselves, to textual dimensions of literary works.