English Topographies in Literature and Culture: Space, Place, and Identity

English Topographies in Literature and Culture takes a spatial approach to the study of English culture. In order to gain a fresh perspective on constructions of English cultural identity, the collection treats geography, social spaces and spatial practices as well as representations of space and place as complex constellations termed ‘cultural topographies’. Individual contributions focus on writing landscapes, London psychogeography, heritage discourses, urban planning, and idiosyncratic spatial practices such as suburban gardening. In line with the ‘affective turn’, the investigated cultural topographies transcend the dichotomy between the material and the immaterial through embodiment and embeddedness, displaying a ‘new sensitivity’ in textual, visual and aural representations that seek to transcend an anthropocentric perspective. Space thus emerges as both political and shaped by affect.