ARCHITECTURAL SYMBOLISM AS INTERSEMIOTIC TRANSLATION:

Felix Nicolau

doi:10.26512/belasinfieis.v3.n1.2014.11261

Abstract

Campus novels describe isolated, almost autarchic utopias. In Malcolm Bradbury’s The History Man, this utopia is projected into a dystopian dimension by a functional and transparent architecture. The epoch is that of radical sociologists who fight against tradition, memory, privacy, and subtlety. The paper analyses the influence architecture can have on people’s minds and behaviours, or the damages inflicted by concrete-and-steel structures upon human configuration. This is a study about the excesses of structure.

Highlights

In spite of the excessive specialization in the 1970s, with a concentration on sociological studies, the contemporary interpretation of Malcom Bradbury’s The History Man (1975) allows for an interdisciplinary approach using the methods and concepts of cultural studies
Architecture refers especially to the new buildings of Watermouth University, but it comprises the inner structure of some characters, too
Architectures of Message: Inner and Outer Perspectives The process of corrupting identity is insidiously accelerated with the help of architecture

Summary

Introduction

In spite of the excessive specialization in the 1970s, with a concentration on sociological studies, the contemporary interpretation of Malcom Bradbury’s The History Man (1975) allows for an interdisciplinary approach using the methods and concepts of cultural studies. The History Man is Professor Howard Kirk who despises bourgeoisie and expects radical attitudes from his students His life summons contradictory aspects: he comes from the lower-middle-class, wherein education was a springboard toward upper-middle-class, he marries and have kids at the expense of his wife, Barbara, who has to interrupt her academic career, he changes university, descending southwards, to the Watermouth University (the name being suggestive for the well-being of its employees) and there meets an ex-colleague, Henry Beamish, with his wife Myra. Howard disapproves of their cosy life style and chooses to refurbish a house populated, until by squatters. The cultural homogeneity promoted by global marketing could lead to the detachment of identity from community and place” (WOODWARD, 1997, p. 16)

Architectures of Message

Conclusion