Imagining the pavement: A search through everyday texts for the symbolism of an everyday artefact

Abstract

Abstract An interconnected system of paved surfaces is an omnipresent feature of the urban environment. The author contends that, because of its ubiquity, this ‘pavement’ impinges on the thoughts of ordinary urban dwellers in ways they might not consciously recognize. Evidence of feelings that may otherwise remain unexpressed has been sought from deliberate and incidental references to the pavement in the works of journalists, poets, memoirists and artists. Such works reveal that the pavement is a repository for private urban imaginings that may coalesce into shared public imaginaries. As a consequence the pavement can assume diverse symbolic roles and even fulfil the function of a monument onto which people project their own meanings.