Literature, Geography, and the Postmodern Poetics of Place

Abstract

It is common and easy to see and experience the world through dualistic lenses, which leads us to encounter binary oppositions such as inside/outside, center/periphery, objectivity/subjectivity, sciences/humanities, and so forth. In Literature, Geography, and the Postmodern Poetics of Place, Eric Prieto brings attention to this insufficiently explored subject by offering a groundbreaking reading of entre-deux, or in-between. He is interested in interstitial places, not just to highlight their flaws, as it is very often the case, but rather to analyze them as “emergent geographical spaces” because “it is possible to make something good in even the most inhospitable environments” (1, 4). This deeply researched book combines literary criticism with a theoretical essay on the concept of place. To the question “what is place?,” Prieto answers with eight definitions borrowed from scholars in various fields (12). Such an approach shows how challenging it is to encapsulate the concept of place with a simple definition. By adopting Yi-Fu Tuan's definition of place as “an organized world of meaning,” Prieto perceives place as made up of multiple strata (18). This is why he suggests a “holistic theory of place” that will consider its “phenomenological, social, and natural/material” aspects (192). This conception dictates his three-step approach.