english 548 ~ spring 2009

Course schedule
Course description

space &
place
in theory, literature, &
culture

Jon Hegglund
M 3:10-5:55
Avery 110

Office: Avery 202H

Office hours: TW 1-3
335-6820
hegglund@wsu.edu

[W]e do not live in a kind of void, inside of which we could

place individuals and things. We do not live inside a void that
could be colored by diverse shades of light, we live inside a set
of relations that delineates sites which are irreducible to one
another and absolutely not superimposable on one another.
-- Michel Foucault

In literary and cultural studies, the last two

decades have been increasingly concerned with
the ways in which space and place inform
aesthetics, culture, and politics. This course will
attempt an overview of some of the thinkers,
themes, and issues that animate this broadly
interdisciplinary nexus of inquiry.
Why the turn to place and space? Many of the
social and political issues that have become
increasingly central within literary studies have a
fundamentally spatial dimension, including:
nationalism, imperialism and colonialism; cultural
globalization; gender and sexuality; urbanization;
digital cultures, and environmentalism and
ecopoetics. Space, moreover, has arguably
proven to be a more fruitful foundation than time
or history for the interweaving of connections
between different disciplines and modes of
inquiry.
While the nature of the course will be
interdisciplinary, drawing upon philosophy,
geography, sociology, anthropology, and
architecture, we will take care to understand how
these many different disciplines and discourses
can inform literary studies. Literature speaks
centrally to the many issues involved in spatial
studies, but literary language also draws attention
to its fraught relationship with space and place:
does a poem create a place in fullness and
richness or does it merely signify the gap between
language and place? Does a novel accomplish a
kind of comprehensive "worlding" or does it
inevitably fall short of its promise of
presence? Literature thus functions as a rich and
complex site for the analysis of space and place.
Literature, of course, is only one among many

Readings "spatial" forms of art. We will also consider other

Because this course approaches a nexus of
related theoretical issues in an
interdisciplinary, synthetic way, there is no
neatly defined corpus of writings that
circumscribes the topic at hand. The
material will draw upon discourses and
disciplines that, more often than not, have
no explicit connection to literary studies:
geography, philosophy, architecture,
anthropology, and sociology, to name a
few. As such (to borrow a distinction made
by Jacques Derrida), we will
bebricoleurs rather than engineers, using the
tools at hand to the best of our abilities
rather than building a theoretical edifice
from the ground up. As you read, then, try
not to worry too much about mastery, and
instead focus on any new thoughts or
connections suggested by the
readings. Also, I have, as much as possible,
attempted to frontload the reading such that
the load is heavier at the beginning of the
semester, and (comparatively) lighter as we
move into the later weeks.

media as vehicles for the aesthetic expression of

place and space, including film, photography,
painting, sculpture, architecture, and music.

Texts
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space
Timothy Cresswell, Place: A Short Introduction
Other readings to be distributed by me

Seminar paper
Roughly 16-20 pages in length, due May 4. Your
seminar paper might be thought of as a first draft of
an essay to be submitted to a journal or a
preliminary section of a thesis or dissertation. You
are free to choose a topic and approach, as long as
it clearly engages with a significant theme or
themes of the course. You should submit a brief (12 pages) prospectus with a working bibliography no
later thanApril 13.

Project Presentation

During the final class meeting, on April 27, you will

make a 10-15 minute presentation on the topic of
your seminar paper. This will serve two purposes: to
Discussion openers & short papers disseminate your own work to the class and to
Each of you will sign up for two different prompt a discussion that will (ideally) help you in
weeks during which you will make some brief completing the project.
remarks and observations that open up at
least one of the week's readings for Grading
discussion (you do not need to account Roughly 60% your final grade will be determined by
forall of the assigned texts). Rather than your seminar paper. The remaining 40% will be
begin within the abstractions of theory, I determined by the following: your discussion
want the discussions to have some textual openers, short papers, project presentation, weekly
touchstone. What I have in mind is this: no preparation, and active and meaningful participation
later than the Thursday before your in class discussion.
presentation, you will distribute some sort of
primary text that we will discuss in dialogue Statement on academic integrity
with the week's readings. This text should, All policies will be followed according to the
above all, be brief: something along the lines Standards of Conduct for Students. These can be
a poem or series of short poems, a (very) viewed at the following
short story, or a short excerpt from a longer website:http://www.conduct.wsu.edu/default.asp?
narrative. If the text is excerpted from a PageID=343.
longer work, you should give enough context
to orient the rest of us. The text need not be Disability accommodation
explicitly literary, either; painting, sculpture,
music, photography, film, or other media Reasonable accommodations are available for
would work as well. The success of this students who have a documented disability. Please
assignment depends upon your previewing notify the instructor during the first week of class of
the week's reading enough to enable you to any accommodations needed for the course. Late
choose a text that will "pair" well with the notification may mean that requested
week's theoretical readings. Also, you accommodations might not be available. All
should distribute your text to the class by accommodations must be approved through the
converting your text into a .pdf file that can Disability Resource Center (DRC) located in the

be e-mailed to the class (preferred, and the

office staff can do this from the copier). You
should have this out to the rest of the class
no later than Thursday afternoon.
Within a week after your presentation, you
will turn in a brief (3-5 page) paper that
analyzes your text in relation to some of the Administration Annex Room 205, 335-1566.
themes or questions that have come out of
the week's reading and discussion. You can
certainly think of these short papers as a
venue for working out issues that you wish
to explore in your seminar paper.

Course schedule (subject to minor changes)

12 Jan

Course introduction
Thinking about trees
Modernity and the hidden moralities of space and place

19 Jan

NO CLASS MLK HOLIDAY

26 Jan

Place and space: definitions and problems

Tim Cresswell, Place: A Short Introduction, chapters 1-2
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, chapter 1 and chapter 2 (sections IVII)
Yi-Fu Tuan, "Introduction" and "Experiential Perspective," from Space and Place
Michel Foucault, "Of Other Spaces"
David Harvey, "From Space to Place and Back Again: Reflections on the
Condition of Postmodernity"
Discussion Opener: Neta, Julie

2 Feb

Here, there, everywhere: representing the local & the global

Fredric Jameson, "The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism"
Arjun Appadurai, "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy"
Cresswell, Place: An Introduction, chapter 3 (including Doreen Massey's "A
Global Sense of Place")
J. Hillis Miller, "Introduction," from Topographies
Timothy Morton, "The Art of Environmental Language," from Ecology without
Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics
Discussion Opener: Beatrice

9 Feb

Gendering place & space

Linda McDowell, "Spatializing Feminism"
Doreen Massey, "A Place Called Home?" from Space, Place, and Gender
Gillian Rose, "No Place for Women?" from Feminism and Geography
Rosemary Marangoly George, "Home-Countries: Narratives Across Disciplines,"
from The Politics of Home
Discussion Opener: Lisa

16 Feb

NO CLASS PRESIDENT'S DAY HOLIDAY

23 Feb

Enlightenment space & place

Lefebvre, The Production of Space, chapter 4
Edward Casey, "Modern Space as Site and Point," from The Fate of Place
Ren Descartes, "Sixth Meditation," from Meditations on First Philosophy
Susan Bordo, "The Cartesian Masculinization of Thought"
Michel Foucault, The Eye of Power, from Power/Knowledge
Discussion Opener: Seth

2 Mar

Spaces of power: landscape, map, narrative

Edward Said, "Narrative and Social Space" and "Themes of Resistance Culture,"
fromCulture and Imperialism
J.B. Harley, "Maps, Knowledge, and Power," from The New Nature of Maps