Narrativized Space - by Aaron Santesso (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In Narrativized Space, Aaron Santesso examines a phenomenon that is at least passingly familiar to most of us: space arranged so as to create the feeling of moving through a story. This book analyzes the implementation of narrativized space, a demarcated and sequentialized area that gradually reveals an argument, claim, or story to the person passing through it. Santesso follows the history of this form from the eighteenth century to the modern day, especially as realized within four institutions: landscape gardens, zoos, museums, and amusement parks. As the book reveals, each institution shows a new step in the development of this phenomenon, and each is especially influenced by a particular literary genre. The design of twentieth-century zoo exhibits, for example, reflects the rising popularity of adventure stories, while the theme park has a special relationship with fantasy and science fiction narratives. The implementation of narrativized space has special relevance to the modern city, and the book discusses both the past and the future of narrativized space as an urban planning strategy. An interdisciplinary work that moves between literary studies, geography, and urban studies, Narrativized Space shows how narrative theory and formalist analysis can offer insight into the operation of real-world story-structures, and makes a case for the value of literary-critical expertise to urban planning and design.

Review Quotes

"Santesso provides a theoretically informed, highly readable, and persuasively illustrated account of storified spaces. The book compellingly contributes to bringing narratology (and literary studies generally) and urban planning more closely together."--Jens Martin Gurr, University of Duisburg-Essen

"This intelligent, entertaining book stands alone, offering an innovative way of interpreting built spaces as well as imaginary environments. Santesso's blend of command, passion and clarity will make the manuscript appealing to readers across the humanities, design, and urban studies."--Laura Chiesa, University at Buffalo

"With a keen attentiveness toward the ambiguities of narrativized space, and with a wealth of instructive case studies, Santesso's Narrativized Space is a timely intervention in the burgeoning field of narrative urban planning."--Lieven Ameel, University of Helsinki

About the Author

Aaron Santesso is Professor of Literature, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the author, with David Rosen, of The Watchman in Pieces: Surveillance, Literature, and Liberal Personhood (2013).