The magic of the city : Representing places of the dead in the contemporary Western metropolis

The magic of the city : Representing places of the dead in the contemporary Western metropolis

urban culture, magic, cemetery, graveyard, memorial, dead

This thesis posits that throughout history, the Western city has been made and understood according to a shared image of the cosmos. It argues that though the contours of this cosmos have changed over time and place, collectively held understandings of the city endure to the present day. Drawing on literary and cultural theory, this way of understanding the city may be conceptualised as "magical", that is incorporating knowledge which is hermeneutic and mythical, as well as empirical. The specific example of places of the dead, understood as cemeteries, memorials and other locations at which the dead are actually or symbolically interred, is used in this thesis to test the notion that that the city may continue to be understood as a reflection of world view. Places of the dead provide an appropriate test case for this task, as their forms and locations have clear associations with temporally and culturally specific understandings of the city. This thesis applies textual analysis and discourse analysis to seven case studies of contemporary places of the dead in order to examine the way in which the magic of the city may operate in one typology of place. It considers the representation of these case studies in a large array of texts, with particular emphasis on fictional, and thus potentially "magical", texts such as novels, television series and architectural drawings, as well as postcards, movies, cartoons, photographs, songs and paintings. The results of the case studies are used to argue not only that the city continues to be understood using a wide variety of ways of knowing, but also that these alternative epistemologies offer insights into contemporary cities which are not gained through the use of conventional methodologies.

Trigg, Rachel Helen

University of New South Wales - Sydney

2009

Ruan, Xing. Supervisor

en

Thesis

http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/43339

http://lallier.msh-vdl.fr/theses/items/show/993

http://lallier.msh-vdl.fr/theses/archive/files/d917b2f10a7d889b2a5bd8617caa8629.jpg