Architecture in Fictional Literature: Essays on Selected Works

Nevnihal Erdoğan, Hikmet Temel Akarsu

• Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9789815036008
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism History & Theory
• Index: Literature

The art of architecture is an important aesthetic element that can leave a lasting impression in one's mind about the values of a society. Today's architectural art, education, and culture have gradually turned into engineering practices and more technical pursuits. Architecture in Fictional Literature is a book written with the aim of understanding the concept of living spaces as portrayed in works of fiction and to open the doors to a new perspective for readers on the art of architecture. It is a collection of essays written by educators and literary critics about how architecture is presented in 28 selected literary works of fiction. These selected works, which include well-known works such as Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame, Kafka's The Castle, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, among many others, collectively attempt to illustrate facets of human life in a lucidly expressive way while also having an architectural background added in the narrative. Each essay is unique and brings a diverse range of perspectives on the main theme, while also touching on some niche topics in this area, (such as spatial analysis, urban transformation and time-period settings), all of which have exploratory potential. With this collection, the contributors aspire to initiate the transformation of architectural education by including a blend of literary criticism. By building a foundation of architectural aesthetics, they hope to bridge the gap between the artist and the architect, while also inspiring a new generation of urban planners, landscape artists, and interior designers to consider past works when designing living spaces. Architecture in Fictional Literature is also essential to any enthusiast of fictional works who wants to understand the fictional portrayal of living spaces and architecture in literature.

Table of contents

• Welcome
• Table of Content
• Title
• BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS LTD.
• PREFACE
• List of Contributors
• An Architectural Reading of Franz Kafka’s The Castle
• Notre-Dame de Paris Church as a Novel Protagonist The Hunchback of Notre Dame Victor Hugo
• The Magic Mountain
• A Reading on Space and Literature: Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina
• Impressions on the Use of Space and Colour in Fictional Frames
• The Time Regulation Institute
• The Tartar Steppe in terms of the Psychology of Architectural Space
• Beyond the Connection: The Bridge on the Drina
• One Hundred Years of Solitude
• The Name of the Rose
• Getting to Know a City through the Feeling of “Here and Now”
• Invisible Cities
• The Alexandria Quartet
• A Novel on Urban Transformation Strangeness in My Mind
• Socio-Spatial Analysis of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
• The Sun Also Rises
• Architecture as a Background of a Historical Novel: At the Gates of Konstantinople
• Get to Know Hobbits by Their Home and Songs: Architecture and Literature in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth
• Gulliver’s Travels
• Down the Rabbit Hole, in Search of Identity
• Nineteen Eighty-Four
• The Dispossessed
• 1250 BC: Architectural and Decorative Items in The Iliad and The Odyssey
• The Divine Comedy
• The Decameron
• Mysterious Cities and Grand Palaces of One Thousand and One Nights
• Journey to the Orient
• Tournefort’s Voyage as Scientific Inquiry into the Levant