Topoi/Graphein

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Topoi/Graphein

Mapping the Middle in Spatial Thought

Christian Abrahamsson
Foreword by Gunnar Olsson

Cultural Geographies + Rewriting the Earth Series

192 pages
30 images, 9 figures, index

Hardcover

May 2018

978-1-4962-0419-6

$50.00 Add to Cart
Paperback

May 2018

978-1-4962-0577-3

$30.00 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

May 2018

978-1-4962-0608-4

$30.00 Add to Cart
eBook (EPUB)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

May 2018

978-1-4962-0606-0

$30.00 Add to Cart

About the Book

In Topoi/Graphein Christian Abrahamsson maps the paradoxical limit of the in-between to reveal that to be human is to know how to live with the difference between the known and the unknown. Using filmic case studies, including Code Inconnu, Lord of the Flies, and Apocalypse Now, and focusing on key concerns developed in the works of the philosophers Deleuze, Olsson, and Wittgenstein, Abrahamsson starts within the notion of fixed spatiality, in which human thought and action are anchored in the given of identity. He then moves through a social world in which spatiotemporal transformations are neither fixed nor taken for granted. Finally he edges into the pure temporality that lies beyond the maps of fixed points and social relations.

Each chapter is organized into two subjects: topoi, or excerpts from the films, and graphein, the author’s interpretation of presented theories to mirror the displacements, transpositions, juxtapositions, fluctuations, and transformations between delimited categories. A landmark work in the study of human geography, Abrahamsson’s book proposes that academic and intellectual attention should focus on the spatialization between meaning and its materialization in everyday life.
 

Author Bio

Christian Abrahamsson is an independent scholar in Sweden. He is the coeditor of GO: On the Geographies of Gunnar Olsson. Gunnar Olsson is a professor emeritus at the Uppsala University in Sweden. He is the author of Birds in Egg/Eggs in Bird, Lines of Power/Limits of Language, and Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason
 
 

Praise

"Readers with an interest in spatial theory or cinematic geography should obviously appreciate this work, but so should anyone who wants to understand how a world falls apart and continues to fall apart."—Marcus A. Doel, Social and Cultural Geography

Topoi/Graphein poses the most profound philosophical and conceptual questions concerning the human condition from a compelling geographical perspective. A sustained meditation on our engagement with the world, it journeys over remarkably wide-ranging territory, delivering valuable insights with an uncommon intensity of thought. This is a heavyweight work that wears its profundity lightly.”—David B. Clarke, professor of human geography and head of the Department of Geography at Swansea University

“Generations of scholars have identified their respective positions with reference to landmark propositions emanating from singular publications. Topoi/Graphein holds the promise of becoming such a book for a coming generation. It tackles its subject matter with considerable verve and elegant style.”—Ulf Strohmayer, professor of geography at the National University of Ireland, Galway

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations    
Foreword: Born Again, by Gunnar Olsson    
Introduction: Angle of Power    
Part 1. Code inconnu/Crossroads
Chapter 1. Encounter/Point    
Chapter 2. Wall/Stone    
Chapter 3. Code inconnu/When Above    
Chapter 4. Limits/Oedipus    
Chapter 5. Stranger/Terra Firma    
Part 2. Lord of the Flies/Passages
Chapter 6. Desert/Line    
Chapter 7. Thing/Swerve    
Chapter 8. Lord of the Flies/Through    
Chapter 9. Division/Hermes    
Chapter 10. Fire/Terra Nullius    
Part 3. Apocalypse Now/The Event
Chapter 11. Dream/Plane    
Chapter 12. River/Cloud    
Chapter 13. Apocalypse Now/In-Between    
Chapter 14. Darkness/Janus    
Chapter 15. Abyss/Horror Vacui    
Part 4. Geographein
Epilogue    
Notes    
Bibliography    
Index    
 

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