Topoi/Graphein: Mapping the Middle in Spatial Thought (Cultural Geographies + Rewriting the Earth) - Hardcover

Abrahamsson, Christian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1496204190 ISBN 13: 9781496204196

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2018

Synopsis

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.
 

About this title

About the Author

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. 
 
 

Review

"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 (Marcus A. Doel Social and Cultural Geography 2019-01-21)

“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 
  (David B. Clarke 2017-09-12)

“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
  (Ulf Strohmayer 2017-09-19)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1496204190
• ISBN 13: 9781496204196
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192