Space, place, and literary representations of the landscapes of California, 1880-1917

Space and place are foundational concepts in geography and the humanities more broadly, but usable, concrete definitions for them have yet to be pinned down. This dissertation begins by offering one such approach, where a place is the material result of the convergence of myriad spatial factors upon...

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Main Author: Sikand-Youngs, Nathaniel Rajinder
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61068/
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author Sikand-Youngs, Nathaniel Rajinder
author_facet Sikand-Youngs, Nathaniel Rajinder
author_sort Sikand-Youngs, Nathaniel Rajinder
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Space and place are foundational concepts in geography and the humanities more broadly, but usable, concrete definitions for them have yet to be pinned down. This dissertation begins by offering one such approach, where a place is the material result of the convergence of myriad spatial factors upon a particular geographical and temporal location, and space is the immaterial effect that a place becomes when it exceeds its locationality to affect another remote location and in so doing ceases to be a place. I then put these ideas to work by analysing the landscapes of three Californian novels: Jack London’s The Valley of the Moon (1913), Frank Norris’s The Octopus (1901, set in the early 1880s), and Mary Hunter Austin’s The Ford (1917). My dissertation argues that each novel adopts a distinct method of constructing geography, which enables them to articulate their respective politics – individualist white supremacy, naturalistic anti-corporatism, pro-industrial environmentalism – and to express their conceptions of the different Californian landscapes in which they are set.
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spelling nottingham-610682025-02-28T14:58:41Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61068/ Space, place, and literary representations of the landscapes of California, 1880-1917 Sikand-Youngs, Nathaniel Rajinder Space and place are foundational concepts in geography and the humanities more broadly, but usable, concrete definitions for them have yet to be pinned down. This dissertation begins by offering one such approach, where a place is the material result of the convergence of myriad spatial factors upon a particular geographical and temporal location, and space is the immaterial effect that a place becomes when it exceeds its locationality to affect another remote location and in so doing ceases to be a place. I then put these ideas to work by analysing the landscapes of three Californian novels: Jack London’s The Valley of the Moon (1913), Frank Norris’s The Octopus (1901, set in the early 1880s), and Mary Hunter Austin’s The Ford (1917). My dissertation argues that each novel adopts a distinct method of constructing geography, which enables them to articulate their respective politics – individualist white supremacy, naturalistic anti-corporatism, pro-industrial environmentalism – and to express their conceptions of the different Californian landscapes in which they are set. 2020-07-24 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61068/1/Sikand-Youngs%20--%20MRes.pdf Sikand-Youngs, Nathaniel Rajinder (2020) Space, place, and literary representations of the landscapes of California, 1880-1917. MRes thesis, University of Nottingham. California Landscape Space and place Jack London Mary Hunter Austin
spellingShingle California
Landscape
Space and place
Jack London
Mary Hunter Austin
Sikand-Youngs, Nathaniel Rajinder
Space, place, and literary representations of the landscapes of California, 1880-1917
title Space, place, and literary representations of the landscapes of California, 1880-1917
title_full Space, place, and literary representations of the landscapes of California, 1880-1917
title_fullStr Space, place, and literary representations of the landscapes of California, 1880-1917
title_full_unstemmed Space, place, and literary representations of the landscapes of California, 1880-1917
title_short Space, place, and literary representations of the landscapes of California, 1880-1917
title_sort space, place, and literary representations of the landscapes of california, 1880-1917
topic California
Landscape
Space and place
Jack London
Mary Hunter Austin
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61068/