AustLit
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Notes
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Only literary material within AustLit's scope individually indexed. Other material in this issue includes:
Understory: writing and building by Paul Carter
‘The unacceptability of the erasures’: John Hejduk’s texts for the ‘Berlin Masque’ by Angeliki Sioli
Stories we can’t tell: on writing dissident architecture by Sepideh Karami
Between architecture and language as ‘form of life’ by Edna Langenthal
Epistolary architecture: when writing letters created modern space.
The case of Iannis Xenakis’s house at Amorgos, Greece by Elisavet KiourtsoglouDecadent by design: interplays between architecture and decadent literature by Lori Smithey
Writing post-colonial spatial subjects: reading Gorée Island through Frantz Fanon by Sergio Preston
As/saying architecture: a ficto-spatial essay of lying-in by Emma Cheatle
Parade of ghosts: buildings & their echoes by Eleni Bastéa
Contents
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From Hotbeds of Depravity to Hidden Treasures : The Narrative Evolution of Melbourne’s Laneways,
single work
'Places are both sustained and shaped by the stories we tell about them. In turn, stories of place are influenced by cultural, political, and socioeconomic forces. A form of ‘unplanned’ urban architecture, over almost two centuries Melbourne’s inner-city laneways have been inscribed with multiple layers of narrative. This paper tracks the unfolding tensions around these evolving urban spaces, from Melbourne’s founding up until the present day. Drawing upon site visits, theorists of place, narrative and memory, and analysis of select historical and contemporary texts, the articles explores how the uses of Melbourne’s back lanes have changed over time, and how these changes have been both reflected in, and influenced by, narratives of place. From their genesis as makeshift service lanes, to their early reputation as sites of moral disorder; from shanty towns to celebrated tourist destinations; from public health risks to sites of urban renewal and cultural memorialisation – the transformation of these atmospheric passageways illustratesthe fluid and contested nature of place, and its intrinsic yet unstable relationship with narrative. In considering how narrative has been deployed to stake or negate claims to the laneways, the article traces the role and impact of various actors: government, social reformers, slum residents, novelists, journalists and media outlets, business interests, street artists, and people experiencing homelessness. Melbourne’s inner-urban back lanes emerge as liminal sites where questions of spatial exclusion, cultural capital, and belonging are navigated in complex and shifting ways.'
(Publication abstract)
- Sand Castles Are Immaculate Childhood; or, Form Ever Follows Functioni"Sand castles are immaculate childhood,", single work poetry