University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/4171 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. PAGE a NUMBERING AS ORIGINAL i r Place and its Relations in Late Twentieth Century Cultural Theory and British Fiction by Stephen Paul Hardy A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirementsfor the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy in British and Cultural Studies University of Warwick Centre for British and ComparativeCultural Studies September2001 n' '": "ý 4 ._ ,ýý Contents (Number of words : 63,852) Page Chapter One Introduction 1 : .......................................................................... Part One Chapter Two: Place Social Space 23 and .......................................................... 2.1. Walter Benjamin's Cities 23 ........................................................ 2.2. Lefebvre the Social Production Space 30 and of ......................... 2.3. David Harvey: Place, Space Postmodernity 36 and ................... Chapter Three: Space,Place Difference 45 and ................................................ 3.1. Michel de Certeau:Spatial Practices 45 ....................................... 3.2. Deleuze and Guattari ThousandPlateaus 50 :A ........................... Chapter Four: Place, Poetics the Earth 65 and .................................................. 4.1. Heidegger: Being in Place 66 ........................................................ 4.2. Charles Olson: Place the Maximus Poems 70 and ........................ 4.3. Arran Gare: Theory, Politics the Earth 75 and .............................. 4.4. Paul Carter. The Lie the Land 83 of .............................................. Part Two Chapter Five: The Earlier Fiction Raymond Williams 98 of ............................... 5.1. Tony Pinkney: D. H. Lawrence, Raymond Williams 101 .............. Chapter Six: People the Black Mountains 1: The Beginning 112 of .................... 6.1. The Beginning: Introductory 118 .................................................... 6.2. The Beginning: 23,000 B. C. to 2,000 B. C 127 ............................... 6.3. The Beginning: 1700B.C to 5 1.A. D 140 ......................................... Chapter Seven:People of the Black Mountains 2: The Eggs of the Eagle....151 Part Three Chapter Eight: Place the Early Writing lain Sinclair 177 and of ........................ 8.1.Early 189 writing ............................................................................. Chapter Nine: White Chappell: Scarlet Tracings 202 ......................................... Chapter Ten: Downriver 215 ............................................................................... Conclusions 241 ................................................................................................... Bibliography 261 .................................................................................................. Acknowledgements I gratefully acknowledgethe assistanceof my supervisors,Professor Michael Collie and Professor SusanBassnett, in the preparation of this thesis. Declaration I declare that the thesis submitted here is my own work and that it has not been submitted for a degreeat another university. Abstract The dissertation presentsa descriptive analysis of aspectsof British fictional writing prefacedby a comparative analysis of cultural theory concernedwith questionsof place and socio-spatial relations-Thegeneral aim is to show how both the theory and the fiction negotiateelements of a relational poetics and politics of place in the context of negatively homogenizing tendenciesin socio- economic developmentsduring the last thirty years of the twentieth century. In the first part, the writers of cultural theory are divided into three preliminary areas,covering primarily Marxist, post-structuralist and environmentalist approachesto questionsof place and its relations. The secondand third parts then provide more detailed considerationof novels by Raymond Williams and lain Sinclair which have so far not been accordedsubstantial critical attention. The aim is to show how their approachesin the novels considered convergewith aspectsof the theory discussedin the opening part of the dissertation. In all cases,the writers are presentedas producing `partial mappings'. These are seenas offering perspectivesof sufficient scopeto provide effective criticism of, and possible alternativesto, negative and disorientating aspectsof social relations affected by tendenciesin capital accumulation which might be seenas endangeringelements of social justice and equality, cultural heterogeneity,and ecological viability. The first part includes considerationof the poet Charles Olson and a related aim is to suggesthow novels such as those by Williams and Sinclair might provide a significant complement to both theory and modem epic poetry in relation to questionsof place. Introduction The aim of this study is to explore, examine and compare aspectsof the content and form of a seriesof perspectiveson the cultural significance of place and its relations. The relations referred to here are understoodin terms of both concepts and of verbal or written discoursesor narrativeswhich offer a presentationor interpretation of the significance of place and closely related concepts.The forms of discoursefocused on are those of cultural theory and the novel, although a very limited considerationof certain aspectsof poetry is also included. Place, as word or concept,has numerousconnotations. It usually signifies some sort of fixed point but this can vary in size and complexity from the head of a pin to the cosmos.Nevertheless, the attendantnotion of fixednessmeans that place, or places,can be invested with both positive and negative meanings.Positive connotationsare of security, stability and meaningfulness.Negative connotations tend to be of oppression,repression and the related desire to escapefrom the place in question. A common meaning is that of specific geographicallocation, whether a town, or village, or some other significant part of the landscape,large or small. But there are many others. `To know one's place' is a phraseusually understood in relation to conservativenotions of social hierarchy. A common dictionary definition is that relating to an open spaceor public square,the place for people from a community to meet, do their trading, air their differences and perform festivities. To place somethingcan signify simply to put it in a given position but it can also mean to situate it in a context which gives it meaning -a form of orientation. Another way of initially considering the meaning of place is by way of contrast with that of space. Spaceis a concept comparablewith place in the broadnessof its range of connotationsas well as its semanticproximity. If place is suggestive of fixedness,limitation, closure and meaning, spaceis more suggestiveof opennessand freedom to move, but also of emptinessand lack of meaning or orientation. This is to deal with notions such as place and spaceat an introductory level, though both conceptshave long and involved cultural and philosophical histories.' The aim here is to explore aspectsof theseconcepts in relation to certain preoccupationsin later twentieth century thinking and cultural production. This involves an encounterwith the other type of relation referred to, that of verbal and written discourse.The discoursesin question are referred to in the title as `cultural theory' and `British fiction'. `Cultural theory' as usedhere refers to writing by a variety of thinkers from different academicdisciplines and countries. `British fiction' primarily refers to aspectsof the work of two writers, Raymond Williams and lain Sinclair, both born in Wales, one currently commanding a greaterreputation as a cultural critic and theorist, the other also a practising poet. Both have developedlong-term writing projects primarily focusedon the nature and concernsof a particular place or region. The theoretical and fictional writing discussedhere was mostly producedbetween 1970 and 2000, though some attention is paid to earlier writing where it is consideredrelevant. Analysis and discussionof the theory is intended, in part, to provide a context for that of the fiction. The cultural theory consideredis taken as 1 SeeCasey (1997) for a more detailed discussionof the significance of place and related conceptsin philosophical thinking from the earliest times to the late twentieth century. 2 representativeof three broad orientationstowards questionsof place and its relations. Thesecan be characterisedin terms of the emphasisplaced, respectively,on questionsof social emancipationand justice, questionsof difference and its expressionand repression,and questionsconnected to human relations with the earth. The work of the two writers of fiction is partly considered in relation to these categorisationsbut also in broaderterms and in greaterdetail. In all cases,the primary emphasisis on how the writers consideredapproach questionsof place and its relations and on comparisonsbetween their approaches. A related concern is the question of how the two novelists provide dramatisations of issuesraised by cultural theory, as well as by poetry, in ways which offer