Urban Narratives

Thoughts on City Literature, Urban Studies and Planning

Tainaron: Translation in Dutch out!

Posted on 20.10.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Leena Krohn’s Tainaron, one of the most fascinating modern classics in Finnish literature, has appeared for the first time in Dutch translation.

It’s an intriguing novel-as-collection-of-letters, reminiscent of Calvino’s Invisible Cities (and of Auster’s In the Country of Last Things). Rooted in utopian literature, the epistolary novel, and classics from entomology / insect studies, this book is an intriguing reflection on questions of humanity itself, and an excellent introduction into the work of Leena Krohn.

I wrote the epilogue (in Dutch), which can be found here.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the novel is the way in which it envisions an urban environment that is (at times) recognizably Helsinki, but that simultaneously blurs into a variety of overlaying, palimpsestic layers of meaning in which past and future, the realm of death and the realm of dreams, intersect.

The translation of Tainaron in English can be found at Krohn’s website, here.

(Em)plotting planning at ISUF 2015 – City as Organism

Posted on 22.9.2015 by Lieven Ameel

This week, Rome hosts the 22nd ISUF conference, with as title “City as Organism – New visions for urban life”. I’m not entirely sure what to expect from the wide range of interesting-looking papers that relate in broad terms to the issue of urban form and morphology – urban morphology as a separate field of study being somewhat of a mystery to me. But I’m very much looking forward to being inspired at La Sapienza by the conference’s academic input, as much as by that city that defies words as much as it inspired them. Reminds me of the fact that even the saints Jerome and Augustine confessed to have been “allured and teased by sensuous images of Rome” (Mumford 1961: 246).

I’ll be presenting my research on (em)plotting urban planning on Wednesday.

“Narrating Helsinkis Kalasatama – Narrative Plotting, Genre and Metaphor in Planning New Urban Morphologies”.

Full programme here.

My last experience of Rome was watching La Grande Bellezza – I wrote a small piece of the way it depicts the “vortex” of urban life here.

I’ll try to get hold of some novels (hopefully in English translation) by the Neapolitan author Raffaele La Capria, who acted as one of the inspirations for the figure of Jep Gambardella in La Grande Bellezza.

Narratives in Urban Planning: interview in Helsingin Sanomat

Posted on 18.9.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Today (18.9.), the Finnish major daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, featured a large article, including interview, about my research in Narratives in Urban Planning.

The article (in Finnish) can be found here. Link to another, free version of the article can be found here: http://www.hs.fi/ihmiset/a1442459770179

(source: Sirpa Räihä / HS)

Literary City and Marketing at Morning Coffee Sessions, Kaupunkiakatemia

Posted on 17.9.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Speaking tomorrow, Friday 18.9.2015, on the subject of literary perspectives on city marketing and branding (in Finnish).

Kaupunkiakatemian aamukahvit perjantaina 18.9.

My talk is part of a series of morning coffee sessions, organized by the Urban Academy / Kaupunkiakatemia.

The venue is Laituri, the Helsinki City Planning Department’s information and exhibition space on Narinkka Square, Helsinki.

Programme:

klo 8.15 Tervetulotoivotus ja teeman esittely

klo 8.30 Kuvat Helsingin matkailumarkkinoinnissa: tutkijatohtori Salla Jokela, Helsingin yliopisto

klo 9.00 Paikan mielenmaisemat – kaunokirjallisuudesta markkinointiin: tutkijatohtori Lieven Ameel, Helsingin yliopisto

klo 9.20 Kaupungin kommenttipuheenvuoro ja ajankohtaista kaupunkimarkkinoinnista: asiantuntija Tia Hallanoro, Helsingin kaupunki, Kaupunkimarkkinointi

Kaupunkiakatemia on Helsingin yliopiston, Aalto-yliopiston ja Helsingin kaupungin uudenlainen yhteistyömuoto ja -verkosto, joka yhdistää monitieteisen tutkimuksen, opetuksen ja yhteiskunnallisen vaikuttavuuden kaupunkitutkimuksen alalla.

Narratives of Smart Kalasatama

Posted on 25.8.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Timely: new website of fiksukalasatama online now – “Smart Kalasatama” is a key project in Helsinki’s drive towards smart city districts http://fiksukalasatama.fi/en/.

I’ll be presenting on narratives of Kalasatama during next week’s ReCity conference in Tampere, Finland – disclaimer: I’m not investigating the smart city narrative so much as some of the other methods of narrative emplotment in the development of Helsinki’s waterfront.

Literature and the Peripheral City out now

Posted on 2.6.2015 by Lieven Ameel

“Literature and the Peripheral City”, editors Lieven Ameel, Jason Finch, and Markku Salmela, has been published! More at Palgrave’s own website, here:

“Cities have always been defined by their centrality. But literature demonstrates that their diverse peripheries define them, too: from suburbs to slums, rubbish dumps to nightclubs and entire failed cities. The essays in this collection explore urban peripheries through readings of literature from four continents, taking the reader on a journey from global urban hubs such as London and New York to Nordic capitals and cities like Santiago and Johannesburg. The book shows powerfully that peripheral areas are essential to bo th urban fiction and the identities of cities. The urban experience keeps feeding on images from the margins and hinterlands, which help cities and their parts define themselves. Without peripheries there would be no centres.”

An inspiring, two-year project is drawing to a close. Heart-felt thanks to all contributors, to everyone at Palgrave, and to my terrific co-editors!

Content:

Preface

Introduction: Peripherality and Literary Urban Studies; Lieven Ameel, Jason Finch and Markku Salmela

PART I: CITY PERIPHERIES
1. Detroit and Paris, Paris as Detroit; Jeremy Tambling
2. ‘It’s Six A.M. Do You Know Where You Are?’ Urban Peripherality and the Narrative Framing of Literary Beginnings; Lieven Ameel
3. The Peripheries of London Slumland in George Gissing and Alexander Baron; Jason Finch
4. A Topography of Refuse: Waste, the Suburb, and Pynchon’s ‘Low-lands’; Markku Salmela
5. London’s East End in Peter Ackroyd’s Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem; Aleksejs Taube
6. The Configuration of Boundaries and Peripheries in Johannesburg as Represented in Selected Works by Ivan Vladislavic and Zakes Mda; Marita Wenzel

PART II: PERIPHERAL CITIES, GENRES AND WRITERS
7. Hungry and Alone: The Topography of Everyday Life in Knut Hamsun and August Strindberg; Tone Selboe
8. A Forest on the Edge of Helsinki: Spatiality in Henrika Ringbom’s Novel Martina Dagers langtan; Topi Lappalainen
9. Eduard Vilde and Tallinn’s Dynamic Peripheries, 1858-1903; Elle-Mari Talivee and Jason Finch
10. A Suburban Revision of Nostalgia: The Case of Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra; Bieke Willem
11. From Windowsill to Underpass: Young Women’s Spatial Orientation in Swedish Young Adult Literature; Lydia Wistisen
12. Centrifugal City: Centre and Periphery in Ricardo Piglia’s La ciudad ausente; Nettah Yoeli-Rimmer

Bibliography

Index

Toponyms as Prompts for Presencing Place – Turku 29.5.2015

Posted on 29.5.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Talking today at Turku University / “Being There” in Fictional Worlds -seminar about research conducted together with Terhi Ainiala.

https://www.utu.fi/fi/yksikot/hum/ajankohtaista/uutiset/Sivut/presence-cfp.aspx

Abstract below:

Toponyms as Prompts for Presencing Place –

Making Oneself at Home in the Narrated City

Lieven Ameel & Terhi Ainiala

In our presentation, we will examine toponyms as triggers of a sense of place. Place names may act as delineators and activators of a literary storyworld, not only in the way they function as references to spots on a mental map, but also, and perhaps in particular, as moral, socio-economic and aesthetic demarcations.

We will analyse the function of toponyms in a selection of contemporary Finnish novels set in Helsinki, including texts by Rosa Liksom, Kjell Westö, M.Y. Joensuu, and Antti Tuomainen, and drawing on recent writings by Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht on presence (2004) and by Sten Pultz Moslund on “topopoetic reading” (2011). The literary analysis will be juxtaposed with a survey of Finnish and non-Finnish readers’ experiences of place names in Helsinki novels. The findings of this two-pronged approach underscore the challenges involved in translating the sense of place evoked by any given storyworld across the confines of a specific temporal, geographical and cultural context.

References

Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich 2004: The Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey. Stanford: Stanford UP.

Pultz Moslund, Sten 2011: “The Presencing of Place in Literature: Toward an Embodied Topopoetic Mode of Reading.” In Tally, Robert T. (ed.): Geocritical Explorations: Space, Place, and Mapping in Literary and Cultural Studies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 29-46.

Dystopia and Utopia in Urban Planning and Fictional Narratives

Posted on 12.5.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Speaking today at the Urban Studies days in Tampere on the subject of dystopia and utopia in urban planning and fictional narratives. Presenting work on my examination of planning in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki.

http://www.kaupunkitutkimuksenpaivat.net/english-2/

Abstract (in Finnish) below:

Utopistisia ja dystopisia kertomuksia Helsingin Jätkäsaaresta – Tulevaisuusvisioiden retoriikka kirjallisuudessa ja kaupunkisuunnittelun julkaisuissa

Lieven Ameel, Helsingin ylipisto

Missä määrin fiktiivisen maailman tulevaisuusvaihtoehdot kommentoivat tai ohjaavat todellisen maailman tulevaisuusvisioiden suotavuutta? Tarkastelen tätä kysymystä keskittymällä Helsingin Jätkäsaaren suunnitteluun liitettyihin kertomuksiin. Lähtöpisteenä toimii Hannu Mäkelän historiallinen romaani Hyvä jätkä (2009), teos, joka on luotu Helsingin kaupungin tilaustyönä. Romaanissa esitetään 1900-luvun alun Jätkäsaaresta vaihtoehtoisia tulevaisuuksia, jotka on eksplisiittisesti suunnattu 2000-luvun alun kaupunkilaisille. Alueen tulevaisuusnäkemys näyttää Hyvässä jätkässä ainakin osittain tukevan viraston visiota alueesta. Antti Tuomaisen lähitulevaisuuden Helsinkiä kuvaavassa Parantajassa (2012) kaupunkisuunnitteluviraston visioimat futuristiset kaupunkiosat on jo rakennettu, mutta myös jo raunioitumassa. Kalasataman tornitalot palavat, Jätkäsaari autioituu. Molemmat kaunokirjalliset teokset rakentavat merkityksensä suunnitteluviraston tulevaisuusnäkymien varaan. Esitelmässäni tarkastelen näissä kahdessa teoksessa esitettyjen Jätkäsaaren tulevaisuusvisioiden suhdetta 2000-vaihteen Helsinkiin ja suunnitteluviraston suunnitelmiin. Esitän, että myös kaupunkisuunnitteluviraston julkaisut samasta alueesta tukeutuvat kerronnalliseen dynamiikkaan, jossa mahdollisten maailmojen välinen vuoropuhelu ohjaa lukijaa. Tutkimukseni liittyy laajemmin kaupunkisuunnittelun kerronnalliseen käänteeseen, jossa kaupunkisuunnittelun prosesseja ja dokumentteja käsitellään tarinan kertomisena, ja jossa niitä tutkitaan retoriikan ja kerronnallisuuden tutkimusta hyödyntäen.

Culture and sustainability conference, Helsinki 6-8 May

Posted on 22.4.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Culture & sustainability in focus in the upcoming conference “Culture(s) in Sustainable Futures” in Helsinki, 6-8 May 2015.

Perhaps surprisingly (from the perspective of my own, urban-biased view on cultural sustainable development), there is a suspicuous absence of urban issues in most of the programme, regardless of the many examples and possibilities in current urban developments.

There are some sessions and several papers, however, involving urban cases, for example session 6. “Operationalizing culture in the sustainable development of cities.”

Helsinki World Views at Think Corner, 8 April

Posted on 7.4.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Tomorrow, presentation of our Helsinki University research project on urban layers of meaning on 8 April 2015, at the Think Corner / Tiedekulma. I will be talking about visions and narratives of Helsinki’s waterfront development. Samu Nyström will introduce the research project, Mikko-Olavi Seppälä will discuss 1920s urban culture and identity in Helsinki.

More on my research of Helsinki’s waterfront here.

Update: the video of the presentation can be viewed here. The first part consist of a presentation by prof. Seppälä, the second part, with my presentation on Kalasatama & Jätkäsaari, begins at 36:25. Presentation in Finnish.