Escapism by Yi-Fu Tuan

Escapism by Yi-Fu Tuan

In prehistoric times, our ancestors began building shelters and planting crops in order to escape nature's harsh realities. Today, we flee urban dangers for the safer, reconfigured world of suburban lawns and parks. According to the author of this work, a cultural geographer, people have always sought to escape in one way or another, sometimes foolishly, often creatively and ingeniously. Glass-tower cities, xuburbs, shopping malls, Disneyland - all are among the most recent monuments the author identifies as efforts to escape the constraints and uncertainties of life - ultimately, those imposed by nature. "What cultural product," he asks, "is not escape?" Opening with a discussion of the history of human efforts to transform nature, a topic familiar to any student of cultural geography, the scope of the work broadens to find escapism in a range of social mechanisms and cultural artefacts. Like culture itself, escapism is shown to be a product of the imagination and abstract thought, and Tuan devotes the last chapters of the book to examining the human imagination's potential to create on earth the extremes of heaven and hell.

"'Escapism'.. is not so much an argument as a tour--sometimes a tour de force--of cultural escapes with exotic stops and unexpected twists and turns. And such a convivial tour guide! Tuan is chatty, engaging, unpretentious and charming."--Francis I. Kane, 'The New York Times Book Review' "A reader could hardly ask for a more congenial guide, as Tuan's discussion ranges from Christ's last supper to chimpanzees copulating, from African bushmen barbecuing a turtle to diplomat-author Harold Nicolson bathing in a lake...Through this unusual perspective, Tuan is able to realign things usually considered opposites--'fantasy' and 'reality,' 'travel' and 'home,' 'work' and 'private life'--until they converge in fruitful new combinations...His playful treatment of life's glum realities feels at times as a tonic as a leisurely Sunday morning...An orginal work to be read for both intellectual profit and pleasure."--Jeffery Paine, 'Washington Post Book World' "Writing in a deeply thoughtful style, Tuan, a leading cultural geographer, examines the wonders and atrocities that stem from the human impulse to deny the brutal realities of earthly existence."--'Utne Reader' "'Escapism' is a delightful book that synthesizes the most important themes of one of geography's leading intellectual figures. In keeping with his broadly humanistic and intellectual spirit, he addresses fundamental questions that have occupied him throughout his career: What does it mean to be human? How have humans adapted to and transformed nature in making the Earth their home? What is the dynamic tension between nature and culture? With his answers, Tuan gives us a way of seeing the world that illuminates the relatedness of its parts--and, in doing so, he makes geography absolutely essential."--J. Nicholas Entrikin, University of California, Los Angeles

From 1983 until retiring in 1998, Yi-Fu Tuan was the John K. Wright and Vilas Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. One of the most important and influential cultural geographers of our time, Tuan has been the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Cullum Medal of the American Geographical Society, and an Award for Meritorious Contribution to Geography from the Association of American Geographers. His previous books include 'Cosmos and Hearth: A Cosmopolite's Veiwpoint'; 'Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values'; and 'Dominance and Affection: The Making of Pets'.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780801859267
ISBN 10	0801859263
Titel	Escapism
Autor	Yi-Fu Tuan
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Verlag	Johns Hopkins University Press
Erscheinungsjahr	1998-12-25
Seitenanzahl	264
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar