Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Poetics of Space

by Gaston Bachelard, Étienne Gilson (Foreword By), John R. Stilgoe (Foreword by), Maria Jolas (Translator)

4.2 of 5 stars 4.20 · rating details · 2,730 ratings · 158 reviews

Since its first publication in English in 1964, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space remains one of the most appealing and lyrical explorations of home. Bachelard takes us on a journey, from cellar to attic, to show how our perceptions of houses and other shelters shape our thoughts, memories, and dreams.

"A magical book. . . . The Poetics of Space is a pr...more

Paperback, 1st edition, 282 pages

Published April 1st 1994 by Beacon Press (first published 1957)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi

A Visual Dictionary of Architecture by Francis D. K. Ching

Must-Read Architecture Books

23rd out of 46 books — 26 voters

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman

A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster

Books Game Designers Should Read

48th out of 54 books — 37 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Feb 14, 2008 Josh rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've failed to explain Bachelard to so many people by now that I should know better. I should write some sort of meta-review/hymn/grocery list here, but I'm afraid. I'm afraid to wash the freaking hem of this book.

Probably the best thing I can say about The Poetics of Space is that, in thinking so hard about what makes a poetic image work, it really becomes more of a prose poem than a book of philosophy. Bachelard is trying to understand the "happy mind" - the mind making itself a home everywher...more I've failed to explain Bachelard to so many people by now that I should know better. I should write some sort of meta-review/hymn/grocery list here, but I'm afraid. I'm afraid to wash the freaking hem of this book.

Probably the best thing I can say about The Poetics of Space is that, in thinking so hard about what makes a poetic image work, it really becomes more of a prose poem than a book of philosophy. Bachelard is trying to understand the "happy mind" - the mind making itself a home everywhere, no matter how hostile the environment. He calls this a phenomenology (as opposed to psychology's obsession with neurosis, damage, the "unhappy mind"), also "daydreaming," "reverie." The terms get conflated, maybe by the translation (which is beautiful), but the demonstrations are so powerful and right on that you come away with this burst of energy: as if the world were a car you'd been sitting in on a hot day in the Safeway parking lot, and of course you're wet from swimming so you've got the wet seat smell, and your crotch itches, and there's a homeless person collecting plastic bags by the cart-dispenser and a dog staring at you from three cars over, and yeah its hot as hell, and then suddenly your mom comes back and the car starts going with the windows down and its FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC.

Talking about what you learned from this book is hard, partially because that initial transfer of energy and excitement is the main thing. But like Claude Levi-Strauss or Rene Girard, Bachelard also leaves you with a form, a process that you can use to think about how you think. He makes you more conscious of, not just your mind, but your mind's movement, your mind's happiness. And no matter how unhappy we are, our mind's are all trying to be happy (happy meaning at times, unfortunately, unhappy, but then maybe the "happiness" Bachelard is talking about is only movement and life, the happiness of the seed).

As domestic a book as Anna Karenina, as accordion-expansive as Walden, as razor sharp as Candide. Could also be seen (again, like Girard), as one gigantic digression on Proust.
(less)

34 likes · like · see review

Jan 30, 2013 Seham . rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

إن كنت سأتحدّث عن هذا الكتاب، عليّ أولاً: أن أقوم بعدَّ المرّات التي انتشيت فيها. عليّ هذا، قسرًا. كان أوّل كتاب مع باشلار. إذ إني لم أكنّ أعرف عنه مسبقًا إلاّ بضع اقتباسات، والتي كنتُ استحسنها في موضعها ولم أبادر ولو لمرّة، بالتعرّف إليه، إلاّ عندما ذكره أحد الرفاق "أقول هذا: بامتنان بالغ".
كانت البداية مبهمة، لأنّه يحتاج إلى قليلاً من الجهد حتّى تستطيع استيعاب ما يحاول قوله، لكن هذا في البداية فقط، مع الفصول يتماهى هذا الشعور! ويبدأ الاستمتاع عندما يتخلل بفلسفته إلى كلّ رواية، قصيدة، رسالة ويو...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 24, 2013 Hadrian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: french, art-music-architecture-etc, nonfiction, philosophy, poetry, essays, proust-and-friends

This is less a work of systematic philosophy than a daydreamer's scrapbook with lovely poetry snippets pasted in.

Bachelard applies the philosophy of phenomenology to architecture, stating that a house or home is not just a physical thing, but also a place where our memories or thoughts make an impression on it, and shape it even further. He takes further and begins to investigate the meanings of little details in houses, like dressers, corners, and the metaphor of a home as a 'nest' or 'shell'....more

18 likes · like · see review

Sep 24, 2008 lisa_emily rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: lovers with bookshelves for walls

Shelves: literary-intellectual-studies

I was thinking of how to explain why I love reading Bachelard so much, and the best I can come up with for now is my love for his unusually deep way of thinking. This book, like others I have read of his, delves into the poetry of experience. In this book he approached space, as in the places that surround us and that we occupy. In the table of contents: The House: from cellar to garret; House & Universe; Drawers, Chests and Wardrobes; Nests; Shells; Corners; Miniature; Intimate Immensity; D...more

5 likes · like · see review

Nov 23, 2007 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars

I can understand why so many people consider The Poetics of Space to be such an important book, but I found it rather uneven. The most interesting section, far and away, is the introduction. Bachelard begins the book by laying out his theory of the poetic image. Unlike metaphor, which is merely an intellectual comparison, the true poetic image causes a deep resonance in the reader. Upon glancing a poetic image for the home, for example, all of the homes of the reader's past well up in his imagi...more

6 likes · like · see review

Aug 12, 2007 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I spent a lazy day on Cape Breton, swinging in a hammock beside a still, lily-covered pond, reading the Poetics of Space twice in a row. I read parts of this in grad school for a paper on Moby Dick, and had always wanted to get back to it. Bachelard comes across as such a genial old grandpa--somebody from the ancien regime before all the cultural upheavals of the 1960s, not too hip to all of this newfangled feminist stuff, but a charming and cultured old guy who you can tell loved his mother and...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 19, 2008 Claire rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: theory

I definitely feel that I got stronger as a writer as a result of the time I put into reading this book. Bachelard claims to, and in most cases succeeds in, examining the "dialectical shadings" of all manner of things associated with home: cabinets, shelves, nooks, crannies, dressers and more. I appreciated the fluent mixing of psychoanalysis and lyrical criticism. My main beef with the book lies in what Bachelard seems to neglect: what about experiences of place that are marked by trauma? Not al...more

5 likes · like · see review

Aug 19, 2010 Sarah Almutlaq rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ـ"اننا نريح أنفسنا من خلال ان نعايش مرة اخرى ذكريات الحماية...لسنا مؤرخين، بل نحن أقرب إلى الشعراء، وقد تكون انفعالاتنا ليست إلا تعبير عن الشعر الذي فقدناه"
"إن أماكن لحظات عزلتنا الماضية، والأماكن التي عانينا فبها من الوحدة، والتي تألفنا مع الوحدة فيها، تظل راسخة في داخلنا، لأننا نرغب في ان تبقئ كذلك"

غاستون باشلارد

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 20, 2009 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: imaginal-space

Magical and inspiring. Gave me the idea for the next class I want to teach. Teaching is all about creating space. Here's what I wrote in my blog www.gettingmessy.com about creating space in teaching:
Teaching for me is all about creating deep, fertile environments for learning. In fact, I have learned that being able to create rich space is way more important than any subject matter expertise that I may have. So if space is so important, why do we continue to focus on the specifics--the subject,...more Magical and inspiring. Gave me the idea for the next class I want to teach. Teaching is all about creating space. Here's what I wrote in my blog www.gettingmessy.com about creating space in teaching:
Teaching for me is all about creating deep, fertile environments for learning. In fact, I have learned that being able to create rich space is way more important than any subject matter expertise that I may have. So if space is so important, why do we continue to focus on the specifics--the subject, the facts, the "thing," rather than the environment we are creating for any given project or event?

In his writings, the late philosopher Marshall McLuhan often distinguished between "figure" and "ground": "The figure and ground together constitute the totality of what is perceivable. However, it is the figure on which perception is focused. The figure is what appears structured, as the foreground and whereas ground appears as unstructured and background. The boundary between the two appears to belong to the figure, that is why the figure has a shape whereas the ground appears to be shapeless."

Since our left brains like to name and categorize things, they cause us to focus on the figure, and we typically dismiss the background as unimportant. In art, the ground is called "negative space," and experienced artists know that it's just as important as the object that is being drawn. In Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards writes: "...the negative spaces...require the same degree of attention and care that the positive forms require. Beginning students generally lavish all their attention on the objects, persons, or forms in their drawings, and then sort of 'fill in the background.' It may seem hard to believe at this moment, but if care and attention are lavished on the negative spaces, the forms will take care of themselves."

That is certainly true of teaching--the negative space or "ground" is much more important than the specifics of what is happening at any particular moment. As Eckhart Tolle wrote, the "Now" is not what is happening at the moment, but rather, the Now is the space in which whatever is happening, happens. That's the domain of teachers. What an amazing job we have.

(less)

1 like · like · see review

May 13, 2013 Erika RS rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book seemed so promising. The title sounds exactly in my interest area. The table of contents is this tempting list: "The House, from Cellar to Garret, The Significance of the Hut", "House and Universe", "Drawers, Chests and Wardrobes", "Nests", "Shells", "Corners", "Miniature", "Intimate Immensity", "The Dialectics of Outside and Inside", "The Phenomenology of Roundness". I should have been warned by the last one though.

The book was wretched. It had very little to do with actual spaces an...more

like · see review

Oct 19, 2012 Brandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I always wonder what to say about a book when I've spent an inordinate amount of time reading it. Sometimes, especially with extremely thoughtful, meditative book like The Poetics of Space, it's almost as though I've internalized the concepts so thoroughly that it's hard to pull them apart from my own. Perhaps this is a typical response to reading, or at least to reading a very good piece. Things feel right and true, and slip into the reader's world view with ease. There has been more chaos happ...more I always wonder what to say about a book when I've spent an inordinate amount of time reading it. Sometimes, especially with extremely thoughtful, meditative book like The Poetics of Space, it's almost as though I've internalized the concepts so thoroughly that it's hard to pull them apart from my own. Perhaps this is a typical response to reading, or at least to reading a very good piece. Things feel right and true, and slip into the reader's world view with ease. There has been more chaos happening in my personal life over the past few months than I care to discuss, but this book has given me a nice periodic retreat into contemplation and a soothing outlook on more permanent things.

The Poetics of Space was my introduction to phenomenology, which took some getting used to. In my mind, phenomenology works as a sort of directional opposite to psychology, which takes a person's reaction to a given situation and tries to trace said reaction to their root causes and conceptions. Phenomenology, on the other hand, appears to take a person's response to a given situation and follow that response to all its connected manifestations. Both approaches seem to me to begin midstream with a person's reactions to the world around them. but they then turn to face different points along the continuum of consciousness. If such a thing is linear at all--Bachelard closes his book with a consideration of spheres and circular conceptions, which seem much more useful for the kinds of ideas he is exploring. A continuum can imply some sort of progression, but it may be better to think of these responses as simply different, if even that.

But back to the book itself-- it's a consideration of the phenomenology of types of space that surround us, types of space that are often defined and meditated upon in poetry and other literature with and without reference to each other. That's a pretty thorny statement to try to try clarify, so let me try to stay with the text: Bachelard begins by considering houses, and continues through drawers, corners, nest, shells, and so forth. Essentially, he discusses ways we try to define intimate spaces around us that are still themselves whether occupied or not.

I found that this book was best for me as a meditation, something to slip in and out of as the reflective mood came and went. It's not a book to read if you're wanting hard answers to some specific questions, but it is one to enjoy if you want to slip into daydreams about spaces surrounding you. Because as Bachelard himself notes, it's in the daydream that the purest phenomenological observations can take place-- there are few restrictions, and the mind is free to make associations as it will. And yet it's not surprising to me to confirm that this book is indeed assigned reading for some collegiate architectural programs-- part of its mission seems to be to open up our realization of space and place to something far beyond geography and mathematical calculation. These are two ways of understanding place, and an argument can certainly be made that there is a poetry in them, but there are many other ways as well, methods less quantifiable or even definable. Most of us respond to our surroundings on a level which we aren't at all aware of, yet many of these responses are apparently fairly consistent across regions and cultures.

The Poetics of Space was required reading for me in college as well, in graduate school for a class on eco-criticism. I didn't get the chance to finish it then, and have been waiting to get back to it ever since. But I still think of it as important for the reasons it was taught in that class: we hold deeper connections to our environments than many of us are willing to acknowledge. Part of Bachelard's thesis is that these connections are routinely unlocked through poetry or poetic expression, and to me this seems a very basic tenet of poetics as well. There are other ways of drawing out the secrets we keep but don't know, but at times that's the project of poetry itself. And while at times reading Bachelard reminded me of reading the quasi-Eastern inspirational books of the 1960's and 70's (quite the claim, I know, but more than I want to get into now), for the most part I felt he explored elegantly and thoughtfully these goals and gave me much to dwell upon. Happily.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Mar 30, 2012 Scott rated it 2 of 5 stars

It just goes to show that the transitive property of literary taste isn't very reliable. Michael Pollan liked this book; I like Michael Pollan's books; ergo, I'd like this book. Nope.

It wasn't Bachelard's preoccupation with psychoanalysis, although that hasn't aged very well -- the nattering on about psychoanalytical approaches to phenomenology sounded silly and smelled moldy, and was about as engaging as reading about phrenological approaches (actually, that might have been more interesting). E...more

5 likes · like · see review

Mar 25, 2012 Jericha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: elegant-essays, knowledge-and-inspiration, poetry

I do absolutely love this book, and it became in many ways a kind of manifesto for me. The reason I haven't given it the full 5 stars is simply that a good third of the writing remains essentially meaningless to me, even after a dozen rereadings. The things that work are SO wonderful, but I still can't make head or tail of phenomenology in general and plenty of this book in particular. What is marvelous about it, though, is that you don't need to understand most of it to get a great deal of plea...more I do absolutely love this book, and it became in many ways a kind of manifesto for me. The reason I haven't given it the full 5 stars is simply that a good third of the writing remains essentially meaningless to me, even after a dozen rereadings. The things that work are SO wonderful, but I still can't make head or tail of phenomenology in general and plenty of this book in particular. What is marvelous about it, though, is that you don't need to understand most of it to get a great deal of pleasure out of the best of it. Forgive me if that sounds either lazy or willfully ignorant, but I don't feel the need to pretend I can wrap my head around everything he said, especially in translation, and I think that the book is strengthened, not weakened, by the fact that the most beautiful and elegant things he has to say stand on their own so completely.

What I love most is the way that he manages to get under the skin of a whole set of feelings -- the kind of evocative aura of childhood spaces, of the home of the heart, of the house snug against the storm, of nooks and crannies and shelves. What I love most is the fact that he's deeply curious about how these feelings come to be and exactly what characterizes them, but instead of laying them open with a scalpel (and thereby ruining them), he uses fragments of poetry to create what feels to me to be a kind of net in which to catch the living, breathing experience. In other words, instead of trying to pin down intimate space like a dead butterfly in a box, he very gently evokes and opens it, holding it up to the light like a soap bubble, so we can really study exactly how the wings shimmer and radiate.

I came away from the book feeling as if I had an intuitive grasp of what he meant, rather than an exact explication, and that was kind of astonishing - to have a sense of having learned from feeling something in tandem with an author. There's a strong current of oh my goodness, that's exactly how it feels that runs through the text for me, and in the end what I find most marvelous is simply that Bachelard manages to bring you so exactly into a shared world of experience. It's the gift of feeling that someone else not only understands but shares your feelings about certain spaces on a level that reaches way underneath words.

This book remains a primary text for me as an artist, more than anything to remind me of the deep, wild, beautiful ways that certain spaces make people feel, and to gently keep me from forgetting that it is possible to create a shared poetic experience without being even the slightest bit didactic. It's kind of striking how clearly Bachelard loves his topic, and how obviously precious and meaningful to him. It's rare and refreshing to see a philosopher write with grace and a sense of wonder and delight. He doesn't care if you get the jargon of phenomenology; he just wants you to feel at home. It's a lovely invitation.

Also, anyone who loves Charles Baudelaire has got to read it. His section on "intimate immensity" in Baudelaire's poems is just beautiful. (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 14, 2013 Noor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

أغراني العنوان و النبذة المختصرة عن الكتاب ... تفائلت ب أن يكون كتاب متعلق ب علم الاجتماع العمراني ... عن جمالية العناصر العمرانية و المكانية و أثرها على الإنسان والعكس .... و لكنه في الحقيقة كتاب فلسفي محض يختص في تحليل العبارات الشعرية التي تتعرض للأمكنة و تفسير هذه الكتابات كنوع من أحلام اليقظة ( الخيال ) التي تحرضها أرواح الامكنة و الذكريات و التركيز على مكامن الالفة و الدفء فيها بالاضافة الى تفاعل القراء معها ... كل ذلك بطريقة فلسفية غير عادية ل عدم اعتمادها على العقل و المنطق و التحليل الن...more أغراني العنوان و النبذة المختصرة عن الكتاب ... تفائلت ب أن يكون كتاب متعلق ب علم الاجتماع العمراني ... عن جمالية العناصر العمرانية و المكانية و أثرها على الإنسان والعكس .... و لكنه في الحقيقة كتاب فلسفي محض يختص في تحليل العبارات الشعرية التي تتعرض للأمكنة و تفسير هذه الكتابات كنوع من أحلام اليقظة ( الخيال ) التي تحرضها أرواح الامكنة و الذكريات و التركيز على مكامن الالفة و الدفء فيها بالاضافة الى تفاعل القراء معها ... كل ذلك بطريقة فلسفية غير عادية ل عدم اعتمادها على العقل و المنطق و التحليل النفسي فقط و انما على الروح و الخيال أيضا في تناولها للعبارة و شخص الكاتب و القارئ ( فلسفة الخيال و الميتافيزيقيا ) .

تحدث عن المنزل التقليدي ( قبو - ارضي – اول - سقيفة ) و الدلالات الفلسفية ل كل منها و عن الشقق .... عن البيت صاحبة الجذور و عديمة الجذور ....برج المنارة و البرج الحديث ... عن المفارقة بين الكوخ و القصر .... العش و القوقعة ... المتناهيات في الكبر و الصغر .... رائحة و صوت الاشياء في العبارة .. قوة الكلمة ... الداخل و الخارج ... الحياة المدورة

الكتاب يحوي عدة اضاءات مهمة جميلة أعجبتني ك ( البيوت صاحبة الجذور – جمالية الكوخ – بعض الوصف عن العش - الانفصال و التماهي مع العالم – الدرج - الفلاسفة يسكنون الطابق الارضي لانه منطقي بينما الشعراء يطيرون الى السقيفة ويغوصون في القبو – المنحني و الزاوية - مصباح المساء .... ) مدعمة بنصوص أدبية عالمية رائعة و لكنه كان مملا بالنسبة لي في كثير من المقاطع التي تتعلق بالتحليل ربما لاستخدامه المصطلحات الفلسفية الجافة المعقدة و التعمق الزائد في كل فكرة لدرجة اني قرئت اخر 3 فصول قراءة سريعة جدا مع تجاوز بعض الفقرات ... كذلك احتوى الكتاب على 3 مقدمات طولة جدا ...

الترجمة جيدة و لكنها غير بسيطة ابدا

(less)

like · see review

Dec 31, 2012 Jimmy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: france, male, poetic-essay, year-1950s, smallness

It's one of those great books with the rare ability to put into words everything I've always known. *

* Wittgenstein says "About what one can not speak, one must remain silent." Of course, as a philosopher, he was right. But what is unspeakable is also exactly where poets must venture forth a primitive utterance. Not to fill it up brashly with idle talk, but to consecrate it with voices which will increase the silence. This is why phenomenology as practiced by Bachelard, though a branch of philos...more

10 likes · like · see review

Jul 22, 2011 Henry added it

Shelves: psychology, philosophy

"Poetry is a soul inaugurating a form." -Pierre-Jean Jouve (xxiii)

By its novelty, a poetic image sets in motion the entire linguistic mechanism. The poetic image places us at the origin of the speaking being. (xxiii)

"In order to detect its mystery [writes Charles Cros], in order to go beyond the perspectives of marquetry, to reach the imaginary world through the little mirrors," one had to possess a "rapid glance, fine hearing, and be keenly attentive." Indeed, the imagination sharpens all of ou...more "Poetry is a soul inaugurating a form." -Pierre-Jean Jouve (xxiii)

By its novelty, a poetic image sets in motion the entire linguistic mechanism. The poetic image places us at the origin of the speaking being. (xxiii)

"In order to detect its mystery [writes Charles Cros], in order to go beyond the perspectives of marquetry, to reach the imaginary world through the little mirrors," one had to possess a "rapid glance, fine hearing, and be keenly attentive." Indeed, the imagination sharpens all of our senses. The imagining attention prepares our attention for instantaneousness. (87)

In reality, however, the poet has given concrete form to a very general psychological theme, namely, that there will always be more things in a closed, than in an open, box. To verify images kills them, and it is always more enriching to imagine than to experience. (88)

Paul Valery lingered long over the ideal of a modeled, or carved object that would justify its absolute value by the beauty and solidity of its geometrical form, while remaining unconcerned with the simple matter of protecting its substance. In this case, the mollusk's motto would be: one must live to build one's house, and not build one's house to live in. (106)

And so, if we follow the poets of miniature sympathetically, if we take the imprisoned painter's little train, geometrical contradiction is redeemed, and Representation is dominated by Imagination. Representation becomes nothing but a body of expressions with which to communicate our own images to others. In line with a philosophy that accepts the imagination as a basic faculty, one could say, in the manner of Schopenhauer: "The world is my imagination." The cleverer I am at miniaturizing the world, the better I possess it. But in doing this, it must be understood that values become condensed and enriched in miniature. Platonic dialectics of large and small do not suffice for us to become cognizant of the dynamic virtues of miniature thinking. One must go beyond logic in order to experience what is large in what is small. (150)

Here the mind that imagines follows the opposite path of the mind that observes, the imagination does not want to end in a diagram that summarizes acquired learning. It seeks a pretext to multiply images, and as soon as the imagination is interested by an image, this increases its value. (151-2)

Already, when we describe a daydream objectively this diminishes and interrupts it. How many dreams told objectively, have become nothing but oneirism reduced to dust! In the presence of an image that dreams, it must be taken as an invitation to continue the daydream that created it. (152)

The poet goes deeper when he uncovers a poetic space that does not enclose us in affectivity. Indeed, whatever the affectivity that colors a given space, whether sad or ponderous, once it is poetically expressed, the sadness is diminished, the ponderousness lightened. Poetic space, because it is expressed, assumes avlues of expansion. It belongs to the phenomenology of those words that begin with "ex." . . . Just in passing, here is a proof: When a poet tells me that he "knows a type of sadness that smells of pineapple," I myself feel less sad, I feel gently sad. (201-2)

The phenomenology of the poetic imagination allows us to explore the being of man considered as the being of a surface, of the surface that separates the region of the same from the region of the other. It should not be forgotten that in this zone of sensitized surface, before being, one must speak, if not to others, at least to oneself. And advance always. In this orientation, the universe of speech governs allt he phenomena of being, that is, the new phenomena. By means of peotic language, waves of newness flow over the surface of being. And language bears within itself the dialectics of open and closed. Through meaning it encloses, while through poetic expression, it opens up. (222)(less)

like · see review

Sep 14, 2008 Elie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

My hopes for an intelligent reading of intimate and public spaces were squashed by Bachelard's constant quoting of Rilke and endless pages about snails in their shells. The constant comparisons between psychology, psychoanalysis and phenomenology became tedious as soon as I realized phenomenology would always win. I know this is a classic, but it read like a drunk man monopolizing conversation at dinner.

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 15, 2013 Nicola rated it 5 of 5 stars

Like eating rich chocolate cake, this book should be consumed slowly and decadently. Give in to Bachelard's ecstatic view of language and image and archetypal spaces. A must-read for any poet. Some morsels:

The image offered us by reading the poem now becomes really our own. It takes root in us. It has been given us by another, but we begin to have the impression that we could have created it, that we should have created it. It becomes a new being in our language, expressing us by making us what...more

like · see review

Ian Bachelard is one of my favorites, as well! It has been several years since I've read The Poetics of Space, but I have recommended it to many different...more
Feb 16, 2013 09:44am

Nicola Yes yes and yes! Have you read Yi-Fu Tuan's Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience?? I haven't, but, according to Amazon, it is frequently bou...more
Feb 16, 2013 10:56am

Ian I haven't yet! As soon as the semester's over I will pick it up-- sounds very relevant to the work I'm doing right now on embodied cognition and spati...more
Feb 16, 2013 11:16am

Sep 06, 2009 Lightsey is currently reading it

So far, the major insight seems to be that in so far as we grow up in similar environments, we will have similar internal landscapes--and thus be susceptible to similar images. Ah. Well, it's nice to have a theory about the efficacy of poetic images, and it's a convincing theory.
But Bachelard's further investigation is proving a bit difficult for me. It's very very French, full of "we" and assumptions, and I find myself protesting at all this business about cellars and attics and how hurricanes...more

2 likes · like · see review

May 28, 2008 Tedb0t rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: architecture, art, design, non-fiction, essays

I've never really decided how I really feel about this text. Part of me knows it's total bullshit but another part of me wants to believe in it and enjoy the ridiculous, quasi-academic frenchitude. Maybe they're not mutually exclusive ;)

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 03, 2012 Alejandro Ortiz rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: filosof-a, lenguaje-y-literatura

De Bachelard ya había caído a mis manos, hace ya mucho tiempo, ese libro maravilloso de la Intuición del instante. Por otros motivos me lancé a leer este otro para esa investigación de arte y poesía que estamos llevando acabo.

No encontré lo que buscaba en este libro. Salvo, la introducción que no deja de comentar ciertos aspectos generales de la poesía que pueden resutar (si no interesantes), sí bastante reveladores.

El libro es un repaso "fenomenológico" de "imágenes" poéticas del espacio, casas...more

like · see review

Jul 10, 2008 Theresa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: art-architecture

Inspired, meaningful ruminations on dwellings, spaces. Illuminates how profoundly homes and spaces impart themselves on our imaginations, memories, experiences, daydreams ... a path to understanding, evolving.

2 likes · like · see review

May 12, 2009 Al rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is a distillation of how our imaginations are formed and extended along the lines of the spaces we inhabit. I loved the passage on shelters, the way they keep us warm and safe and encourage imaginative growth. Bachelard notes that we are warm and toasty in our homes because it's cold outside. What a marvelous mundane epiphany. You enjoy the warmth because you know it's cold! He talks about resonance, reverberations, and all the sorts of ways nooks and crannies, locks, shells(home for t...more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 23, 2013 Sylvia Benoit rated it 5 of 5 stars

The unconscious...understanding the home our first shelter our first universe...The dissection of worlds and places... How we surimpose meaning to such places that are integral to our own being.Poetry was the first study of design that relied heavily on asthetics and composition but also on layering meaning, symbolism and much of what you would learn in studying rhetoric. This book is largely read by architecs who wish to broaden their understanding of design but also of its direct relation to u...more

like · see review

Oct 27, 2012 Dijana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Gaston Bachelard offers, in his sometimes rather quirky text, an interesting distinction between the poetic knowledge of place and the knowledge of place which can be communicated in prosaic description. He approaches philosophy from the angle of poetry and focuses upon a lyrical topoanalysis of "quite simple images of felicitous space" which we inhabit subjectively, at the level of daydream, cogitation and sub-conscious association. By doing so, he skillfully forces us to look beyond the face v...more

like · see review

Feb 03, 2013 Deena rated it 4 of 5 stars

beautiful. read certain parts more than once. other parts infinitely.

1 like · like · see review

Jun 12, 2013 Marcus is currently reading it

a little imaginative gem, cosmic and intimate in equal measures

1 like · like · see review

Feb 19, 2013 Sofie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: france

This is supposed to be a book about perceptions, so I guess I can’t fault him on factual flippancy. He seems to be saying, though, that these perceptions are at least somewhat universal. Which is ridiculous, least of all because I can’t relate to most of them.
He brings up some interesting ideas, but only in passing, before he goes off again on pseudo-psychological babbles, passing them off as universal Truths.
I’m only half way through, hopefully it will get better?

Edit: it didn't. It did, howeve...more

like · see review

Feb 01, 2013 Hazem rated it 4 of 5 stars

Imagination, space, poetry, philosophy, psychology, geometry,... Poetics of Space spans incredible territory in compact space. I love Bachelard's style of flowing from image to image with ease, following shifts and drifts of thought/daydream. I especially enjoyed parts on immensity and the miniature, likely because they are in the second half of the book when I had had time to adjust to the structure of Bachelard's chapters. I wish I had a copy to keep around, as I'm sure I'll go back again and...more

like · see review

Oct 11, 2012 Farzaneh Doosti rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: on-lit, fd-culturalhistorical

The complete review of mine in Persian is available here:

http://www.farzanehdoosti.com/notes.p...

«گرگي را مي‌بينم كه از سرزمين دور و قحطي‌زده مي‌آيد. چهره‌اش تكيده و گرسنه است و زبانش آويزان، قرمز و تب‌دار. در آن لحظه، در زير تپه‌ها چيزي جز لاك‌پشت پيدا نمي‌شود كه در نگاه حماسه‌سرايان مانند صدف ظريفي است. گرگ با يك جست طعمه‌اش را مي گيرد اما طبيعت به لاك‌پشت چابكي فوق‌العاده‌اي بخشيده است. وقتي سر و تن و دم‌اش را داخل خانه فرو مي‌برد، براي گرگ گرسنه، لاك‌پشت چيزي جز سنگي نشسته بر جاده نيست. آد...more The complete review of mine in Persian is available here:

http://www.farzanehdoosti.com/notes.p...

«گرگي را مي‌بينم كه از سرزمين دور و قحطي‌زده مي‌آيد. چهره‌اش تكيده و گرسنه است و زبانش آويزان، قرمز و تب‌دار. در آن لحظه، در زير تپه‌ها چيزي جز لاك‌پشت پيدا نمي‌شود كه در نگاه حماسه‌سرايان مانند صدف ظريفي است. گرگ با يك جست طعمه‌اش را مي گيرد اما طبيعت به لاك‌پشت چابكي فوق‌العاده‌اي بخشيده است. وقتي سر و تن و دم‌اش را داخل خانه فرو مي‌برد، براي گرگ گرسنه، لاك‌پشت چيزي جز سنگي نشسته بر جاده نيست. آدمي درمي‌ماند كه در اين صحنه كه نمايشي است از ولع شديد، طرف كدام‌يك را بگيرد. من سعي كرده‌ام بي‌طرف باشم. گرگ‌ها را دوست ندارم اما.....هنرمند در دوست‌داشتني كردن گرگ و كريه نشان دادن لاك‌پشت موفق بوده است.» (178)

نگاه فرامتنيِ فوق به شعر يا روايت داستاني تنها از فيلسوفي مانند گاستن باشلار برمي‌آيد، پديدارشناسي كه به ارزشِ خودآگاهي و تخيل در تعاملِ شاعر يا نويسنده با فضاهاي زيسته‌ آگاه است و فضاي خانه را امري فراتر از ابژه‌ي بي‌روح مي‌داند. «بوطيقاي فضا» از هر حيث كتابي بينارشته‌اي است، مجالي است تا باشلار يافته‌هايش در فلسفه‌ي علم را با روانشناسي و روان‌كاوي و معماري و بوطيقا و هندسه‌ي فضا، و ما را با خودآگاهي خاطرات كودكي آشنايي دهد، با مفهومِ «خانه» كودكي و فضاهاي محرم زندگي آن‌طور كه در خاطر مي‌مانند. «بوطيقاي فضا» در يك كلام معماريِ خيال است يا پديدارشناسيِ خيال، خيالي كه در گذشته و حال‌مان جاري است و فضاي پيرامونش را نه در قطبيتِ سوژه-ابژه، كه در تجربه‌ي خودآگاه مشاهده‌گر با فضاي اطراف – پديدار – فهم مي‌كند.

باشلار «بوطيقاي فضا» (La Poétique de l'Espace) را حدود نيم قرن پيش در سال 1958 منتشر كرد اما آن زمان به‌كل ناديده گرفته شد چون پيشروتر از دانش زمان خود بود، و چون در دوره‌اي از منظر پديدارشناختي به مطالعه‌ي معماري پرداخت كه هنوز معماري را برمبناي تفكر دوره‌ي روشنگري فهم مي‌كردند. باشلار برخلاف جريان رايج به بررسي پديدارشناسانه‌ي اجزاي فضاي خانگي از اتاق زيرشيرواني تا زيرزمين و كنج‌هاي خانه و كشوها و ... مي‌پردازد تا تلويحاً معماران را به تجربه‌ي زيستي با فضا و نه صرفاً غور در استدلالات انتزاعي دعوت كند.

(less)

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Brain Pain: Discussion - The Poetics of Space, by Gaston Bachelard	1	7	May 30, 2013 08:51am
2013: The Year of...: The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard	31	75	Feb 28, 2013 06:36pm

combine
Other Editions (17)

More editions...

Genres

Philosophy

134 users

Architecture

72 users

Non Fiction

67 users

Art

36 users

Philosophy > Theory

30 users

Poetry

26 users

Design

17 users

Cultural > France

13 users

Writing > Essays

12 users

Space

8 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Gaston Bachelard

Gaston Bachelard was a French philosopher who rose to some of the most prestigious positions in the French academy. His most important work is on poetics and on the philosophy of science. To the latter he introduced the concepts of epistemological obstacle and epistemological break (obstacle épistémologique et rupture épistémologique). He influenced many subsequent French philosophers, among them...more

More about Gaston Bachelard...

Books by Gaston Bachelard

Water and Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Matter (Bachelard Translation Series) (Bachelard Translations)

Air and Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Movement (Bachelard Translation Series) (Bachelard Translation Ser.)

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Poetics of Space

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The Poetics of Space

“I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.” — 40 people liked it

“Rilke wrote: 'These trees are magnificent, but even more magnificent is the sublime and moving space between them, as though with their growth it too increased.” — 35 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Poetics of Space
avg rating	preview: The Poetics of Space Goodreads rating: 4.20 (2730 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13269.The_Poetics_of_Space?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348239780l/13269.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13269.The_Poetics_of_Space?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard[/url]

The Poetics of Space

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website