{"product_id":"topothesia-planning-colonialism-and-places-in-excess-paperback","title":"Topothesia: Planning, Colonialism, and Places in Excess - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAmeeth Vijay\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTopothesia \u003c\/i\u003ereads urban planning as a mode of speculative fiction, one inextricably linked to histories of British colonialism and liberalism through a particular understanding of \u003ci\u003eplace\u003c\/i\u003e. The book focuses on town planning from the late nineteenth century to the present day, showing how the contemporary geography of Britain-sharply unequal and marked by racial division-continues ideologies of place established in colonial contexts. Specifically, planning allows for the speculative construction of future places that are both utopian in their ability to resolve political disagreement and at the same tantalizingly realizable, able to be produced in concrete reality. This speculative imaginary, I argue, is only possible within the ideological framework of colonialism and the history of empire within which it developed. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTopothesia refers to a rhetorical device employing the vivid depiction of an often-imaginary place. This device, Vijay shows, helps us understand urban planning as a narrative genre, one that, even in its most mundane documents, is compelled to produce elaborate fantasies of future places. The book examines specific planning movements over time to understand the form and the stakes of their speculative worlds. In building these worlds, the book shows, planners continually coopted literary critiques of the present and reveries of the future, retaining literature's aesthetics while eschewing its politics. At the same time, Vijay shows, writers and artists have dwelled within and against these colonial imaginaries to seek other means of representing place.\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eToposthesia\u003c\/i\u003e joins a growing body of urban studies and critical geography-influenced cultural critique that is making waves not just in academic study but well beyond, in zones of activism, public writing, and even university critique. Vijay fleshes out colonial and neocolonial continuities between time periods in policy, ethos, and language.\"--\u003cb\u003eAnjuli Raza Kolb\u003c\/b\u003e, University of Toronto \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Vijay's book is ambitious and wide-ranging, covering documentaries, architectural design manuals, theories of planning, and advertisements, in addition to realist novels. The book participates in, and pushes in new directions, critical practices in literary studies by drawing together cultural objects across modernist and postcolonial eras and challenging periodizing models that separate these.\"--\u003cb\u003eNicole Rizzuto\u003c\/b\u003e, Georgetown University \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eTopothesia \u003c\/i\u003ereads urban planning as a mode of speculative fiction, one inextricably linked to histories of British colonialism and liberalism through a particular understanding of \u003ci\u003eplace\u003c\/i\u003e. The book focuses on town planning from the late nineteenth century to the present day, showing how the contemporary geography of Britain--sharply unequal and marked by racial division--continues ideologies of place established in colonial contexts. Specifically, planning allows for the speculative construction of future places that are both utopian in their ability to resolve political disagreement and at the same tantalizingly realizable, able to be produced in concrete reality. This speculative imaginary, I argue, is only possible within the ideological framework of colonialism and the history of empire within which it developed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTopothesia refers to a rhetorical device employing the vivid depiction of an often-imaginary place. This device, Vijay shows, helps us understand urban planning as a narrative genre, one that, even in its most mundane documents, is compelled to produce elaborate fantasies of future places. The book examines specific planning movements over time to understand the form and the stakes of their speculative worlds. In building these worlds, the book shows, planners continually coopted literary critiques of the present and reveries of the future, retaining literature's aesthetics while eschewing its politics. At the same time, Vijay shows, writers and artists have dwelled within and against these colonial imaginaries to seek other means of representing place. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eAmeth Vijay\u003c\/b\u003e is Assistant Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAmeth Vijay\u003c\/b\u003e is Assistant Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 272\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.73 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 02, 2023\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47439609528498,"sku":"9781531503185","price":59.85,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/64b916b4e9aa3fe3f2906601b6c3f532_7659782f-353b-49b3-8410-24005d8b5166.webp?v=1778672966","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/topothesia-planning-colonialism-and-places-in-excess-paperback","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}