His insights are mature and unique, and yet his tone is humble and always playful. In addition, Bachelard can show us how to have a deeper experience of the spaces that literature and poetry create for us.Įven though “The Poetics of Space” was one of Bachelard’s final books, published when he was 73 years old, it takes daydreams and imagination as its subject and is filled with endearing exclamations of childlike wonder. So how can we escape this feeling of being trapped in the places we reside, living the same day over and over again? Although Gaston Bachelard’s 1958 book “The Poetics of Space” was not written with lockdown in mind, I think it provides us with some crucial tools for combating this sense of stasis.īy revisiting this philosophical classic in our confinement, we can learn to look with fresh eyes upon every aspect of the space we inhabit, no matter how small and seemingly dull, and find new intrigue within it. As the third and largest wave of COVID-19 infections overwhelms this country, even while vaccines are being gradually dispersed, we’re confronted with the reality that venturing out still will not be possible for many more months, if not longer. Now that most everything we do takes place on screens within our dwelling place - our school, our work, our social time, our leisure - it all blends together into a mass of time that’s difficult to differentiate. But when we’ve been cooped up in these spaces since March 2020, only venturing out for the essentials, home - whether it’s your childhood home you’ve been thrust back into, a dorm room on an empty campus without a roommate or even a new place in a new city - has probably started to feel like a prison of sorts. Before quarantine, our homes, our dorm rooms, our bedrooms were our refuge - the spaces where we could take a break from the hustle and bustle of the world and be truly alone.

Bachelard the poetics of space