On modernism’s secret anxieties by Gerrit Confurius

Date
2011-11
Authors
Engels-Schwarzpaul, A.-Chr.
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Enigma : he aupiki, Auckland. Print production by McCollams, Auckland
Abstract

The moderns looked upon strong and enveloping, closed forms with suspicion. These forms have been ideologically suspect ever since – even though we usually respond positively to them and, on holidays, even seek them out in traditional cities. The modern avant-garde was obsessively occupied with opening, perforating and dematerialising walls. Meanwhile, a fashion for neo-Romantic, literary nightmares centred on anxious atmospheres in excessively closed rooms. Openness, though, cause us no less discomfort. A lapse in the ability to locate and recognise space (when one no longer knows what to expect to happen in rooms) and the lack of boundaries between different spheres of action are experienced as a loss of security and personal identity. The mere fact that a room is accessible to anyone at will can cause feelings of subjection, since one can only develop coherent expectations if spaces are adequately differentiated according to their use. Thus, the troubled relationship between spaces and actions, already evident in Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (the declaration of love at the agricultural show, for instance), turns into complete dissonance with Kafka. Spaces switch purpose arbitrarily. The court sits in the attic, the neighbour Fräulein Bürstner’s room is used for negotiations.

Description
Keywords
Source
Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts, vol.12, pp.120 - 125
DOI
Rights statement
Interstices takes a non-exclusive copyright in the papers submitted and accepted, i.e., we reserve the right to publish and republish the paper (for instance, electronically). Authors are welcome to upload their papers in published form into their institution’s research repository and retain the right to republish their papers elsewhere, provided that they acknowledge original publication in Interstices. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish images or illustrations with their papers in Interstices (at their own cost); neither editors nor publishers of Interstices accept responsibility for any author(s)’ failure to do so.