Around place-bound literary narrations (a number of preliminary recognitions)

Abstract

The article brings an introductory characterization of place-bound narratives as a (problematically) literary form. Adopting a broad understanding of the term (without linking the phenomenon of place-bind to GPS technology), the author tries to show contemporary realizations of this form against the background of the tradition of art (and literature) related to space. Taking a literary story into a non-codex form is treated as another attempt to push the boundaries of the book. The author pays special attention to the new kind of pact with the reader proposed in place-bound narratives and the linking of the act of reading to the body of the viewer. The peculiar multimodality of the analyzed works is also emphasized.

The author’s thesis is that the workshop of a literary researcher provides excellent tools for the study of location narratives, and emphasizes that literary studies could fill the shortcomings pointed out so far in the reflection on this variety of stories (examples include the analysis of the palimpsest and metaleptic structure of the presented world, the specific form of second-person narration used in these stories, and the construction of the protagonist assuming the inclusion of the reader in the presented world). The argument is illustrated with the characteristics of several now-canonical location narratives (including the murmur project, the work of 34 North, 118 West, and Janet Cardiff's audio walks).