Invention of Space: City, Travel and Literature by Enric Bou (review)

Enric Bou’s latest book is a compelling collection of essays and meditations on what it means to travel and experience both the new and familiar alike. Drawing on contemporary cultural theory for interpretive tools, the author explores “literary contact with [the] city, seen partly as a journey, or an exploration of the everyday” as well as “the various phases of [the] literary journey through the twentieth century, an experience that has become progressively easier and more affordable and has opened the door to contact with the Other” (13). Over eleven chapters, Bou’s analysis ranges from the nature of the literary city and concepts of Iberian comparativism, tourism, the experience of exile, and literary engagements with the nonplace. Along the way, specific cities such as Madrid, Paris and Barcelona receive attention—with the Catalan capital capturing the lion’s share. Invention of the City is without a doubt an ambitious book, but I would argue that its great strength lies precisely in its sheer breadth. It is not often that one picks up a volume with the range of this one, and it is to Bou’s credit that it works.

Bou is adept at juggling many different texts as he develops his arguments, and is able to draw very productively on examples from across the spectrum of European literature. Likewise, his use of theory is judicious and appropriate. Themes and topics drive this work, not any fealty to fashionable critics. If anything, Bou goes against the grain by steadfastly “normalizing” Catalan literature. What I mean by this is that he unapologetically and matter-of-factly integrates literary production from Catalonia—in both Catalan and Spanish—into the overarching arguments that he presents. Of course, the strong presence of Barcelona drives this to a certain extent, but nevertheless, for the Hispanist or Iberian Studies reader it is most refreshing to see.

Chapter 1, “Reading the City,” serves as the book’s introduction, and while Bou invokes such heavyweight critics as Halbwachs, Nora, Augé, and Benjamin, he nevertheless focuses his study through the lens of literature: “Literary texts open up a line of inquiry into the city, which has no comparison in the social science field. Literature allows us to discuss the notion of urbs and civitas, the transformation of space, the juxtaposition of layers” (23). Intrigued by how literature influences urban image formation, and at the same time cognizant of the ways in which the concept of the city changes literature, the author then briefly points to how these rubrics are at play in the cases of Madrid and Barcelona, thus setting the stage for analyses to come.

Before delving directly into city literature, though, Bou first outlines his approach to comparativism in the Iberian Peninsula. His take is unique and inspired by cultural geography. Here, he considers the social construction of place, landscape, and experience through a reading of mapping processes and literary engagements with rivers. Nicely illustrated by a series of plates, this second chapter sees the author put his nonhierarchical take on peninsular cultures into practice in a distinctive way.

“Borders in the City: Rewriting Walls” is the Madrid-centric third chapter. Informed by work on borders by Predrag Matvejetić, Étienne Balibar and Marc Augé, as well as by the spatial theory of Deleuze and Guatarri, Bou uses Madrid for his discussion of urban boundaries. Works discussed here include Cela’s La colmena, Martín-Santos’s canonical Tiempo de silencio, and Gómez de la Serna’s intriguing and cultural studies-friendly, El Rastro. The author’s conclusion that heterotopias “establish borders inside the city, which can be easily crossed but that delimitate strong separations between regular and experimental life, allowing for an expansion of the limits of space” is convincing (97).

For its part, “Decrèpita i teatral? On Literary Explorations of Barcelona” is a...