Architecture and

Narrative
The formation of space and cultural
meanlng

Sophia Psarra

i~ ~~~&t~:n~s~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK

Contents

List of illustration credits

ix

Preface

xii

Acknowledgments

xiii

Introduction
Part One:

17

The Parthenon and the Erechtheion: the spatial formation of place,

politics and myth

19

Invisible surface: reflections in Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion

43

Part Two:
3

Foundations

Architecture and Narrative in Literature

65

'The book and the labyrinth were one and the same': narrative and
archltecture in Borges' fictions

(Th)reading the Library: spatial and mathematical journeys

67
In

Borges'

Library of Babel

Part Three:
5

Spatial and Narrative Interactions

111

Victorian knowledge: the Natural HIstory Museum, London and the Art
Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove, Glasgow

137

Contemporary experience: the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh and

the Burrell Collection, Glasgow

161

Tracing the modern: space, display and exploration in the Museum of

Modern Art. New York

185

Part Four:
9

109

Soane through the looking-glass: the house-museum of Sir John

Soane

89

Theoretical Synthesis

Comparative discussion

10 The formation of space and cultural meaning

211
213
233

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