Popis: |
It has been routine to speak of geography as an art as well as a science, but there is little evidence to demonstrate any really firm relationship with the central ground of the arts. Most of the recent emphasis on 'humanistic geography' remains closely associated with science and does not represent any substantial participation in the humanities. A review of recent writings on 'geography and literature' suggests that these two realms of work remain discrete, with geographers as borrowers from rather than creators of literature. However, there is some evidence, and a growing momentum toward geography as an art in the full sense of highly personal, explicitly emotional works which must be judged as individual creations. Something of the nature of such work with a few examples of its possibilities, including its difficulties and dangers, are discussed, and the work of Henry Glassie and Raymond Williams is cited as especially pertinent for geography. It is concluded that geography will deserve to be called an art only when it has overcome its chronic insecurity, broken through pedantic barriers, and can display a substantial number of geographers as creative artists. That Geography is an art as well as a science is an old and common assertion with precious little substantiation. I propose to assess this situation, suggest how it might be changed, and why I think it important to do so. Ideally we should have the evidence at hand and review our books in leisurely discussion. As we cannot do that I shall refer to well-known works as far as possible. It will also be to our advantage that several current lines of thought impinge upon my theme, and indeed there are members of this audience who have dealt with some aspects of it better than I can do. At most I can hope to push us rather more firmly on toward what I believe to be a logical conclusion; at the least I can add another voice of encouragement to those already endeavouring in that direction. Even though I shall confine my remarks to geographical writings in English there will be difficulties of language for several of our key words have such an accretion of meanings that they take up several pages in Raymond Williams' dictionary of that name.' |