39 pages • 1 hour read
Gaston BachelardThe Poetics of Space
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1957A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary and Analysis: “The Dialectics of Outside and Inside”
In Chapter 9, Bachelard explores more fully the dualities that he references throughout the book. Bachelard rejects the notion that the philosopher should consider these dualities in terms of absolutes. To do so would be to limit them. For example, to consider the terms “outside” and “inside” as absolute terms would mean ignoring the fact that these two spaces often blur into one another. Instead, he promotes examining these dualities through a phenomenological lens to consider what it is to be one of these seemingly opposing forces.
Inhabiting the experiences of these forces allows the daydreamer to understand more clearly the subtleties of being. As Bachelard suggests throughout the book, he sees the dualities of outside and inside as two forces that refine and enhance one another. Both inside and outside can be intimate, and this intimacy is made stronger by the existence of these two forces. Because of these dualities, the intimacy of a room becomes the intimacy of the inhabitant, and the intimacy of vastness in space speaks to the intimacy of vastness within individuals. These dualities in space connect individuals to their own consciousness.
The door functions as an entry into either of these dual worlds. Doors represent temptation and primitive desire. In poetry, the door welcomes fate. As a halfway point between two worlds, the door plays a role in architecture that is too important to be overlooked. Bachelard claims that the door tells the story of one’s existence because it represents the ushering in of every emotion and experience. For the artist or architect, the image of the door holds great weight.
Bachelard’s attention to these dualities reveals the importance of dialectics in design. Spaces need opposing forces to accentuate their various features. To have intimacy without vastness would provoke a sense of entrapment, and to have vastness without intimacy would mean a cold, desolate space.
Chapter 10 Summary and Analysis: “The Phenomenology of Roundness”
Bachelard completes his exploration of the human relationship with space by offering a bold statement: “Being is round” (249). He rejects once more the idea that psychoanalysis is an informative means of considering the concepts he outlines in the chapter. The relationship between space and roundness is complicated and examined with much difficulty. Bachelard asserts that to feel existence is to feel round. Images of roundness help the individual feel grounded, facilitating the return to one’s own consciousness. This aspect of his argument is crucial to understanding the theme of The Relationship Between Design and Emotion.
Roundness is seen in nature and is the shape of the planet. It is, in many ways, the shape of being. Roundness evokes a sense of calm and of life in repose. It also has a romantic quality. Bachelard suggests the consideration of the tree when thinking about roundness. The child who draws a tree emphasizes the roundness of its branches. A more sophisticated view of the tree shows that it emerges from an epicenter. It extends outward, straining toward something greater than itself. In this way, roundness is a study of infinity.
This final chapter is extremely brief in comparison to the rest of the chapters in the book, and Bachelard’s connection of infinity to being is brief. However, it epitomizes the connections throughout the book. Bachelard attempts to study the phenomenology of the imagination, the essence of imagination’s being. He draws connections between physical space and the experience of one’s imaginative being. Physical space fosters imagination; it influences the imagination and is influenced by it. When that imagination is liberated, it opens universes and connects the individual with a collective consciousness outside solitary being. That is, the imagination connects people with infinity. Roundness becomes the shape of infinity, and roundness within a space reminds individuals of their own consciousness and their place within the cosmos.
