The Poetics of Space

Carl Jung (1875-1961) was an important psychologist and psychoanalyst in the early 20th century. Jung developed the theory of the collective unconscious, the part of the mind that connects to all other minds in a web of ancestral memory and thought. Jung’s theory connects to Bachelard’s idea of resonance—the place from which the poetic image appears. According to Bachelard, resonance operates as a type of cosmic vibration that is beyond the realm of individual consciousness.

Bachelard references Jung’s work when discussing the verticality of the home. Jung’s Modern Man in Search of the Soul explores how one avoids the unconscious self in the search for self-knowledge. Jung draws the comparison of a man in his cellar who hears a noise upstairs, runs to the attic, and assures himself the noise was nothing after finding nothing there. Bachelard states that the attic of a home is a space where the mind can be its most rational.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American writer and literary critic from Boston who is best known for Gothic short fiction and poetry. Poe’s works engage the psychological realm of darkness, often featuring murderers, death, and decay. Poe’s tragic and controversial life—including his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin and the mysterious circumstances of his death—lends depth and dark appeal to his writing.

Bachelard utilizes Poe’s writing to illustrate several points in The Poetics of Space. In Chapter 7, Bachelard examines the miniature through Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Noting that Poe’s writing was driven by his “auditory hallucinations,” Bachelard finds “an immense sound miniature” (175) in the poetic and vivid images created by the artist due to his struggles with sensory perception. For him, Poe’s attention to sensory and visual detail heightens the consciousness of the phenomenological reader. The ability of the reader to inhabit the story and to experience it is elevated by Poe’s exploration of the miniature.

Henri Bosco (1888-1976) was a French writer and World War I veteran. His work was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. In The Poetics of Space, Bachelard cites several of Bosco’s works, including L'Antiquaire and Le Jardin d'Hyacinthe. Bosco’s works emphasize a strong sense of space delineated by labyrinthine corridors.

Bosco wrote children’s literature in addition to adult novels. Throughout The Poetics of Space, Bachelard relies on the works of poets and authors to illustrate points about the connection between the house and the creative mind. Bachelard describes reading L’Antiquaire as akin to traveling through Bosco’s dreams. In Le Jardin d’Hyacinthe, Bosco’s character Sidoine finds great pleasure in the acts of simple household chores.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American writer living in Concord, Massachusetts, who was closely connected to a group of transcendentalist writers and thinkers in the area. Thoreau is best known for his nonfiction work Walden, which details his experiences living as simply as he could in a small cabin next to Walden Pond. Thoreau explored philosophy and ontology, often utilizing nature to understand the world.

Like Rilke, Bosco, Jung, and other writers mentioned in The Poetics of Space, Bachelard drew on Thoreau’s writings as evidence for various philosophical assertions regarding the home. For Bachelard, Thoreau introduced the connection between the image of a nest and the feeling of returning home.

O. V. de Milosz (1877-1939) was a French-Lithuanian poet and diplomat. Spiritualism and mysticism highly influenced his poetry. He was interested in metaphysics, and his poetry reflected his interest in the nature of reality. His work was largely ignored while he was alive but has since gained popularity.

Bachelard utilizes Milosz’s work in Chapter 5, noting that a passage from his work L’amoureuse initiation reveals a daydreaming character’s connection to the dark corners of his house. Bachelard admires that Milosz does not seek to break up the daydreaming for the reader, instead allowing the reader to carry on the reverie long after the pages are closed. Milosz’s work contributes to Bachelard’s philosophical theories about the physical and figurative space of the corner.