Interdisciplinary Nature of Architectural Discourse within the Triangle of Architecture,Sociology and Literary Fiction

Abstract

With the supposition that architectural discourse has an interdisciplinary nature, this study aims to display the way literary fiction borrows several themes from architectural discourse in order to form its “literary spaces” as well as the way architectural discourse borrows several themes from other social sciences, especially from sociology. Thus, new wave science fiction writer J.G. Ballard’s literature provides a fruitful resource for the construction of this study. It will be demonstrated that spatial data within the five selected works of Ballard exist in a similar way within architectural discourse of the recent past that criticizes modern architectural movement via several themes. An analysis will be made parallel to the discourses of the critiques of modern architectural discourse. In this sense, intersecting both the discourse of architecture and that of Ballard, there emerge three common themes to focus on: social isolation, class discrimination as a result of social isolation, and alienation in the modern world. While displaying the mediatory role of architectural discourse between sociology and literary fiction through reading in the spatiality of the text, the study will also draw lessons to be learned from Ballard’s works emphasizing the production of design theory through the field of discourse.

Keywords

Interdisciplinarity of architectural discourse social isolation alienation class discrimination J.G. Ballard

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