A review by yuefei
The Poetics of Space by Maria Jolas, Gaston Bachelard, John R. Stilgoe, Étienne Gilson

4.0

Finally done with this bad boy! A challenging but ultimately rewarding read. Bachelard’s idea about a phenomenology of the imagination, one that tries to examine images with a primal, immemorial source, is utterly mesmerising and fertile (though I do believe poetry/art consists of more than that which Bachelard values most in this book). A lot of it went over my head - it’s super dense - definitely down for a re-read. I don’t think I’ll look at poetry (or elements of reality) in the same way again.