ARCHITECTURAL LITERARY STUDIES

Architectural Literary Studies is the name of a grant, a research approach, and the title of the book which presents its main assumptions. The essence of this research is to conduct literature-specialist and cultural analyses focused on the textual records of man’s experience of space in order to lend support to groups of decision-makers who manage space, architects, and urban planners.

The research conducted within the grant’s framework is a response to the challenges of the engaged humanities and the search for the self-agency of research, including literary research. An important inquiry concerned interdisciplinariness defined as a method used by an individual scholar who utilizes conceptions and theories from other disciplines (along with the method’s/ limitations). The next step was development of a transdisciplinary research model within the framework of actual cooperation of a team of representatives of various scholarly institutions.

The suggested approach is also a response to the current European systems connected with the politics of science which focus on the humanities’ self-agency and the pursuit of the impact factor, that is, the potency of the social impact of research. At the same time it is important to turn away from associating the engaged humanities solely with the leftist world view and move towards connecting them with other world views. The new humanities are not treated here as a research area focused on the modern times dating back to the mid-20th century. Instead, the research area combines application assumptions (causative actions) and a turn towards the future with cultural continuity and cultivation of tradition, including research tradition.