Includes link to entire book content free of charge.

Readings of the City

This book is an accessible introduction to the subject of psychogeography, which put simply, is a mix of the two disciplines of geography and psychology. Instead of looking at the physical environment in an empirical, cartographic sense, psychogeography attempts to understand space through the more subjective manner in which affects the individual.

Coverley’s prose and structure  is clear; the book is chronologically laid out. The main medium through which the ‘discipline’ is expressed is through through literary works. Starting with the earliest examples Coverley discusses 17th & 18th century interpretations of London through Defoe, Blake and de Quincy and argues these figures paved the way for the critical ‘urban wondered’ which later, through Walter Benjman developed into the flâneur. The chapter in the Situationist International is a particularly useful in providing an overview, but read as a whole the SI can be seen in a broad, historical context. Coverley demonstrates…

View original post 139 more words