Geography and the art of life / Edmunds Valdemārs Bunkśe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bunkśe, Edmunds Valdemārs.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bunkśe, Edmunds Valdemārs.

Human geography--Philosophy.

Human geography.

Geographical perception.

Geographers--Biography.

Geographers.

Voyages and travels--Philosophy.

Voyages and travels.

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xvii, 122 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.

Summary:

In Geography and the Art of Life, geographer Edmunds Bunkse fuses the exterior landscape of his life with wrenching, and poetic, impressions of his World War II childhood to create a stunning narrative that not only explores an intimate geosophy -- the humanistic geography of place, heart, and subjective, expressive, and literary evocations of the individual's place in the world -- but also illuminates major themes in geography and history through autobiography. As a child of war and exile, Bunkse writes, he had to develop an early awareness of the meanings of home and homelessness. Born in Latvia in 1935, he and his family first evaded certain deportation to Siberia in 1941 and then again in 1944 when they fled by sea ahead of advancing Soviet troops. Upon landing in Gdansk, they were imprisoned in a German labor camp. In flight once more at war's end, the family was settled in a displaced-persons camp in Lubeck before finally emigrating to America in 1950. During this sojourn, Bunkse lived in the shadow of communism and nazism; he drifted dreamily on a raft in the Baltic Sea; and he cowered by the road, a boy on a mission to fish in a nearby stream, waiting for the terrifying thunder of German tanks to pass. These and other haunting memories give exceptional power to the author's exploration of humanistic geography. Weaving autobiography together with classic works in geography, literature, and art, Bunkse explores such fundamental concepts as home, road, place, and landscape in light of his own remarkable experiences in the world. An original contribution to the study of geography, Geography and the Art of Life is also a compelling human story of impossible departures and unexpected arrivals.

Contents:

Geographic sensibilities

Learning about landscapes

You cannot go home again

Wonders of the world and knowing oneself : from traveler to tourist

Searching for home

The poetics of house and home.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [117]-122).

ISBN:

0801877229

OCLC:

51886325