TOPOS

TOPOS

The term denoting a place, and more precisely a common place (Greek tópos koinós, Latin locus communis). It is also present in related concepts such as topophilia, topophobia, topography, heterotopy, etc.

The concept of the topos comes from the works of Aristotle and in its original context was used in rhetoric, where it meant “stocks and repositories of thoughts” (Ziomek). It became particularly popular in the twentieth century in the field of history and theory of literature, where it acquired meanings such as “motif”, “subject matter” or “thread”, e.g. the topos of arcadia. Some identified the Jung’s archetype or myth with the topos. The term also referred to fixed meaning imaging schemes. Literary motifs began to be illustrated, as a result of which they acquired a constant visual shape, gaining a certain autonomy over time, such as late antiquity iconography of Odyssey or late medieval locus amoenus, delightful places, such as views of the castle gardens with fountains and flowers, groves or hunting grounds (Białostocki).

Topos is a term used in many detailed sciences and its use goes beyond the boundaries of logic, semiology or methodology. In the most basic sense, topos denotes a place and in the tradition of social sciences it is opposed to space on the one hand (Tuan 1987), while on the other hand it is opposed to a non-place (utopos) or heterotopia. The latter is characterised by inauthenticity, uniformity and commercialisation, which is why, according to Heidegger, it opposes places endowed with spirit (genius loci), identity or history.

The concept of topos has survived in its original tenor particularly clearly in politics, in relation to a pair of terms utopia and anti-utopia. The former appeared in the book Utopia (1516) by Thomas Moore, depicting an island ruled by an ideal social system. The word “utopia” has a certain ambiguity – it means both a non-place (gr. ou-tópos) and a good place (eu- ou-tópos); its use also implies the conviction that a perfect place is impossible (Czapliński). The idea of utopia included thinking about total order, designing a world subordinated to reason. This was visible in many spatial scales – both in garden art, modernist urban planning and the authoritarian state. The most complex and, at the same time, terrifying form of utopian actions was put into practice by 20th century totalitarianisms, which gave rise to an anti-utopian trend and disbelief in reason and great narratives (projects).

Today’s urban planners suggest a return to the concept of utopia, understood critically, as imagining and designing not only good and better places, but also other, alternative topoi. Places such as cities, work and home spaces and their images rooted in landscape painting (Cosgrove) reflect the social order, individual thoughts and ideologies, and as Marxist, feminist or post-colonial criticism evocatively resembles, this is not a neutral world, but often built on the basis of violence. Rebuilding the world, creating alternative topoi takes on an emancipating character in this light.

[Ł.P.]

Literature:

Białostocki, Jan. „Narodziny nowożytnego krajobrazu”. In: Krajobrazy: antologia tekstów, ed. Beata Frydryczak i Dorota Angutek, 195–204. Poznań: PTPN, 2014.

Cosgrove, Denis E. Landscape and the European Sense of Sight – Eyeing Nature. In: K. Anderson, M. Domosh, S. Pile, N. Thrift (eds.), Handbook of Cultural Geography. London: Sage Publications, 2003.

Czapliński, Przemysław. „Nie miejsce”. In: Modi memorandi: leksykon kultury pamięci, ed. Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska i Robert Traba, 270–72. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2014.

Lewicka, Maria. „Miejsce”. In: Modi memorandi: leksykon kultury pamięci, Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska i Robert Traba (eds.), 227–29. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2014.

Pinder, David. „In defence of utopian urbanism: imagining cities after the «end of utopia»”. Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography 84, 3–4 (2002): 229–41.

Tuan, Yi-Fu. Passing Strange and Wonderful: Aesthetics, Nature, and Culture.  Washington: Island Press, Shearwater Books, 1993.

Ziomek, Jerzy. Retoryka opisowa. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 2000.