The New Ruralism :$bAn Epistemology of Transformed Space /$cJoan Ramon Resina, William Viestenz (eds.)

Presents new ways of understanding the old dichotomy city vs country in an effort to think through the epistemological and artistic implications of the modern antinomy's demise, whereby the non-city ceases to be the city's absolute other. Throughout the world modernization implied the abandonment of ancestral modes of life adapted to the land and their transformation through processes of social abstraction. During the 20th century entire cultures have vanished into the urban magma of the World's megalopolis. The classic city, perfectly defined against a rural background, has spilled over its boundaries and merged with the country in a vast sprawl. Vanishing references affect cultures in profound ways and force a reconsideration of time-hallowed dichotomies such as the country and the city. The New Ruralism is not a neo-romantic return to nature or a revaluation of traditional customs. It is an effort to think through the epistemological and artistic implications of the modern antinomy's demise, whereby the non-city ceases to be the city's absolute other and breeds new forms of representation that challenge the modern distribution of temporalities. Contents The Modern Rural Neo-ruralism in the European Context. Origins and Evolution A Semi-Peircean Essay on “New Ruralism” by Means of Nature Can Suburbia Think? Sertão, City, Saudade The Come Back of the Province. Giovannino Guareschi’s PETITS RÉCITS as Postwar TERZA VIA The Priorat and the Landscaping of Catalan TERROIR Rural, Conceptual: The Non-urban as a Significant Practice in Contemporary Catalan Culture Leaving the City on Foot: Four Observations on Walking, Thinking and Writing in Contemporary Catalan Culture DE MOTS A TERRA: Linguistic Ruin in Francesc Serés’s L’ARBRE SENSE TRONC A Catalan Peasant: Dalí’s Renewal of Surrealism Geology and Literature That Works Cited Conceptual Index Name Index About the Contributors