Abstract
From the perspective of everyday experience, landscape is like a sign language that has to be constantly deciphered merely to find our way around. But the usual idea of landscape is that it is a backdrop to life that can be regarded or analyzed with detachment, and it is from this perspective that it has been argued that landscape can be read like a book that provides clues to history and culture. This chapter considers the idea that landscape is language and reviews suggestions by geographers and others about ways to read landscape and to understand its grammar. The idea of landscape has coincided with the so-called mechanical age of print and rationalism that has prevailed for four centuries which is now being displaced by electronic communications and social media that favor feeling and participation over contemplation and careful reading. A consequence of this displacement is that the language of landscape is shifting from something that was once reasonably coherent and decipherable to something that is increasingly heterotopic and constantly changing and requires new ways of understanding.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander, C. (1977). A pattern language: Towns, buildings, construction. New York: Oxford University Press.
Alexander, C. (1979). The timeless way of building. New York: Oxford University Press.
Allen, J. P. B., & van Buren, P. (Eds.). (1971). Chomsky: Selected readings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clay, G. (1973). Close-up: How to read the American City. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Cronon, W. (2008). How to read a landscape. A website co-authored with graduate students at the University of Wisconsin. http://www.williamcronon.net/researching/landscapes.htm. Accessed 16 Nov 2016.
Descartes, R. (1968/1637). Discourse on the method. London: Penguin.
Foucault, M. (1970). The order of things. London: Tavistock Press.
Innis, H. A. (1951). The bias of communication. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Jacobs, J. (1961). The death and life of great American cities. New York: Vintage Books.
Lewis, P. (1979). Axioms for reading the landscape: Some guides to the American scene. In D. Meinig (Ed.), The interpretation of ordinary landscapes: Geographical essays (pp. 11–32). New York: Oxford University Press.
McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill.
McLuhan, M. (1981). Fordham University lecture. In S. McLuhan & D. Staines (Eds.), (2003) Understanding me: Lectures and interviews/Marshall McLuhan. Toronto: McLelland and Stewart.
Meinig, D. (1979). Reading the landscape: An appreciation of W.G. Hoskins and J.B. Jackson. In D. Meinig (Ed.), The interpretation of ordinary landscapes: Geographical essays (pp. 195–244). New York: Oxford University Press.
Relph, E. (2016). The paradox of place and the evolution of placelessness. In R. Freestone & E. Liu (Eds.), Place and placelessness revisited. London: Taylor and Francis.
Spirn, A. W. (1998). The language of landscape. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Wittgenstein, L. (1973/1953). Philosophical investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Relph, E. (2018). Landscape as a Language Without Words. In: Brunn, S., Kehrein, R. (eds) Handbook of the Changing World Language Map. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_77-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_77-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73400-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73400-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences