Abstract
The walking narration of parliament (ritualised in tour guides) produces and repeats specific renderings of the making of nation and architecture together. This chapter offers an alternative feminist walking tour within parliament. The notion of the masculine flaneur is de-toured via the practice-based method of being a feminist rambler in a house that was built for specific sorts of masculinities. The very gendered nature of the public sphere of parliament is situated by highlighting specific points of contention as enacted within the very archi-texture s of parliament. Architectural elements from the building thread the sign posts across the entire article. Particular grilles, galleries, rooms, vents, statues, paintings, walls, halls, curtains, stairwells, seats, rods and feet provide points from which to tell the sedimented, layered and contested stories of occupation, performance and ritual.
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Puwar, N. (2014). The Archi-Texture of Parliament at Westminster. In: Rai, S.M., Johnson, R.E. (eds) Democracy in Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137361912_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137361912_11
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