Book Review:

The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

Gaston Bachelard's "The Poetics of Space" (LaPotique de l'Espace, 1958) is a
phenomenological interrogation into the meaning of spaces which preoccupy poetry, intimate
spaces such as a house, a drawer, a night dresser and spaces of wide expansion such as vistas and
woods. In the opening chapter of The Poetics of Space Gaston Bachelard places special
emphasis on the interior domestic space and its component: the various rooms and the different
types of furniture in it. Bachelard attempts to trace the reception of the poetic image in the
subjective consciousness, a reception which demands, so Bachelard, great openness and a focus
on the present experience while eliminate transient time. The house is, for Bachelard, the
quintessential phenomenological object, meaning that this is the place in which the personal
experience reaches its epitome. Bachelrad sees the house as a sort of initial universe, asserting
that "all really inhabited space bears the essence of the notion of home" (The Poetics of Space,
p.5). Bachelard proceeds to examine the home as the manifestation of the soul through the poetic
image and literary images which are found in poetry. He examines locations in the house as
places of intimacy and memory which are manifested in poetry.
The author holds the consciousness, something which precedes conscious thought, does not
require knowledge and is the direct product of the heart and soul. He determines that the house
has both unity and complexity, it is made out of memories and experiences, its different parts
arouse different sensations at yet it brings up a unitary, intimate experience of living. Such
experiential qualities are what Bachelard finds it the poetry and prose he analyzes. Home objects
for Bachelard are charged with mental experience. A cabinet opened is a world revealed, drawers
are places of secrets, and with every habitual action we open endless dimensions of our
existence.
The book content ten chapters, which gives us a vivid idea about space and its illusion of
stability, vertical image of the house which is created by the polarity of the attic and basement
which denote, irrationality and rationality respectively.