Urban Phantasmagorias: Domesticity, Production and the Politics of Modernity in Communist Bucharest

Urban Phantasmagorias explores the legacies of socialist housing in Bucharest during communist rule in Romania, focusing on the effects of the state agenda on domestic spaces and the lives of women. It utilizes Walter Benjamins concept of phantasmagoria to analyze the dynamic relationship between ideology, architecture, and everyday practices and their impact on individual subjectivity and agency. The book establishes the methodological significance of phantasmagoria as an epistemological approach to studying modern communist cityscapes.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 220 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Urban Phantasmagorias delves into the enduring legacies of socialist housing in the city of Bucharest during the communist era in Romania. The book explores the profound ways in which the socialist state reshaped the urban landscape through direct acts of demolition and construction, as well as indirectly through legal frameworks that aimed to control women's reproductive agency. It traces the consequences of this state agenda, focusing on the period between 1965 and 1989, by examining the transformations, representations, meanings, and uses of domestic spaces. Drawing upon Walter Benjamin's concept of phantasmagoria, the book offers a critical framework for understanding the dynamic interplay between ideology, architecture, and everyday practices, and their impact on individual subjectivity and agency.

At the heart of Urban Phantasmagorias is the woman, who emerges as a central subject of inquiry. The book delves into the acute phantasmagoric effects of the socialist state's modernizing agenda on the lived experiences of women within the domestic realm. Through a deep focus on the lived experiences of women, the book sheds light on the prismatic nature of the state's infrastructural and legal intentions, including the ways in which these intentions were subverted through women's embodied experiences of the home.

By establishing a theoretical framework and providing a concrete case study of Bucharest, Urban Phantasmagorias demonstrates the methodological significance of Benjamin's notion of phantasmagoria as an epistemological approach to studying the modern communist cityscape. The book contributes significantly to scholarship in architectural history and theory, urban and gender studies, as well as post-socialist and Eastern European studies. It offers valuable insights into the complex and multifaceted ways in which political ideologies, architectural designs, and everyday practices shape the urban landscape, and the ways in which individuals and communities navigate and resist these forces.

Weight: 478g
Dimension: 172 x 245 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367859152