Textual Landscapes? On the existence of Literary Landscapes and how to archaeologically approach...
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2023-01-30

Frederico Agosto (Independent Researcher) & Daniel Carvalho (UNIARQ, LAQU, FCT)

Rather than being a self-evident concept/entity, the existence of Landscapes has to be theorised 
instead of being assumed as an a priori category. To deal in Landscapes is to deal in a wide 
range of schools of thought and epistemologies. In one unifying concept, Landscape becomes 
the common ground needed to cross disciplinary areas. But does not constitute a self-evident 
reality or concept. Hence, an inquiry on Literary Landscapes and an archaeological approach 
to them needs both the conceptual bases offered by philosophy and the mechanisms of 
engagement given by Landscape Archaeology. Conceptually speaking, Literary Landscapes 
offer some difficulties in its ontological definition. Aesthetics – a fundamental component in 
the theorisation of Landscapes – operates through perception, thus needing a sensible presence 
(Gegenwart), only accessible through its appearance (Erscheinen): the aesthetical object (i.e., 
a unique form of perception) and perception are interdependent concepts (Seel, 2010: 15). 
There is also no difference between the simulated and the real in read descriptions, which 
further invalidates its existence as such. To counter these ideas and affirm the existence of 
Literary Landscapes we turn to a constellation of Deleuzian concepts in its conjoined potential: 
immanence, virtuality and the power of the false. This will come to show that not only do 
Literary Landscapes exist but that there is also a significant overlap between them and the 
archaeological ones, rendering the former as eligible for archaeological becoming. We will 
illustrate this by archaeologically deconstructing Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High 
Castle” (1962).