The Athenée Palace Hotel as locus of historical adventure: The political manipulation of a literary stereotype Cover Image

L’Athenée Palace, lieu d’aventure historique: la manipulation politique d’un stéréotype littéraire
The Athenée Palace Hotel as locus of historical adventure: The political manipulation of a literary stereotype

Author(s): Alice Popescu
Subject(s): Politics, Political history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti
Keywords: Athénée Palace ; geocriticism ; heterotopia ; places ; non places;

Summary/Abstract: The article tries to put into a literary perspective one of the most criticized political allegations launched in Romania in the past years, by focusing on a significant detail of the “plot”: the place. Looking at it through the lens of several space-oriented sociological, anthropological and literary approaches (Foucault, Augé), among which the relatively newly emerged geocriticism (Westphal), the present approach attempts not only to account for the notoriety of one of the most famous European Grand Hotels at the beginning of the 20th century (Athénée Palace in Bucharest), but also for the pragmatic relevance of literary theory in decoding the nowadays “political fiction”.

  • Issue Year: XXI/2019
  • Issue No: 1-2
  • Page Range: 61-76
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: French