1.3 Topography in movement44: The art of memory as a mapping of practiced places When following the itinerary proposed by the pilgrim in The Rings of Saturn, the first correlation established with the previous arguments is the idea of an art of memory as a mapping of space – which includes the interior space or the architecture of the interior writing45 and, of course, the places practiced. The way found by Sebald to make this process possible is through the use of a moving topography: as the narrator moves, the memories materialize. It is in this sense that the movement of the pilgrimage activates the triggers of memory. Similar to an architectural tour46 – in which the walk around the architectural object generates successive points of view and orders the experience of fruition47 –, this is how the narrator’s memories accumulate due to the displacement. In this movement, there is no single meaning: the pilgrimage is both physical and mental, simultaneously. Finally, it is the construction of the itinerary that shapes the mapping, as suggested by the link proposed here with Giuliana Bruno’s arguments48: Maps, learning records, after all, follow the experience. They exist after the path has been taken [...]. It is then that the writer/cartographer can map his territory. This includes what he may or may not achieve in his exploration: his terrae incognitae, the seductive voids that, if the 44
“Emotion materializes as a moving topography.” (BRUNO, 2018, page 2) Here, it is necessary to return to Giuliana Bruno’s reflection on the work of Frances Yates: “As Frances Yates shows in her seminal study on the subject, the art of memory is an architectonics of inner writing.” (Ibid., page 221, own highlights) 46 “The art of memory understood recollection spatially. It made room for image collection and, by means of an architectural promenade, enabled this process of image collection to generate recollection.” (Ibid., page 221, own highlights) 47 About the concept of promenade architecturale developed by the architect Le Corbusier: The concept is realized through a set of material properties, consciously worked with the objective of realizing the idea of variation of the route, forcing the experience of the architectural object in different positions and points of view and constantly changing the relationship between the object and the user. (MACIEL, 2002) 48 “Maps, records of learning, after all, follow experience. They come into existence after the path has been traveled (…). It is then that the writer/cartographer can map out her territory. This includes what she could not or did not reach in her exploration: her terrae incognitae, those seductive voids that, if one knows the topophilia of the lacunae, are not there to be conquered but are textures exposed, where the markings of time take place.” (BRUNO, 2018, page 5) 45
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