1. Introduction
1.1. Memory, place, and genius Londinii
The subject of this study is the role of memory in the formation, recogni-tion, and function of genius loci in the novels of four London authors: in Peter Ackroyd’s The House of Doctor Dee (1993), Dan Leno and the Lime-house Golem (1994), and Three Brothers (2013), in Maureen Duffy’s Capital (1975), in Michael Moorcock’s Mother London (1988), and in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000). My analysis of the novels is premised on the proposi-tion that in order to come into contact with the spirit of a certain place, we need to examine the crossroads of place and memory in its different forms.
More precisely, my interest lies in the borderland where the social and spa-tial frameworks of memory begin to overlap and even amalgamate, for I see this borderland as a fertile seedbed for the germination and growth of an urban genius loci. Approaching this conceptual frontier from the direc-tion of literary research, I argue that the aforemendirec-tioned process shows in the novels under analysis as well. My thesis is that the novels illuminate how, especially in an urban environment, we become exposed to the work-ings of genius loci through the interaction of collective memory and indi-vidual place memories — the former depending more on our social envi-ronment and the latter premised primarily on individual experience of the interaction between spatial phenomena and human memory.
Of course, memory and place are both extremely complex and multifac-eted concepts. In their coexisting clarity and obscurity, they seem to over-whelm anyone venturing near them with an academic dissecting scalpel in hand. The corpus of texts produced on both subjects in various disciplines
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is huge and varied, and the ambiguity of the concepts is reflected in the way in which the boundaries between disciplines seem to shift and blur during discussion. Moreover, the concept of genius loci is naturally no ex-ception in this tribe of conceptual amoebas.
Thus, the central interpretive concept of my dissertation, genius loci, is strongly interdisciplinary, having together with a closely related concept, sense of place, inspired scholars in various fields of study. Over the last dec-ades, the idea of a spirit or sense of place has been discussed especially in the field of humanistic geography and by the phenomenological philoso-phers of place. However, it has also pervaded other disciplines in the hu-manities as well as in the social sciences. In this study, I shall mainly ap-proach the subject via the ideas of phenomenologically disposed human-istic geography and environmental psychology, yet staying in the context of literary research.
If the concepts of place, memory, and genius loci appear overwhelming, the same could also be said about London, the city that has “all that life can afford” (Boswell 1979, 233).1 The abundance of London literature written during the past centuries — and even millennia — feels almost suffocating in its variety, as does the profusion of academic research done on the sub-ject. Yet, the deep historical reach and the rich literary canon of the city are also its main allurements. Although there are many other fascinating liter-ary cities as well, in the Anglophone world London is — due to its long his-tory and its status as the capital of the former British Empire — by far the
1For the information of those who are not yet tired of London clichés, let us recall the whole paragraph from James Boswell’s The Life of Johnson where Boswell de-scribes a conversation between himself and Samuel Johnson: “I suggested a doubt, that if I were to reside in London, the exquisite zest with which I relished it in occasional visits might go off, and I might grow tired of it. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.’”
(Boswell 1979, 233.)
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most intriguing as a research subject. Furthermore, despite the plentiful-ness of novels, essays, plays, and poetry having London as their mise-en-scène, there is a great deal of variety in their relationships to explicit ques-tions about place and in the degree to which they focus on matters of memory and place.
Naturally, the richness and variety of the London literary canon would allow a multitude of different corpus selections. Thus, to narrow down the choice, I have decided to focus on novels written during the last four dec-ades around the turn of the millennium, the earliest of the novels (Capital) being published in 1975 and the last one (Three Brothers) in 2013. Concen-trating on contemporary fiction also enables the inclusion of immigrant lit-erature, which offers interesting new perspectives on questions of memory, place, and genius loci. I have also based my choice of novels on the fact that in all of them, London is given a prominent role both narra-tively and thematically. Yet, the novels under discussion are of course not the only ones fulfilling these requirements, and thus, choosing the novels to be included in the corpus has obviously resulted in some noteworthy and perhaps judgeable omissions. One objective was to select both male and female authors, which resulted in my trading of Iain Sinclair — origi-nally included in my shortlist of eligible London authors — for Maureen Duffy, whose Capital also afforded an intriguing archaeological metaphor for the theme of immemorial collective memory. The objective of gender balance also made me settle on Zadie Smith’s White Teeth when consider-ing a suitable representative of immigrant London literature. Further-more, the thematic division of the study was another important factor in the selection of the corpus. Accordingly, Peter Ackroyd’s The House of Doc-tor Dee seemed to me as a perfect pair for Duffy’s Capital for the discussion of immemorial London, whereas Michael Moorcock’s Mother London and Ackroyd’s Dan Leno addressed the thematics of the threatened city from
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suitably differing viewpoints. Lastly, even at the risk of oversaturating the material with Ackroyd’s London, I discovered in his Three Brothers an in-teresting proving ground for my hypotheses concerning the role of place attachment in the formation of genius loci.
I have based my choice of novels on the fact that in all of them, London is given a prominent role both narratively and thematically. Of the four au-thors, Peter Ackroyd (b. 1949) is probably best known for his enthusiasm for London as well as for his emphasis on both the influence of the past and the power of place. Moreover, his knowledge and use of English cultural and literary history in his novels, biographies, histories, and poetry make his work a rewarding subject for analysis. In addition to being the author originally responsible for my getting hopelessly lost in the labyrinthine streets and alleys of literary London far back in the 1990s, he was also the primary subject of the initial early drafts of my dissertation, which partly accounts for his dominance in the present corpus. As for Maureen Duffy (b.
1933), her oeuvre is equally broad and varied, ranging from poetry via prose fiction and non-fiction to drama, and for her, too, London has been an important narrative element in her work, especially in her novels Wounds (1969), Capital, and Londoners (1983) — occasionally also re-ferred to as her “London trilogy” (Wolfreys 2004, 84). As for Michael Moor-cock (b. 1939), he is known mostly as a prolific science fiction and fantasy author. However, since the 1980s Moorcock has also excelled as a writer of more literary fiction, such as his London-based Mother London (1988), its sequel King of the City (2000), and a collection of short stories entitled London Bone (2001). A fascination with the history — both real and leg-endary — of the capital unites these three authors, and the manner in which they have approached the historical strata of the city makes their work fruitful material for research on the connections between place and memory and on the role of memory in the production of genius Londinii.
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The last author on my list, Zadie Smith (b. 1975), differs from the other three authors not only by her age but also by her half-Jamaican back-ground. She represents the manifold voices of immigrant and post-colonial London writing — and also its consecutive generations. Although she her-self belongs to the younger, London-born generation of post-colonial im-migrant writers, her award-winning debut novel White Teeth has a multi-generational gallery of characters, including immigrants from both the Caribbean and the Asian colonies of the former British Empire.